I was looking at a few sites and they have 1986 production south african battlepacks for $34 for 300 rounds. Does age matter on ammo? They look like they are in sealed bags.

This ammo seems to be pretty good and I could only estimate the number of these rounds fired by ar15.com members to be in the millions. From what I have heard it is very reliable.

Still, for long term storage, you would probably be better off using new production ammo such as Federal/Lake City XM193 or Winchester Q3131A. But for plinking ammo or back-up ammo to your new stuff, you will probably find the SA surplus stuff to be ok now and probably a number of years to come if stored properly.

I don't know about the SA .223 stuff, but I've got a bunch of 8X56r that I shoot in my steyr that was manufactured in 1938, and has a waffenstamp on it. It still shoots fine.
Of course this is not a SHTF gun or ammo.

South African ammo may be age sensitive.

M1A4, the newest I've seen, has the tightest velocity spread, followed by M1A3.  The few lots I've tested all met M193 specs for velocity and standard deviation.

Not so with older M1A2.  This ammo had very wide velocity ranges.

-- Chuck