I am taking apart some leftover ammo from previous hunts,can I reuse the powder? the primers? can I expect the same results in speed & accuracy as from new powder & primers?does the powder or the primers deteriorate? ammo is about four years old,thanks.

If you stored it in normal conditions 4 yrs is nothing. Just make sure you know what powder it was. When I pull ammo I usually run the brass back in the sizer (without the decapper) to get a uniform neck tension

4 years or 40?

I can't imagine 4 years being considered for demolition

4 years & they are hand loads.

They should be good to go. Shooting a couple across a Chrony would tell. If you have any doubts, use them for practice, practice, practice. And use your reloading efforts for re-priming, re-charging, etc.

My brother hunts with the reloads in his 25.06 that were loaded in the late 60s.

I break down unused reloads at the end of every year. I like to use freshly loaded and velocity/PSI checked ammo. I keep and re-use the components.

I do this, because I usually use compressed loads and slow-burning powders.

Compressed powders sometimes "cake" or stick together, and I found that "caking" may change the burn rate.

For non-compressed loads, this is likely unnecessary, but I just feel better using freshly loaded and checked ammo.

I break down ammo by shooting them in practice.

When I moved my reloading room I found hundreds of various rounds mainly pistol ammo in boxes and cans.

Some of them from the early 80's I have been shooting them up.

If the main issue is the deterioration of powder, here's what to me is the definitive answer.

From SAMMI: Smokeless Powders — Properties and Storage (pdf)

“Although modern smokeless powders contain stabilizers and are basically free from deterioration under proper storage conditions, safe practices require a recognition of the signs of deterioration and its possible effects.

“Deteriorating smokeless powders produce an acidic odor and may produce a reddish brown fume.”

There's more at the link and well worth the read.

Four years??? That is brand new to me; and I routinely load and shoot powder that is over 40 years old; hell, that is only 1976; seems like yesterday to me and I bought a lot of powder in 1976.

To kind of get back to the OP-

If you decide to break the ammo down-

The bullets will still be fine, unless you deformed them either in loading or breaking down.

The primers are fine, except you can break the priming pellet if you are removing it from the case- and depriming a live primed round is not the best thing to do.

The powder will be fine unless you kept it out in very unusual conditions...but... Remember that each lot can be different, and if you are pulling something that you had a different lot of powder, even assuming that you are 100% sure what the powder is, it is not interchangeable with a new lot of the same powder necessarily.

Personally, I either use it as practice, or if there is enough of it run a group through with the new stuff and see if it impacts the same spot with the same velocities and call it all one lot- but then I have settled on the load, and I am using the same lot of powder, etc.

So today I was out at the range, doing some load development for my brand new 6.5mm SAUM.

On Friday, I went in to pick up my rifle from the gunshop as they had lapped my rings for me. Got talking to the guy behind the counter about the 6.5mm SAUM, and he produced a box of factory 7mm Remington SAUM, using their 150gr Corelokt.

I asked the sales guy how long they had the ammo for, he checked and told me it had been sitting on the shelf for 8 years.

I snapped up the box and was initially thinking of dumping the bullet and projectile. However, on second thoughts I decided to keep the powder - I pulled all the rounds and tipped the powder into a container.

I think the powder maybe Reloader 19. The reason I say this is that the first round I pulled I weighed the powder charge - 60.5 grains. I had a look in my Nosler book at the 7mm SAUM reloading data for their 150gr weight and they list 60.5grs of Reloader 19. However, I decided to cut the charge back to an even 60gr and reloaded behind a 140gr SST.

I only made these rounds up basically to fireform the Remington brass in my chamber and to get the rifle printing on the target at 25 yards and 100 yards while I had the scope off.

I shot the last 8 rounds on target. The first group of 3 I shot printed a group of 0.458, the second 0.383.

Compared to my actual loads I wanted to accuracy test, they were 50% more accurate.

Goes to prove that if ammo has been stored away for a number of years properly, there is no reason why it wont shoot accurately.

Now, if someone could tell me the powder Remington use in their 7mm SAUM factory 150gr ammo, I'd be even happier!

I have ammo loaded almost 40 years ago.

Still shoots well.

your good to go..I probably would knock out those hot primers, Ive done it but its not a good practice, and primers are cheap by comparison..Powder bullets and cases will be fine to reload, even with the old primers, 4 years isn't much..You will be fine.

Powder: if its reddish toss it, and it has a smell I can't describe but color is the best indicator..Powder lasts a long time as a rule.

quote:

Originally posted by kiwiwildcat:
Now, if someone could tell me the powder Remington use in their 7mm SAUM factory 150gr ammo, I'd be even happier!

Reloader 19 like all reloading powders available to us hand loaders is named 'canister' smokeless powder. Big time manufacturers like Remington DO NOT load their ammo with 'canister' gun powder. They use non-canister powder where lot-to-lot variations don't matter since they load according to what pressure a certain load requires. They adjust the volume to get the required pressure. What Remington loads in the 7mm ultramag may very well be a non-canister lot of what we call RL19.

Would Remington actually import a Scandinavian manufactured powder like RL19 to their North Carolina ammo plant? Could happen, but I doubt it.

Back in the mid seventies I noticed that the old type hardware stores had really old ammo on there shelves at about 1/2 the going price of the day. I made the rounds of many of these stores buying them out.I did some trading but through the years used most of it with almost no trouble at all.I did get one or two split necks. Some of the boxes were the same as I had remembered as a kid.I was about 41 at the time. The only deteriorated powder I ran into was an 8# cotainer of mil. surp. 4895, WWII stock.Almost solid Nitric Acid.

As others have told you " shoot it up on paper " or use it hunting.
roger

I am presently using ammo that I loaded back in 1969

Well, I recently shot some reloads I made in 1999 and they all split and/or separated case necks (20 rds). The powder was IMR 4198 and cases were Remington .222. The groups were .5 in at 100 yds. I shot the same loads 3 yrs ago with no issue. I re-opened the can of 4198 and smelled no decay. I wonder what the issue was? Rounds were stored in a metal ammo can indoors and climate controlled.

Nobody has asked yet and I am curious, why are you breaking it down?

quote:

Originally posted by Ackley Improved User:
I break down unused reloads at the end of every year. I like to use freshly loaded and velocity/PSI checked ammo. I keep and re-use the components.

I do this, because I usually use compressed loads and slow-burning powders.

Compressed powders sometimes "cake" or stick together, and I found that "caking" may change the burn rate.

For non-compressed loads, this is likely unnecessary, but I just feel better using freshly loaded and checked ammo.

I haven't broken down many compressed loads but have on occasion just to identify what load was in a cartridge and I'm not overly keen on having to use a pick of some sort to breakup the compressed powder so it can be poured out of the case, often two or three attempts required to get it all free flowing in the case depending on how compressed the load was and a task that obviously has to be done with the case held upwards. It is probably very unlikely that the powder would be ignited but if it ever did it would not be pleasant. I have no qualms pulling bullets and just tipping loose powder out of cases.
Picking around in a case full of powder doesn't float my boat.