shelf life of reloads

[Kevin Stenberg]

I am interested in learning the general shelf life of most cast bullet ammunition. I have heard that some lubes can affect burn characteristics of some powders. Other than that I know of no other causes of reloaded ammunition going bad. When I was rereading I thought of getting damp from flooding or leaking roof. But that can't be planed for so that wouldn't be considered as relative.
I have several hunting loads that I would like to make multiple boxes of. But if the loads change with time. It is counter productive to make them. An when I only use 1 or 2 rounds for hunting and 1 box in practice it wouldn't be practical.

 

[RicinYakima]

I am interested in learning the general shelf life of most cast bullet ammunition.

Two years ago I found a three pound coffee can of 38 special WC's I had loaded in the early 1980's. Nothing special, just plinking stuff with NRA lube, 2.7 grains of Bullseye and dumped in the can. Wife and kids and I would normally shoot that many in a afternoon, so there were several cans of this stuff around. It was under a workbench on a concrete floor winter (-15) and summer (+105) all those years. This summer I shot the rest of them up, every single one fired. FWIW, Ric

 

[Bret4207]

I've also shot stuff I loaded in the early to mid 80's without incident. OTOH, I've shot stuff a few days old using a very runny lube that was never intended to be used as a bullet lube and had misfires. I'd hazard a guess that using any "normal" lube and by using reasonable precautions, you won't have many issues.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Than you both. That is just the type of information I needed.