I found some old 30-06 rounds that my dad had stored. All green and crusty, probably from the 60's.

Ok to shoot?

If he loaded them properly they will be fine but since they are green you might want to clean the green off or they might stick in you chamber. Some guys tumble live ammunition to give it the best shine. I have used scotch brite pads and I did that because it was loaded 30-06 with WWII headstamp cases.

I'm pretty sure they are factory as he did not start reloading until the early 90's. Unfortunately I have no way of confirming as he is no longer alive.

Thank you for the info.

I would not tumble them. Hand clean them.
Tumbling could possibly vibrate the powder into different sized grains/granules/flakes and thus change the recipe

To answer the basic question, ammo will last a LONG time, much longer than the ammo you have. But if it's stored improperly and gets crusty and corroded, then that's a different issue -- you don't want to have weak brass, or chunks of crap that will impeded loading into the chamber.

I'd clean them up by hand, and then make a judgment call. I've cleaned green gunk off of a lot of cartridges and shot them, but you do need to look at each one and make sure it looks legit.

Tumbling . . . I don't hesitate to tumble live ammo, but I don't think it'll do much for the stuff you're looking at.

Thanks all, will hand clean and proceed with caution.

I have some ww2 45 acp I think 42 or 43
When I bought it all there was a partial box I shot it all with no problems. Now would I say someone might run into misfires if not stored correctly? Yes but all of mine fired fine. Shit the boxes I do have left I might have to use if 45 gets any harder to find lol jk

Just don't clean them with something like wd-40 that might penetrate a loose crimp and react with the powder charge, or submerge them in simple green for days.

I've read stories about farmers plowing up ammunition crates from the first world war and hunting with the 7.62x54R rounds the found in the Mosin Nagant they inherited from their grandfather.