timy 1,185 Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 My niece's hubby gave me around 50 shotgun shells several months ago. We were talking guns/ammo and he mentioned his dad had given them to him 23 years ago and he was wondering if they would still be good. I said I didn't know, but if they had been kept in a cool dry place that it was entirely possible. He then told me they had been in his attic (in Oklahoma) for the last 4 years. Uh oh. Well, at least they were dry. I agreed to take them but was leery of ever shooting them so tossed them in the closet (a cool, dry place). I finally got tired of them taking up space and took them all to the range Sunday. I had a mix of mainly Remington/Peters, the obligatory Winchesters and some I haven't seen in ages.... Activs. I shot a bunch of these in the 80s and am pretty sure they don't make them anymore. They were mostly 2 and 3/4 but I had a few 3 inch Remington. Believe it or not, every one of them fired. I'm thinking some of them had to be over 25 years old at least and as mentioned, not stored under the best of conditions. Anyone else shooting up precious antiques? Cycling though was another matter. Actually, the Activs performed flawlessly, banging and ejecting with no problems. The Winchesters had 5 FTEs and the Remington 3 inchers simply would not cycle the gun, period. A couple of half ejections on the Remington/Peters too. You could feel and hear less power on some of these shells (especially the R-3s) and I checked the action several times and discovered unburned powder in there. It being a Saiga, I just blew it out and kept on shooting. It was an interesting experiment that didn't prove much other than ammo can be severely abused and kept around for ages and will still work, more or less. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kliegl 304 Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Ammo should work for a hundred years. I still shoot paper shotshells at times. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
timy 1,185 Posted April 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Ammo should work for a hundred years. I still shoot paper shotshells at times. I was under the impression that storage conditions had a lot to do with it and that heat was the worst thing for stored ammo. Four years in an attic would have to be hard on the primers. I heard they were the first to go. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
magsite20 1,664 Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IndyArms 10,186 Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Believe it or not... ACTIV made some of THE BEST ammo on the PLANET!!! Problem is... the big companmies put the weight on the distributors... that *IF* the distributors started to carry ACTIV products... they could consider Remington, winchester, and federal GONE, as they would not do business with them anymore. We know what a hit like that would be... and henceforth... ACTIV went the way of the packard... I have a bunch of ACTIV reloading components... I just rarely use them. I WOULD love to get a shitload of hulls... but that is a far from reality type of daydream... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
timy 1,185 Posted April 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2011 Believe it or not... ACTIV made some of THE BEST ammo on the PLANET!!! Problem is... the big companmies put the weight on the distributors... that *IF* the distributors started to carry ACTIV products... they could consider Remington, winchester, and federal GONE, as they would not do business with them anymore. We know what a hit like that would be... and henceforth... ACTIV went the way of the packard... I have a bunch of ACTIV reloading components... I just rarely use them. I WOULD love to get a shitload of hulls... but that is a far from reality type of daydream... I believe you alright. Leastwise, my brother shot a lot of 12 gauge and reloaded back in the 80s and Activ was his favorite. It's been a while but I'm pretty sure he bought new empties and loaded them up. I'd be glad to give you the few I have but that probably wouldn't even be enough to make shipping worthwhile. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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