I went shopping the other day they had a Ruger American Predator for 120.00 less than suggested retail price. The price of ammo was unreal averaging over 2.00 a round and they only had one bullet weight. Loading components also were sky high. I'm sure glad that I don't need much in the way of shooting supplies my ammo is all sealed the way that the military does and kept at an even temperature in the 70's with lower humidity, that's not hard where I live, we normally don't have very high humidity, any of my powders and primers are kept in the same manor they will break down with time. I had a guy telling me about how he had loaded some rounds using the same bullets brass primers and powder as he did two years before. His first round ruptured in the chamber luckily, he wasn't hurt. His rifle was so he didn't get to use it for his hunt. I asked him what the powder looked like was it kind of rusty colored? He said he hadn't paid any attention, latter he said that it was how did I know it would be? Because it was breaking down he didn't keep it in a controlled atmosphere. I see a lot of people that can't help themselves they have to shake the can of powder when they pick it up the powder is coated with graphite as a way to control the burn rate according to the person at Hodgdon when I called to ask them about burn rates and powder breaking down with time. He told me that people will throw a box of ammo in the dash of the truck and just leave it there in the sun then all winter getting cold then hot and vibrating letting the granules of powder rub on each other rubbing the coating off of them thus destabilizing the burn rate and causing the powder to break down in the cartridge. I have seen this and then people would say well that ammo from so and so isn't very accurate. I shot at a coyote this morning just down the road from my house and missed it then I shot at a fox around noon and blew it to pieces. The ammo was below zero in the morning and by noon it was ready to cook off from lying next to the defroster vent all morning, or it had been riding around in the truck for over a year rattling around in the magazine in the gun rack, there shouldn't be a problem with that should there? I've seen where I got in my truck at 4500 feet elevation in the morning went and sighted my rifle at the range at 60 degrees F then drove up on the mountain to 9000 feet elevation and 90 degrees by afternoon and had an impact shift of a couple of inches. Temperature, air density, humidity all changed during the day and the change in altitude all play a role in it. So many people think about this kind of thing but yet so many people don't simply because they really aren't exposed to it by where they live. People will get the chance to come to the mountainous states for a hunting trip from lower altitudes it's just one more thing to be considered the change in altitude affects more than just the sight in in their rifles it affects their bodied as well, I'm tired, I walked 5 miles a day at home, but it wears me out to walk a mile here I only climbed that hill over there oh the O2 level is 19-20 percent here now I understand it now. It's just kind of fun to think about things like this.
