Old Faithful is a geyser within the confines of Yellowstone national park. It erupts, send a plume of water skyward, about every 60 to 90 minutes dependent of the length of the previous eruption. The intervals between eruptions lasting less than 2.5 minutes is about 60 minutes; however, if an eruption goes for more than 2.5 minutes then the next one should take place in about 90 minutes (source). The thing is that Old Faithful has been faithful respective to its eruptions at least for hundreds of years, maybe thousands of years, because it always goes bang (so to speak).
I can happily say, I recently bought some ammo that is akin to Old Faithful in that regard - it always goes bang - at least so far anyway and I think we fired about 150 rounds of it this past weekend. Now my ammo is nowhere nearly as old as that geyser and not even old as my oldest ammo but it is kind of old. In fact, it was dated, I imagine by its previous owner, 12-30-93. So it is 20 years, 7 months and 9 days old as I type. Consider though that it is value pack ammunition (in other words inexpensive or cheapo ammo) and it still has gone bang for every round we have taken out of the box. That is a good thing. Besides being good that it still booms, it means I did not waste my money when I bought two 550 round boxes of it at auction without realizing it was already 20 plus years old. Not wasting money on old misfiring ammo definitely is a good thing.
The ammo in question is Federal .22 LR, high velocity, 36 grain, copper plated, hollow point, value pack ammunition. I have to hand it to Federal, they made some good ammo back then. Besides being viable after all those years, it also is pretty accurate. I am not saying it is target grade ammo but it is certainly suited for plinking or hunting. At 5 yards, while at the recent bloggershoot I attended, I was able to put in in nickel to quarter sized groups just about every time from a certain pistol. I said just about because, at least once, I put 10 rounds of it into a single hole smaller than a dime. Sometimes I amaze myself. Yes, I know, that may not be great shooting for an expert target shooter but it sure as hell was for me and yes, I am easily amazed.
Now that I have opened the box, I guess I will use it up as my go to 22 ammo whenever I shoot 22s. It fed, fired, extracted and ejected in three different pistols without any failures - a Beretta 70S, a Ruger MKII, and S&W Model 22A-1. Luckily, I purchased two boxes of it. I can keep one closed and maybe try it out in another 10 or so years; although, I doubt I will be able to hold off that long. I will probably fire it long before I fire off any of my newer 22LR ammo.
All the best,
Glenn B
I can happily say, I recently bought some ammo that is akin to Old Faithful in that regard - it always goes bang - at least so far anyway and I think we fired about 150 rounds of it this past weekend. Now my ammo is nowhere nearly as old as that geyser and not even old as my oldest ammo but it is kind of old. In fact, it was dated, I imagine by its previous owner, 12-30-93. So it is 20 years, 7 months and 9 days old as I type. Consider though that it is value pack ammunition (in other words inexpensive or cheapo ammo) and it still has gone bang for every round we have taken out of the box. That is a good thing. Besides being good that it still booms, it means I did not waste my money when I bought two 550 round boxes of it at auction without realizing it was already 20 plus years old. Not wasting money on old misfiring ammo definitely is a good thing. |
| Bang-bang, shoot-shoot. |
Now that I have opened the box, I guess I will use it up as my go to 22 ammo whenever I shoot 22s. It fed, fired, extracted and ejected in three different pistols without any failures - a Beretta 70S, a Ruger MKII, and S&W Model 22A-1. Luckily, I purchased two boxes of it. I can keep one closed and maybe try it out in another 10 or so years; although, I doubt I will be able to hold off that long. I will probably fire it long before I fire off any of my newer 22LR ammo.
All the best,
Glenn B
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