Is 40 year old CCI ammo still good? Here is the answer!

When my grandfather passed away last year, I was given all his old ammo. In among them I found some very old boxes of CCI Mini Mags. Best I can tell from the label, they were made in 1977 or 78. Anyway, I was wanted to see how they measured up to new CCI Mini Mags, so took them out to the range for a test. I think the results will surprise you.

Here is the video for you to watch and see how they performed.

Live Testing of 40 year old CCI Mini Mags

Old ammo can shoot very well, especially if stored in climate controlled area

Why wouldn’t it be. I have few thousand rounds of 22Rimfire from the 70’s and I never considered that it wouldn’t be fine. I still have powder/ primers from that time frame but have not tried them as I haven’t loaded for the 44 mag in a long time.

Along the same lines I have shot WW-II ammo in my 30 carbine that shot fine.

Yep,

I am still shooting brass cased 7.62x54r from 1955. Seriously, not one dud in roughly 140 that I have fired. (Fifty have been stored for posterity)

Marc

I have some Remington 22 lr bullets that are about 15 years old. Never been stored outside of an air conditioned home. I shot half of them when new and they worked well. I reached into that box a while back to shoot at some hogs in my back yard and went through 3 before one would fire.

Dad has some cardboard purple shotgun shells. No idea what they are but they have killed a lot of skunks and armadillos.

Yes, people that have been shooters for a long time know this, but many people do not know this and have been told false information. I made this video for those types of people.

You see, everyone that has commented here says, "Yes, it okay to shoot". But, my video provides more then just an opinion on the matter. It provides irrefutable proof that old ammo is still good. And not only is it good, it preforms as good as brand new ammo. If you would watch the video, you would see that it shows this.

The video answers more then one question. It answers not only the questions of, "Can it be used?" or "Is it still usable?" it also answers the question "Is it AS good as new ammo?". Watch the video and I think you will see what I am talking about.

It answered the question for that ammo, not all ammo. The experience I just shared showed that it does not all work. lol.

There are exception to any rule, but the exceptions are not the rule.

I would be willing to bet if you tried those three shells again they would go off. Bad spots in the primer compound of a rimfire is not uncommon.

I have several hundred tracer rounds for my Garand that was made in the early to mid 40's to the late 50's that shoot great.
Though not all of them light up and some are dim. But no change in POI that ive noticed. "I have never chrono'd a tracer round" to check if age effected speed. Cool Video.

I did

I've not had good luck shooting old rimfire.

Even back in the day, I've been known to buy and store different ammo for future use.
All my ammo gets stored in a 30 or 50cal steel ammo can and inside a sealed military ECM shipping container with desiccant.
I also keep my powder and primers in the same shipping container - yeah, it's a big one!

Pretty much everything I have is still 100 percent.

There are two exceptions:
Old paper 12 and 20ga shells from before modern times....I don't shoot them just because.
Remington Golden Bullets packed in the 525 round bulk boxes.

The Remington Golden Bullets are about 50 percent and quite happy to not fire at all, even on 2nd, 3rd or 4th try.

I think it has to do with bulk packaging more than anything else.
The bullets can bump around and the seal between the lead projectile and brass case will break down allowing moisture to enter.
I'm sure this doesn't happen over night and must say these bullets have been stored since mid 1970's.

I'm shooting CCI Mini And Maxi mag from the 70's and haven't had a dud yet.

I shot some 40 year old 38 special ammo awhile back and it was just fine. Belonged to my grandpa, who passed away in the mid-90s.

have some 17 hmr hornady about 1/3 hangfire might be 3 years old

all of this comes down the the "depends factor" not the kind you wear