Does anyone know how long shot shells are good for? Is there an expiration date, or a time that they lose their effectiveness?

Shotgun shells are rather loose and open at the crimp compared to a rifle or pistol cartridge. If you keep your ammunition secured in a air/watertight ammo can in a cool dark place they will easily remain viable for decades . Cartridges and their components can degrade over time ( such as old cordite rounds) to the point of failure. On the other hand, people have been killed by old blackpowder antiques that were still charged.

Just the other day I shot some 12 ga that I reloaded in the '60's. Went bang and kicked well enough to convince me that it still works just fine. It has been stored in a GI ammo can in my garage, under varying temps...

Thanks to both of you for the information. It's great having access to this kind of information.

I'm not too sure about shotshells. But I have 55-year-old battlepacks of 7.62x39 rounds that still fire like a charm through my SKS.

Do the shells in question have the old cardboard casings, or plastic? Lead-shot or Steel-shot? I'll ask some other members of the SWAT team on Monday about your question.

John McIntire

OBG, And I thought I was doing good! ;-} <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Earlier this year, after a lot of skeet shooting practice (a sport where I am irremediably lacking in proficiency) to prepare for my gun club's all around shoot, I decided to shoot a couple of rounds of skeet with my defensive 12 ga. pump (a customized, retired police Rem 870). What better a way to test its reliability than to use (& use up) some ammo that I had handloaded in the early 1970s whose dimensions were enough out of spec that they would not function through my gas operated automatic shotgun. Two rounds had very loose crimps & no shot left; I didn't try to shoot those. Several had somewhat loose crimps but were leaking shot. I merely single loaded them into the chamber & kept the muzzle pointed up. Except for one round which I could not force into the 870's chamber, all ammo seemed to shoot normally. My score at skeet was only slightly less than normal. That was probably due to my minimal use of pumps in the last couple of decades. The report & the ability to break targets seemed normal. The gun operated well, especially given that it was using ammo which was far out of spec. As a result, I am very pleased with the gun as a defensive arm; my ability to operate it with bad (somewhat oversized) ammo; and the durability of the ammo itself.

The reloaded ammo consisted of WW's AA shells, white AA wads, variously Hercules Red Dot & Dupont Hyscore 700X, mostly WW 209 (& possibly some CCI) primers, and lead shot, variously either #7 1/2 or 9 shot, possibly some reclaimed shot. It was stored in cardboard boxes kept indoors in a warm, dry area.

I have also had various rifle & handgun factory & reloaded ammo left in my hot trailer or truck camper for years which seemed to shoot normally.

Note that I am not recommending the above as good approaches to storage. Instead, I am saying my ammo seems to have worked well despite the poor storage that happened to befall these small lots of ammo. I would expect even better durability under good storage conditions. Though it's hard to find any complaints about the way it performed

Consequently, I have no concerns re the longevity & durability of my ammo & guns.

John <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />