doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: cleaning up my gunroom today.

One of those long put-off chores that needs addressed every year here after the guns are to be put away for a while. This year is a bit more intense due to 3-months of being mostly away (and then the ongoing crowding issues created by years of accumulation). Mostly ammo but...lots of other stuff too. Clearly a 1st world problem.

A couple of questions for the resident experts here: lifespan of shotshell powders after they've been opened?

Also, ran into some winter MREs that date back to 2005, are these still any good?

I recommend that you watch Steve MRE1989 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA
And get those puppies out onto a tray!

He is a very enjoyable channel devoted to his love of mre’s eating them all the way back to the American Civil War.

The shelf life of gun powder largely depends upon how it was stored. If it was kept in a sealed can under cool, dark, and dry conditions, it could last for decades or longer. Heat, light, and humidity are the major factors that will cause degradation.

Some guys are still using up stocks of the WWII military surplus 4831 powder that Bruce Hodgdon bought right after the war. Some loaded ammo made prior to WWI is still viable. After my Dad died, I used some of the opened cans of rifle and pistol powder he had. The price tags on some of them were under $3.00 per lb. so it probably dated back to the early 1970's. It worked just fine. Degraded powder will often show a change in appearance, smell, or color, and should be discarded.

When I was still in high school, my buddy's uncle gave us a bunch of old WWII C-Ration packs. The canned food we tried wasn't very tasty, but I never heard any old soldiers raving about them either. The Hershey chocolate bars were mostly white in color due to fat-bloom. My buddy's Dad smoked some of the cigarettes that were included in each ration pack. These were all non-filter Camels, Lucy Strike, Chesterfields, Pall Malls, etc. He said they were pretty stale. That said, it might be a good idea to keep your old MRE's just in case the Democrats ever regain power and totally mess things up again.

I have some cardboard cans of Hercules powders dated to 1991 that are fine, one that might be older. I also have a can of IMR 4198 I recently bought that shows no signs of deterioration, it has a price sticker of $3.15, you can guess it's age. I've also got two cellophane wrapped cans of bulk smokeless, but I won't vouch for them.

Tim

I have a box of 20 gauge shells that are red. I bought them from a guy's dad- his son now owns the same store. I bought them back in the 60s before they changed them to yellow. And I have all kinds pistol ammo from back in the 70s. I'm wondering how much of it fires.

if stored properly, powder should last pretty much indefinitely, I have some 50's vintage powder that still works fine, primers can be more of an issue.

I’ve shot plenty of vintage and surplus powders with no poor results until recently. I bought a lot powder from a deceased Palma team shooters estate. Interesting one opened bottle of VV N150 had a sour acrid smell and was unusable. Manufacture date 2009.

Appreciate the insight here, thankyou all.

Still wading through things a bit, separating hi-speed ammo from the softer stuff I actually use now. I bought all these years ago when a deal (or two) came along at work and then there are the thing you just seem to accumulate of time. Finding everything from "White Rhino" hi-speed Fiocchi's to Montgomery Wards stuff from the 1960s, and all of it would be wayyy to-much for anything I'm using now. The goal is to segregate the 12s into heavy & fast from the more sedate stuff.

I've also got reloading supplies to deal with here, metallic cartridges from .45 to .300 Weatherby. During the last 20-years or so when a deal came along, I usually stocked up. Clearly a "concern" driven investment I fear. All that stuff is taking up some pretty "prime" real estate now and I need to re-house it somewhere. I even loaded up on .308 reloading supplies during the Obama & Biden years that now seem a bit superfluous. A lot can change in a few years though, eh? Living in Colorado has certainly shown me that...

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