I shot up some 50 year old .22LR ammo last June as part of a longevity test I am running. It fired perfectly. The 51 year test will be coming up soon enough.

This started when my father bought me 10,000 rounds of Federal High-Velocity .22LR ammo for my birthday in 1963. The BEST. BIRTHDAY GIFT. EVER. I shot a box (along with a box I bought with my newspaper money) each weekend from then until I went away to college. I still had a few bricks of ammo left when I went away to college and stored it in a .30cal ammo box in my parents basement on a shelf.

About 25 or 30 years later (after I finished college, started a career, got married and had our first kid), my mother handed me the .30cal ammo box and said, "I think these are yours." It was the ammo I stored away years before.

At first I thought I would shoot it up quick, before it went bad, but then I decided that it would make a great long term test. I started shooting up a box every year on my birthday. After a while I realized that I was using them up too quickly. I started shooting up a half box each birthday. I am down to my last 4 or 5 boxes of the 1963 ammo, so the test will wrap up in a few years, but I might be able to make it last for 60 years.

BTW, in that time, I have never had any of the 1963 cartridges fail to fire, misfire, hangfire, or do anything else bad. Because they were stored in a sealed ammo box, there is no sign of corrosion, discoloration, or anything else on them. They still look brand new and they act that way. Even .22LR ammo can last longer than most people believe when it is will stored properly.

I would rather have 40-year-old .22LR that had been stored properly, than mose of the crappy stuff they are making today (which you can't get, anyway). Last carton of Remington I bought had about 10% squibs.

I just got to ask ? how old were you in 1963??

Ammo that old has primer compound all the way around the rim.

SO

No misfires.

Unlike today's cheaper promo stuff

I have a part of a box of old white box Olin pistol Match that is unbelievable out of my 10" octagon barrel TC. it is likely 60s early 70s.

Sure do hate to finis it as NOTHING I have comes close.

I am down to several thousand rounds and wouldn't ya know it, I have the most ammo that is consistently the least accurate in everything I have with 22 LR chamber.

Agree with Catoosa....much rather have a bunch of older 22lr than what's currently for sale nowadays.

I sometimes shoot some Winchester Super X long rifles that my Grandfather picked up in the 40s for my father to shoot in a Model 52 for competition at the local shooting club. It still shoots great with no misfires I can remember, and it is still mostly reserved to be shot in the same 52.

Of course, I still shoot factory Winchester 8x56 Mannlicher ammunition they stopped loading in the mid-1930s, along with some other stuff of even older vintage.

14 years old. I had a Marlin 39A for about a year. I was able to afford about one box of .22LR ammo a week from my paper route. I used to buy it at a gas station near our house. However, I always wanted to shoot more.

My father got a great deal (like he always did) on .22LR ammo somewhere, so he bought me a bunch. Instead of shooting it all up, I continued to shoot one that I bought with my own money and one from my birthday present. That way, I doubled my shooting for the same amount of money. Even so, I went through most of the birthday present before I left for college.

I have two 9.5x57 Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifles. Somewhere along the way, I ended up with about 52 rounds of what I seem to remember are 8mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer ammo. I will check it when I get home. Maybe we can work out a deal.

I checked and it is 52 Western (not W-W) 8mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer Model 1908 cartridges in the yellow and blue boxes. They are 200gr Soft Points with non-corrosive primers. They look in very good condition without any corrosion and only a slight darkening of the brass cases. If you are interested, e-mail me at:

harryo41LC [at] centurylink [dot] net

You should find an email in you inbox from me, though it may say it comes from Edward. The 9.5 MS always sounded like a fun caliber, I have a 6.5 Greek military project here. Picked it up as a half-finished sporter with parts missing and hope to finish it some day.