Ammo stored in heat

[bg226]

A friend has moved on to another caliber. He wants to sell me all of his boxes of 9mm premium JHP for a great deal. My concern is that this is self defense ammo which I would use for protection and it has been sitting in the harsh summer heat of his garage for atleast seven years.

Can this ammo be trusted for self defense after having been exposed to heat for all these years?

 

[Geckgo]

Tell him you want a box to test first I don't see any problem with it though, in seriousness. Has it been moist in his garage? I would worry more about moisture than heat. See if the lead inside the HP tips looks corroded. I would say fine though if you load it up and it goes bang.

 

[DaBull]

Moisture is indeed bad for ammo, but high heat is as well. Personally, I would test a box, and if it works, only buy it to test the brand for feeding/extraction reliability, then plink it off. Buy fresh stuff for defense.

 

[vellocet]

was it just sitting loose in boxes, no other seal? if it was in a couple of twisted garbage bags or something and not in the alabama marshes it is probably still good. is it discolored or leaky? try a few but even if stored loose and hot it is probably still good. good luck.

 

[Ron James]

I live in Arizona ( 115 the other day ) and have had no problems with any of my ammo or powder. Of course it is dry here.

 

[mxl]

I can't imagine our military refrigerating ammo used in the deserts of the world and I seriously doubt high heat for prolonged periods hurts it any. I have no scientific evidence either way but I do have experience leaving ammo in a shed in AZ. where the temps. sometimes hit 120 plus. No problems with ammo thus exposed for a summer.

 

[GreyCoupe]

Just kept his powder dry...

 

[plunge]

we have ammo stored in connexs in afghanistan. who knows how old some of it is nd it's been in the 140's during the day for the last couple weeks.

 

[bg226]

The answers appear to be mixed. Does heat alone deteriorate ammo over prolonged periods?

 

[wally]

If its a brand you carry and know your pistol works with it, buy it! Fine for practice, and if you get a failure to fire its even better practice.

For actual carry, fresh factory ammo is the only way to go -- its not like you'll be using large volumes of it.

 

[scbackpacker]

Wally hit the bullseye. Practice with the old ammo. Use new fresh ammo for self defense. After a year I buy a couple of boxes of new ammo and practice with the old ammo.

 

[Obsidian]

If kept dry I would not worry too much about it. However if you wanted to be unquestioning in your mind, and that is a brand that shoots well, use that to practice as others have stated, however...

Ammunition is stored in connexes in Iraq and Afghanistan. For years in some of those instances. When it got wet at some point is when it became a range first ammo. When I was in Iraq in 05 and 06 we had M2 linked ammunition from the early 50's It all fired. However the whole crimping and lacquered cases helps too.

I don't worry about dry heat though. A decade is what I would put at the start to question limit myself.

That being said I rotate my SD ammunition once a year. I find that the chambering o fa round and the rotating in the magazines to cause more damaging than anything.

 

[Ash]

A garage can't be that big of a deal, heat-wise. If it were stored in the sun, or a metal shed, the heat could become an issue.

 

[clutch]

I've been shooting 10 year old handloads kept in my garage. Summers can be hot where I live but winters are very cold. What is the average temp of the storage location?

Clutch

 

[leadcounsel]

Ammo sits in crates, cans and tins in very inhospitable places for decades - South Africa, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Russia, and heck even in many harsh climates in the USA.

Provided it didn't get wet, moist, etc. and was kept dry - preferably in ammo cans, it will be fine.

 

[vellocet]

You know, most guns and ammo are like commercial aircraft; they're so well designed and made that they have to be really, really abused to fail. I now remember I had reloads of various types, rifle and pistol, stored sealed in my attic for almost 15 years and it all works fine. Even some .22, and rimfire is supposed to be more sensitive than centerfire to age.

 

[Bovice]

It's probably fine.

Just curious... Will you be feeding it to the 226 you asked us every slight detail about roughly a year ago?

 

[barnetmill]

I had some very old reloaded 30-06 ammo go bad. I loaded it in 1961 with powder that had been sitting in an attic in Wyoming for I do not know how long. The powder was IMR 3031 behind IIRC 180 grain Hornady roundnose in 30-06 fired military cases. The load was midrange range and not max. In about 1977 I left the country and the ammo was stored in an attic in chicago until 1985. A few months later I was firing the ammo at a rifle range in Lafayette, LA. I did notice some minor surface corrosion. The loads fired normally in a P17 enfield until I got hit in the face by gas. I opened up the gun and found I had an almost complete head separation, but there were no signs of high pressure. I decided to inspect the powder charge there on the range. So I stuck a bullet into muzzle to work it loose to inspect the powder charge of an unfired round. The casing broke in half. The inside of all of these cases were badly corroded. Extruded IMR 3031 powder manufacture involves the use of concentrated nitric acid. I am sure heat over time caused a partial decomposition of the powder releasing some form of nitrous or nitric acid that attacked the metal of the case weakening it making it brittle. So ammo can become dangerous when exposed to heat. I do not know about the military ball powders and prolonged heat exposure such as is used by the military. Military ammo is expected to sustain foreign storage conditions. Remember that After a period of time most nations get rid of old ammo so there must be some concern over the state of such ammo. I suspect that the ammo being offered for sale is safe, but I would not use it for self defense.
By the way many explosives are affected by heat with Dynamite being the most famous. Another called tetryl used as a boster charge in shells was dropped IIRC by DOD because of changes due to heat, but is still used by other countries.
Moral Always inspect your ammo and store it under best conditions that you can.

 

[Rock185]

A couple of years ago, I chronographed examples from four differet lots of Winchester 125 grain .357 ammo that had been stored in a shed for 10+ years here in Arizona. We don't get quite as hot as Phoenix, but we do have long, hot, dry summers, reaching 105 degrees at times. Velocities were erratic, with standard deviations and velocities generally higher than fresh ammo. I suspect this, initially high quality ammo purchased for duty use, has deteriorated due to long storage at high temperatures. I have access to more of this, and other ammo, stored under the same conditions. But, I have no desire to shoot anymore of it through my guns, and would not carry it for self defense... ymmv

 

[Ash]

I agree that an attic is too hot, but a garage never reaches that "oven" state that an attic can. If anything, the garage mimics military storage conditions - if not a bit better.