Oldest Loads You have Shot?

[Muddyboots]

I just happened to find a box of 165 Part for my 300WM I loaded in 2001 that was somehow behind some other fresher loads. I always try to cycle older loads up front so I know they are there for shoot offs..

So I shoot a few thru my chrono and was I surprised. Velocity dead spot on for the load. I never would have thought a 18 year old load would be that stable. Powder was IMR 4831.

Anyone shoot old loads thru chrono and results?

 

[Riflehunter1776]

not through a chrono, but I often shot ww2 vintage ammo. Oldest would be 7x57 from the 1890's

 

[ar10ar15man]

1913 45acp

 

[Dosh]

How about two year old ammo. My son's coworker went with us to the desert to shoot. He had a couple boxes of expensive ammunition. With the first shot he could hardly raise the bolt. His two year old ammunition had been in his glove box the entire two years here in the killer Az heat. We pulled the bullets and dumped the powder.

 

[del2les]

WWI 45acp, lots of 1943-44LC 30-06, and 1953 WRA 30-06, and in my hand-loads, some from 1983 that I found a couple of years back in a storage box. All worked well.

One of my past club members had some 1890's 8mm Lebel that we tested a few years back, and most of it shot, but a few were misfires.

 

[MagnumManiac]

Oldest would be surplus 6.5 Swede corrosive berdan primed ammo from before the first world war and original Rigby made 416 Rigby ammo, this stuff is unreloadable, has an oddball size primer larger than anything made today.

Cheers.

 

[g0rd0]

Ww2 6.5 jap out of a huskavarna no problem.

 

[North Idaho Hunter]

38 year old reloads is as old as ive shot!

 

[dig]

Depends on storage, the only loads I have had issues with were 15 year old Weatherby loads that had bounced around in a hot truck for as many years, very hard bolt lift but fired. I frequently fire 300 WM 308, 270 that are 10-15 years old no issue, all starred in plastic cases inside.

 

[Russ661]

I have some 1942 headstamp 303 British and some 1943 headstamp 8mm Turkish surplus and both shoot just fine. I also have a few boxes of WW 22LR from the late 60s that still go bang reliably. The only ammo I ever had problems with was some of what I think was pre-WWII Bulgarian surplus 7.62x54R that would hesitate a full second before going off when shot from an old Mosin. Think 'click sizzle BANG'!! Quite entertaining

 

[Locknload]

I shot some 6.5 Cacarno 156 grain RN cuper-nickel made in the 30s. The gun itself was an Oswald special, an early Italian fixed sight short barrel carbine. It had a nasty hesitation with no regular ignition time, pop,,,,boom. You actually had time to pull it off the shoulder before the powder ignited. So I had to shoot it like a flint lock. The muzzle blast sounded like the case was loaded with C4. A mean nasty little sucker.
Ed

 

[John Klingenberg]

I have some 30-06 surplus from the 30s. It has never mis-fired and shoots great.

 

[RT2506]

Oldest was a US military 45-70-500 black powder loaded round. I do not know the date it was made but it had to be in the late 1800s to early 1900s. In the late 1960s early 70s I shot a BUNCH of WWII 30-06 and 30 carbine ammo. In the late 1980 to mid 1990s I shot a lot of 8x57JS ammo that was made in the late 1940 to late 1950s made in Europe someplace I think. Some of it had dud primers. I would pull the bullets on the dud rounds put the powder into boxer primed cases I had made out of 30-06 cases seated the bullet and it shot more accurate than the original ammo. It had the strangest powder I had ever seen in them. It was a square flake powder. I have shot hand loads that are at least 20 years old. It all depends on how the ammo is stored most of the time. Keep it dry and in the 40 to 80* range and it should do fine.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Does pinfire count?