google browsing old sitemap: delete or redirect?

[chamco]

I just noticed that there were urls listed on google sitemaps that were never in our current google sitemap. Research showed me they were contained in a sitemap with a different name that hasn't been updated in over 6 months.
should I delete this old sitemap, since it contains old and wrong data, or should I redirect it to the new sitemap using a 301 redirect?

In some ways, I want to catch those requests from google: if they are looking for old information, give them the new information.

[rescendent]

I've deleted my old sitemaps from the list in google sitemaps, and 301ed them it to the new sitemap. Also 301ed any of the old urls in the old sitemap to the correct pages. Google seems happy with it...

It seems it remembers your old sitemaps, I'd 301 rather than delete (though delete it from the list in sitemaps if you've not already done that)

[rescendent]

Just as an aside: I changed sitemap to a dynamically created one which adds urls and the correct update dates, whereas before I was handwriting them and made a few mistakes...