I recently "inherited" some various ammo from my aunt. My uncle had passed some years ago and she was going through some belongings and came across some ammo. Mostly .22 l.r., 38 spl., 9mm, 30-30, 12 gauge (paper shells), and even some 7.62X39. I noticed on almost all the boxes he had written a date on them. I assume the month and year he bought it. My question is how long will commercial ammo store? As noted the shotgun ammo is paper rather than plastic, the "newest" (of any of the ammo) that I recall seeing was dated 1992. Some of the 38 and .22 stuff is from the 60's and 70's. The 38 spl. is almost all lead or semijacketed, the lead looks rather dry and "flakey". Some of the .22 and .22 mag. is in this condition as well. The 9mm and 7.62 seems to be from the 80's. She gave me hundreds of rounds, the only one's I'm really leary of are the paper shotgun shells. I forgot to mention, she did say the ammo had always been in the bedroom closet, so that's all I have for storage conditions, they did run central heat and air, but only since the late 70's. Thoughts?
