Inspired by this thread. Two guys with whom I used to work told me that I should discard all my defensive ammo once a year and buy fresh ammo to replace it. One of my co-workers was a former Carpinteria, CA PD officer, and the other was an NRA-certified instructor, so I’m inclined to listen to them, but I’m really hoping there’s another option. Is annual cycling really necessary? I have three handguns that I like to keep loaded at all times, and I use Federal Hydra-Shok and/or Speer Gold Dot ammo in all three—fairly expensive stuff. I’m looking at about $75 for ammo for all three. If I stored the ammo in airtight containers with desiccant packs, would that help?
Find a club near you that shoots IDPA or one of the other gun games. Mix your SD ammo in with the rest. You’ll be shooting so much that you won’t notice the slight increase in cost!
Or don’t worry about it. I’ve shot military surplus ammo that was over fifty years old.
In a defensive gun that is kept in your house and not exposd t extreme changes in temperature and humidity, ammo will last decades and still fire reliably.
Any quality ammunition not subject to corrosive conditions should last decades. The only reason I could see to replace it regularly is if you do cycle through the action of your weapon, resulting in scrapes on the rim, insetting of the bullet in the cartridge, or any random goop that might get on the casing, all of which could marginally reduce feed reliability.
I can say with certainty that the NRA CFI literature says nothing about this, other than noting that ammunition should be of good quality manufacture and within specification for the firearm you are using. And I’m sorry to say that, in general, police officers are not any better a knowledgeable source for information about firearms than the average schlub off the street corner.
Of course, if you keep a firearm for self-defense, it his highly advisable to practice regularly with it to maintain the psychomotor skill of marksmanship (especially with handguns), and to at least occasionally use ammunition like that you use for defense to assure accuracy and reliability. But I don’t see any reason that you should have to cycle your defensive loads annually or more often.
Stranger
Your buddies are full of it. Ammo doesn’t “go bad.” It can get abused, and nicked, and damaged, but it doesn’t have a “Use By” date. I shoot .303 ammo that was made over 50 years ago, and it functions flawlessly.
Exactly. Next time point and laugh.
Maybe they own stock in the ammo manufacturer.
As long as the ammo is kept dry to prevent corrosion, it will last almost indefinitely. I regularly hear reports of people using canisters of handgun ammunition from WWII without problems.
I perform basic load inspections of small arms ammo every 12-15 months for units I support. This ammo gets regularly recycled in and out of magazines at shift changes, unit movements, and change of command inspections. Other than the occasional dented cartridge case, canted bullet, or dented tip; not much else goes wrong unless there has been a suspension or restriction of the whole lot.
Look at you defensive load once a year for primer corrosion. If your weapons are automatics; download magazines and check the springs - see if they have weakened or taken a set. If stored in the old styrofoam trays (styrofoam as in small pebbles stuck together); toss out the styrofoam and store the cartridges in another manner. That type of styrofoam actually absorbs moisture. It was the type used to make swimming pool furniture and floats years ago that would end up no longer on but even with the water’s surface. The Army/Marines destroyed a lot of M21 AT mines a few years ago due to using this styrofoam in the packaging (mines were used as donor explosives in other demolition). Also a lot of artillery fuzes needed repackaging.