Like the title says what is the shelf life of .22s left in a gun safe or closet with no rampant moisture?

In a dry environment, they should last for decades. Throw some dessicant packs in there just to be safe, and keep the temperature consistent. I've seen 40+ year old rimfire ammo go bang, and read about even older stuff.

Hell, I'd think that the construction of .22s [heeled bullet, completely internal primer] would lend itself well to long-term storage.

i've fired some 30 - 40 year old ones and they all went bang, if they're somewhere damp they mightn't last long but stored in a cool dry place they will probably last longer than you will.

I once had the chance to fire 5 rounds of .22 LR that I found in a drawer. They were my dad's from when he was young (40's), and according to him they were old back then. The lead was already whitened. That makes them around 60+ years old. Just had one failure to fire, and that one went bang on the second try.

^Still sounds more reliable than brand new Eley, that costs you an arm and a leg and cloags your gun with wax and misfires like crazy.

Man, fuck Eley's. I have a case of 1000 of them because they were on sale and everyone on midwayusa said they were ZOMG HIGH QUALITY so I picked some up. I have subsonic and match semi-auto.

The subsonic is OK, it's much better than that crappy remington I used to get, but the match semi-auto, will, ironically, not work in match semi-autos.

But yes I have shot 50+ year old .22LR out of an 80 year old gun and it worked perfectly. Ammo lasts long. If you dump them into moist dirt or something then they won't work, but left in the box they're not going to expire.