What's the oldest (by date of manufacture) ammo you've fired or own?

[Thomasss]

I still have some Remington Power Piston 2.75, 12 gauge field loads. Remington started making those in 1965-66, Mine are from 1968 when I started duck hunting. Last year, buddy and I shot up some Mauser 1943 ammo from WWII. Only 1/3 of them fired and the report was good. The rest primers wouldn't ignite even when struck twice. No wonder they lost! LOL

 

[zdc1775]

.303 British. I don’t know the year but it had a tendency to go off after a second or two once the trigger was pulled; like it had to wind itself up….

I pulled one bullet and lo and behold it was cordite. I shot them all to practice my flintlock skills.

My experience with the 577/450 round loaded with cordite was similar, took about a second to fire once I pulled the trigger. Seemed a lot longer at the time though.

 

[P5 Guy]

M2 ball head stamped WW-41.
I saved 8 and put them in an enbloc.

 

[trackskippy]

Ive shot a fair amount of WWI through WWII era ammo over the years, most all of it military, and from a number of different nations.

Came across these looking around the ammo locker for something else the other day.....

And just one of these old 45acp "shotshells". Not all that real old, but something you don't see too often.

 

[ojh]

I have half a dozen boxes of 7.35 Carcano ammo, dated 1939. Each box contains three six-round stripper clips. Maybe some day I'll have the courage to fire some of them. Or not.

 

[LimaCharlie]

When I was in the Navy in Viet Nam in 1965/1966, we were shooting ammo and eating C-Rations with WWII dates.

 

[FL-NC]

I have a 45-70 trapdoor springfield I never fired and a 30-40 Krag carbine I have fired, and I even killed a deer with it.

 

[The Night Rider]

I shot some 155mm from 1955 in the late 90s

 

[25-5]

I have military .30 06, and .45 ACP from WWII.
Have not shot any.

 

[Ignition Override]

1943: .303 British; either Australian, or British origin. I have No Idea whether the powder was the very Hot-burning nitocellulose which could damage chambers/bore.
At one time I had four #4/1 and two #5 "Jungles". so to speak. The compressed time - due to my initial age (52) for the gun bug- for 'exposure' to new gun types created changing gun interests.

The famous, former business SAMCO (= popular phone lady with heavy Cuban accent) sold an odd mix of old .303; 1940s and maybe also 1950s. They went under about ten-thirteen years ago.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I have shot a lot of the Soviet surplus 7.62 x 54R from the early 1940's that I bought back when you could get two of the 440 round soldered tins in a sturdy wooden crate for around $100. They all acted like fresh rounds. Every time I opened on of the tins my mind would wander to "What kind of trouble did the poor soul who had to solder these things shut commit"? I also liked the little strings with a bow knot holding the paper wrappers around the 25 rounds.

 

[Scooter22]

I have quite a bit 8x57 surplus from the 1930s that is clean and shoots fine. Some 8x56R from 1938. Some mixed .303 from about the same time. Always goes bamg and no booms. I know powder can degrade over time and cause pressure problems. But the stuff I have doesn't seem hot or over powered like ammo when it's getting bad. I'm waiting for "The lecture" from one of the members.

 

[StrawHat]

Ive shot a fair amount of WWI through WWII era ammo over the years, most all of it military, and from a number of different nations.

Came across these looking around the ammo locker for something else the other day.....

I have just the revolver from which to shoot those!

I have just the revolver from which to shoot those rounds!





This one shipped in October of 1918.

Kevin

 

[MutinousDoug]

I have some 1950, 52 and 1966 LC carbine ammo that I would break down for the bullets if it weren't such a PITA. It shoots REALLY dirty so, in the mean time I save it for new users to shoot when I'll have plenty of time to clean up after.

 

[jonnyc]

Own...1860s. Fired...1895.

 

[Beck]

When I was in high school in the early 1980s I had an M1903 Springfield 30-06. The first rounds I put through it were from the early 1940s. They went bang just fine. Many years later I bought a Ruger Mini-30. The oldest 7.62x39 I've put through it were Yugo M67, headstamp 1974. The Yugo is some of the best performing x39 I've used. The downside is it's corrosive, so the carbine needs to be flushed out after each range trip.

 

[lightman]

Some military ball ammo from the 40's. It all fired!

 

[AK Hunter]

Digging through my collectable rounds I found this one, it's not fireable anymore It's been demilled. It was a dud I found on the range while picking up brass. I think someone told me it's an 8mm x 56r.

 

[Megawatt maker]

WW1 German 8mm Mauser. Had a batch of 30 odd rounds. All fired fine, but only minute of barn accurate. This was back in 2010 or so.
Still have a bunch of Canadian ww2 30/06. Some of them have green corrosion..indicating they are starting to go bad.

Also have a large batch of Norwegian 30/06 AP from what I believe the 1950s? Its still fine.

 

[GRIZ22]

GI 30-06 from the 20s, 8mm Mauser.from the 30s.

 

[mavracer]

Black tip 30-06 either 36 or 38 headstamp can't remember which without digging it out.

 

[1976B.L.Johns.]

Military ball ammo stamped 60 (1960) IN 45 ACP.

Every round fired.

 

[Riomouse911]

I still have a hundred or so MK VII .303 British with 1943 headstamps. I bought a bunch out of The Sportsman’s Guide mailer at least 20 years ago and split half with my buddy Kevin (He had a Big 5-bought No. 4, Mk I .303 like I did).

They are cordite-powered and have an amazing tendency to go Click!…1 potato, 2 potaBANG!

Sure does a good job of showing if you are flinching on the trigger pull or not

Stay safe.

 

[Old Dog]

In 1979, I was present and part of a group that fired quite a bit (a partial 50 round box) of .45 ACP ball ammo -- from 1944 -- plus two GI mags that had been fully loaded (seven rounds) since (we believed) late 1945. Every round fired.

I inherited a couple boxes of 150 grain Remington .30-06 Core-Lokt after one of my grandpas passed. Date of manufacture, as best we could ascertain, was in the mid-'60s. Grandpa didn't sight in his rifle before whitetail season started, he just rolled with what he had...

 

[exbrit49]

I was looking at an old thread I started, and #1 got me to thinking: What if by some weird set of circumstances I DID come across some 9mm made for the Imperial German Army? I'd definitely want to try it out!
There's lots of old guns out there, but ammo is made to be used; really old ammo that is still shootbable is not all that common. I'm fairly certain I've never shot anything more than 50-60 years old.(Some Romanian 7.62x54R that appeared to date from the 1950s)
I put the date on my own reloads, and the longest I've gone between making and shooting it was about 5 years. That's really nothing though.

I have shot a lot of .303 ammunition through my 1947 Lee Enfield. Most of the ammo was made in Pakistan in 1947 -1948. Bought several big batches of this ammo back in 2008/9 About 50% of the rounds have a very slight delay in ignition, but are still extremely accurate. Still got a couple hundred rounds left and will continue to shoot them when I take the old Enfield out for a range session.