A friend at work was telling me this. He said ammo can become unstable over time and you dont want it going off in your house...
I said, I want to defend my home, and I want my ammo close to me.
If you keep it in nice, dry ammo cans it should keep for 20-30 years right?
Yep, your friend doesnt have a clue what he is talking about. Keep your ammo dry and it will last for many, many years. keep it cool and dry and it will last even longer.
Nope, the friend is incorrect. Ammunition stays very stable if stored in dry conditions. If stored in the even temperature of an occupied house then it is in the very best environment. Have your friend to relate actual examples of degraded ammunition spontaneously going off. He won't find any.
The biggest problem of storing massive amounts of ammo in your home is if you have a fire and the ammo starts cooking off, the fire department may pull back and just let her burn. Just saying.
Even in a fire, if a box of ammo ignites the bullets aren't going to go shooting through walls because the case isn't held in place. They just pop like popcorn. Of course, I wouldn't stand near it either
Cool. That is what I thought to, but he has been in the military, I have not, so he thinks he is the authority on this stuff. Yeah, keep it nice and dry and it will be fine. thanks a lot.
I bought 1000 rds of wolf for Y2K in 2000. last year I went to bang out 500 or so rds ( Keep in mind it was stored in a gun safe for 10 yrs with a dehumidifier ) I had a dud every other shot and in the end after trying to fire off all of it 300 rds where so dead they would not fire even with 10 or more strikes on the primer . I pulled the ammo apart and reloaded it in brass cases with new cci primers and it then worked fine but the old primers where for sure bad . My Point is if you buy ammo to store for long periods of time make sure you spend the extra to buy good ammo . Wolf is great for plinking but not for long term storage and survival .
The militarty used ammo from WWII in Desert Storm in Iraq that was 60 years old. No issues reported.
good ammo stored right will last for decades.
NOTE check the rubber lid seal on your ammo cans for good contact. Cans with dents or even slight damage might have problems with the fit up. I put a little plumbers grease around the seal to keep it soft and pliable and insure a good seal.
I bought 1000 rds of wolf for Y2K in 2000. last year I went to bang out 500 or so rds ( Keep in mind it was stored in a gun safe for 10 yrs with a dehumidifier ) I had a dud every other shot and in the end after trying to fire off all of it 300 rds where so dead they would not fire even with 10 or more strikes on the primer . I pulled the ammo apart and reloaded it in brass cases with new cci primers and it then worked fine but the old primers where for sure bad . My Point is if you buy ammo to store for long periods of time make sure you spend the extra to buy good ammo . Wolf is great for plinking but not for long term storage and survival .
This is huge news if it applies to more than a few lots of Wolf. If you don't mind, what caliber(s) were they?
This is the first I've heard of such a failure rate for Wolf or any other commercial centerfire ammo, Russian or otherwise. We have to keep in mind that true military surplus does not equal ammo sold on the commercial market. Military surplus ammo, even if intended for full-auto fire, tends to be very reliable with minute of man accuracy. OTOH, there's no compelling reason to believe commercial ammo commonly used for plinking is manufactured to medium to long term storage spec. One would hope it would last at least ten years, but lobo2gun's experience raises a troubling question. Does anyone else have any experience with Wolf or other Russian commercial ammo after ten or more years of storage?
(yeah I know this isn't really the right forum for this discussion, but it is where it is )
Location: North Central West Virginia near PA Border
Posts: 222
es, as in so many Cases your Friend is full of it and should know better, don't take his opinion about anything if the level of lost he displays is cionstant?
Small arms ammo is stable. Under some conditions bombs and other munitions&exposives can become dangerous, but these issues do not relate to storage of small arms ammo in their original packing in reasonable amounts. Reasonable quantities would be say less than 15,000 round still in the factory packing.
If you have lead free primers, it is my understanding that they degrade in a few years, and the ammo can go dead. Otherwise, you are good to go for many, many years if stored correctly.
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I still have ammo that was bought back in the 1960's and 70's for my rifles and shotguns that is just fine.
Just keep all of your ammo in sealed containers like steel ammo boxes or vacuum sealed bags,and it will last for a very long time.
I also have a bunch of Wolf 223 ammo that I bought in the mid 90's that is still sealed in the cases that shoots fine,but it has always been stored in a controlled environment.
I cannot vouch for instability, however, while clearing out my father's house after his death, I came across his .30-06 and .308 ammo that he reloaded about 10-20 years ago. There were approximately 600 rounds of .308 and about 500 of .30-06. The ammo was kept in a room with no climate control, and humidity also infiltrated it. The rounds were in the red plastic boxes. As a result of the conditions they were kept in, approx. 100 of the .30-06 rounds and all but about 50 of the .308 rounds were garbage. By garbage, I mean corrosion set in and there were holes eaten through the brass cases, casing neck rot, and, in several cases, the necks corroded so bad that chunks broke off over the years and the bullets themselves were literally lying loose in the bottom of the boxes. I had to pull all the bullets from these rounds (no sense in them going to waste, as they were undamaged) and dispose of the powder with in them and decap them and dispose of the brass. The remaining rounds of both calibers look ok, but I will be checking them with a magnifying glass before attempting to fire them.
With this being said, I would be willing to say that if you keep the ammo in a climate controlled environment, and check for corrosion periodically, you should be able to keep them for many years.
I've only been using Wolf since the early 90's so it may not be any big news that there have been no problems with it for me. Some of the ammo I have is from those years and it's OK as far as I can tell.
Not sure what kind of exposure would make it go bad, but I've found live Wolf 7.62 X 39 rounds on two occasions laying on the ground where I shoot that had been there for some time (probably during winter and summer weather). The poly coating had light surface rust on the side that touched the dirt but they were otherwise intact and looked good except for the dirt on them.
Curiosity got to me and I cleaned them up so as to not be a problem when chambering, then fired them in the Chikom SKS and AK I had with me at the two occasions. Both fired accurately and there were no problems with feeding or extraction.
I don't normally do this kind of experiment but wanted to see if Wolf ammo was durable after such exposure. This could have been a problem with non-Kommie weapons but little seems to affect SKS's and AK's. (Flame shield on).
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