Does ELEY .22LR Go Bad in Storage?

No, not if it is stored at room temperature. ELEY ammunition degrades only when it is kept at extreme high or low temperatures. Left in its enhanced packaging at normal indoor temperatures, a cartridge stays the cartridge it was when it was proofed, and in ELEY’s own words it will outlast you.

That puts the whole question in one sentence: store it indoors at room temperature, not in a loft, a car boot or an uninsulated garage that swings to extremes. Everything else (moisture, physical damage, contamination on the lubricant) is handled by leaving the rounds in the box.

Better still, you need not take that on trust. ELEY publishes the proof data for the batch in your hand, so a stored batch can be measured against its own factory record.

What Does Not Change

The engineering built into the cartridge is fixed at manufacture. The case mouth was trimmed flat and crimped to exacting standards for consistent round-to-round pull-out force. The propellant charge was measured electronically for that individual cartridge. The primer was applied in an advanced air-conditioned priming facility achieving a 75% improvement in the spread of primer weights compared to other manufacturers. The bullet profile is what it was the day it was loaded, whether that is the patented flat nose on ELEY tenex, match and team or the round nose across the semi-automatic and sporting range. None of that is a consumable.

What Can Change, and How to Prevent It

What can change is the outside of the cartridge, which is a handling and environment question rather than an ageing one.

• Contamination of the lubricant. Every ELEY cartridge is lubricated through a temperature-controlled lubrication system, and the lubricant’s job is to ease repeated chambering. The beeswax-tallow blend on ELEY tenex, match and team is softer, thicker and stickier: ideal for minimising the effects of chambering, but more inclined to pick up lint and debris if rounds are stored loose. Paraffin-lubricated products such as ELEY club and sport and target are drier and less prone to picking up debris. Either way, keep them boxed.
• Extreme temperatures. This is the one condition ELEY identifies as capable of degrading ammunition in storage. Wax also has a melting point and behaves differently at different temperatures. That is why ELEY controls temperature during lubrication, and why an indoor cupboard at room temperature beats a garage, a loft or a car boot.
• Moisture and handling. Keep boxes dry and off concrete floors. The enhanced packaging keeps rounds separated; loose rounds knock together, and a damaged case mouth is a damaged cartridge.

The Practical Test

To know whether a stored batch is still performing, shoot it and compare it against a reference you already have.

1. Find the batch code. In the format 10 26-04 244 over 1045, 26 is the year of manufacture and 1045 is the mean velocity across four barrels recorded at proof.
2. Enter the batch number into the free Lot Analyser at eleyxshot.com for the 200-shot proof group, with X and Y coordinates for every shot plus velocity, group size, date loaded and radial dispersion across four barrel types. All lots are published for ELEY tenex, tenex pistol, tenex biathlon, tenex rapid fire pistol, match, semi-auto .22LR benchrest precision, ultra and club.
3. Fire fouling shots so the barrel has settled, then shoot a sample group under conditions you can repeat.
4. Compare against the batch’s proof record and your own notes from when you last shot it.

Read the result honestly. Barrels change over time as well as ammunition, so a difference is not automatically the cartridge’s, which is exactly why re-testing beats assuming.

The Bottom Line

Stored in its enhanced packaging at room temperature, ELEY .22LR does not go off. It will outlast you. The only storage condition that degrades it is extreme heat or extreme cold. The manufacturing precision built into the cartridge is permanent; what needs protecting is the outside of the round and its lubricant.

For certainty on a stored batch, shoot a sample group and set it against the batch’s own proof data in the free Lot Analyser at eleyxshot.com, or book a batch test at eley.co.uk/vip to compare it through your own barrel. The best ammunition is the production lot that performs best in your rifle.