Ammo storage

Some in my safe and some in my gun room; cool, dry, dark, etc - should last indefinitely - when Charlton Heston returns to Earth, my ammo can be used to fight the apes.

For a long time I purchased at least one ammo can a month. Then I spent the rest of the month filling it. These days I stock some factory ammo and a reasonable bunch of reloads. Also with an ailing back the aren't kept as full these days. They are in the spare/reloading room and kept at room temperature year around. Have not had any problems yet.

None in my safe; no room. Ammo cans, metal and plastic

I have thousands of rounds (reloads) that I have in plastic 50 and 100 round ammo boxes. I just store them in a lockable wood cabinet in my spare bedroom.

Any place that’s climate controlled will do just fine. Any extra containers or packaging won’t really do much other than make storage or transportation more convenient.

Under a bed and in a closet in my spare BR. Most in original case as shipped and never opened. After I open a case it goes in a can...

357smallbore said:

With all the fine folks that have lots of ammo. How do you store yours? ...

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All of it is stored in multiple areas of my large basement. Most of it is milsurp and still in sealed wood or metal cases, spam cans or battle packs. Of the milsurp that I have opened, the unused portions are mostly stored in ~100 20mm, .50cal and .30cal ammo cans.

My hand-/re-loads are mostly stored on 3 strong shelves under my new(er) "island" gunbench.

I like to put my reloads with reload info in vac sealed bags and a dissicant pack in a ammo can, I can put mag quantities in the bags, (multiples of 8 for the Garand, 20 for the AR, 10 for the Enfield, etc), then I label the cans with stickers.

Ammo cans. Poured in loose, not in boxes.

Don't care about date, since ammo can is sealed.

Sealed in 50 cal ammo cans. I mark them with these. Whenever I get tech type stuff, it usually comes with a few desiccant packs. I throw those in the cans to keep them dry.

In the house (no basement) corralled into ammo cans (both common and collectable).

Safe is too full for ammo (and I'm ok with that). I'm not entirely sure all the ammo would even fit in the safe, were it emptied of arms, for what it's worth.

Mix of metal and plastic 30 and 50 caliber cans. Well, except for shotgun shells of which I have far to many to store in cans.

Ammo cans, mostly 50's, and *now* all labeled.

Metal 50 cal ammo cans, with a couple packs of silica gel.

Ammo storage "diversity" in my house
I've got USGI ammo metal cans in multiple calibers, military wooded crates, commercial steel and plastic ammo cans, spam cans, MTM boxes, reloads in factory boxes, bandoliers in safe along with factory ammo boxes, factory ammo boxes in office cabinet drawers. Hmm, I think that covers it.

30 cal, 50 cal, and SAW ("fat 50's") USGI boxes. "Tall 50's" are too wobbly.

Any of the 20mm, 30mm, or 40mm boxes with two hinged lid locks just weigh too much empty, never mind with ammo in them.

I have a "safe room" under my garage that's climate controlled. Within that room I use a combination of ammo cans and cabinets. All of my reloads are packaged in plastic boxes by either 100 or 50 rds. Primers I store in a combination of 30-50- and 20mm cans.

Ammo


Primers

Loose in ammo cans for most of my stuff



Other stuff in their original boxes, or if I reloaded them some go in MTM type 20, 50 or 100 rd boxes.

Keep it as cool and consistent as you can and ammo will last for ages.

Stay safe.

Bwana John said:

30 cal, 50 cal, and SAW ("fat 50's") USGI boxes. "Tall 50's" are too wobbly.

Any of the 20mm, 30mm, or 40mm boxes with two hinged lid locks just weigh too much empty, never mind with ammo in them.

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I just weighed a standard .50 cal can filled with 9mm 115 gr rounds... 65 pounds! Anything more and it becomes almost unmovable.



Stay safe.

Stored in sealed ammo cans, coffee cans, peanut butter jars, heavy plastic bags, plastic ammo boxes, styrofoam/boxboard ammo boxes, old Tums containers, original packaging, spare and extra magazines.

Yea, I know I have issues.

Metal (mostly) and plastic (a few) ammo cans. The few boxes of factory ammunition I buy is dated and stored in the ammo cans in the original packaging.

For reloads, I've gotten away from plastic ammo boxes as they are too inefficient with space in the ammo cans. I now use Zip Loc(r) bags. Each bag has 50 or 100 rounds of handgun ammunition or 20 or 50 rounds of rifle ammunition. Each bag has a card reference the reloading information for the ammunition in the bag.

Ammo cans are labeled with the cartridge in the can

The only downside of using Zip Loc(r) bags in 50 caliber ammo cans is the cans can get very heavy when full.

For the most part the question seems to be where to store the empty brass until I can find the components to load it.

whughett said:

For the most part the question seems to be where to store the empty brass until I can find the components to load it.

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For the high volume stuff I use kitty litter containers and the "frosting containers" that you can get from the bakery section at WalMart for a couple bucks:



They stack, have handles and hold thousands of pieces. For some of the mid-density calibers, I buy the stacking see through plastic containers. Rifle brass (non .223 and 7.62) gets prepped and remain in 100 piece "lots" for that rifle. They reside in MTM boxes with 3x5 cards tracking how prepped (how much sizing, trimmed annealed etc.) and times fired.

The containers pictured are brass that's ready for loading. I have a separate area for the "cleaned, but not prepped" stuff.

Cleaned brass in a caliber designated ammo can.
Reloads go in another ammo can.