Best Way To Store Ammo

One thing to keep in mind. Whatever you wrap it in, smear it with, or box it in, store your ammo in ONE place. A closet, a safe, a reloading shed...store your ammo together. It makes it much easier to control, take inventory, and in the event of a fire it is very convenient to tell responding firefighters where your ammo/powder is stored.

Buy 2 gun safes, one for the guns, one for the ammo. Fill that sucker up, put some dessicant in there, good to go.

Best Way To Store Ammo

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In large quantities!

I like the igloo idea, as it seems the ammo cans are getting harder to find, heh. I would like to know where to get the dessicant suitable for a gun safe, as I just got one. Thanks

Not something I've tried but what about those vacuum sealer thingies? I've seen a demonstration where they punch a hole in a canning jar lid and suck the air out. Would something like that be adaptable to ammo storage?

I am still using .38 and 12 ga ammo that my father bought back in the 50's. Using some on the range, the stuff that looks bad, but keeping the rest for my great grand kids. I also store my ammo in 50 cal ammo cans. I can get 600 rounds of 40 cal in their boxes in each can plus the desiccant. I have 30 ammo cans filled with assorted ammo plus 2 cans with cleaning supplies and a few spare parts. I try to maintain a 1,000 rounds for each gun that I have. The Obamanation has made it pretty hard for us to maintain a stockpile and maintain a shooting program.

I keep mine in the complimentary plastic storage boxes I get from Cabela's every order.

Store mine (in their original boxes) in a dresser drawer. Earlier this year I shot a box of .30-30 ammo that was about 36 years old and they went off just fine.

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The ammo might fire just fine, but if it is not stored properly it will become acidic. Needless to say that acidic residue in a gun is not a good thing. It is best to store ammo properly... that means sealed in a water/air tight ammo box with desiccant to absorb the moisture. That is how the military does it, so it should work for you.

Hello Wane,
New guy here.
I recently ran 4 magazines through my S&W 659 that sat loaded for well over 20 years. That's roughly 56 rounds without a single problem.
I always wondered about the whole "week spring" concept but they worked perfectly.
I'm no expert, this is just my experience.
Bill

Have used military ammo cans for years, and have never had a problem, even with them stored in the garage. I recently fired some rounds stored from 1978 and they all went bang.

I store some in ammo cans with desiccant.

I store some in magazines ready to go.

I store some in the original box they came in because there's no more room in the cans or magazines.

"Buy 2 gun safes, one for the guns, one for the ammo. Fill that sucker up, put some dessicant in there, good to go."

If this works, I think it would be the way to go for me. I have my son's friends in the house all the time and I like the idea of secure storage.

G.I. ammo cans. No plastic wrap or dessicant. When you open one to inspect for purchase, buy one that stinks inside. The stink means it seals up tight.

"Store mine (in their original boxes) in a dresser drawer. Earlier this year I shot a box of .30-30 ammo that was about 36 years old and they went off just fine."

I agree, ammo isn't very fragile at all if stored indoors with heat and maybe ac. And 36 years isn't all that long really. If I stored ammo outdoors like the Army does I'd worry about it, but I don't.

John

When you open one to inspect for purchase, buy one that stinks inside. The stink means it seals up tight.

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Good tip. Thanks

a cupple of weeks ago my big brother came home to visit an we were looking around in the old cattle medicine cubbard in the barn (we were a dairy farm till i was 14) and found a stash of shells on the top shelves. several of the boxes were from the hardware in town that closed in 57.

.22 killed a few groundhogs we found.
12 guage killed lots of dove ( yummy)

before anyone gets wound-- anything that can be shown to damage crops is a varment and can be killed. (bellies full of my seed corn).
i kill it, i eat it , i dont care what any one thinks.

so at a min. it was 53 years old and fired fine. old open barn in a not so tight cubbard on a shelf in a box.

i think the hipe of storage is a little over rated.
ps i'm in ohio so plenty of climate change.

I'll cut the flap off the end of the factory box, & write on the back how much I paid & the date of purchase. I also transfer the batch/lot # if not already printed on it. The bullet information is already on the outside of flap so I save the labels that come w/ the cases for my reloads.

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Nifty idea, I'll have to do that.

GI ammo cans work best. If you're buying military surplus ammo, leave them in the containers they came in.

The best way......

At my house

Seriously, another vote for GI ammo cans. I picked up a .30 cal ammo can in servicable shape for 3.00 last weekend.

My local shop told me it's going to be impossible to get new cans, for the same reason the military can't sell used brass.

I've got half a dozen 7.62 cans I'm working at filling with various calibers.

Ammo is inert enough that it's simple to save. Put ammo in the can. Toss in a handful of little desiccant packs. Close can.

Voila. You can wrap it in duct tape or put a lock on it (with seals) if you want it harder to open.

Don't laugh, but what about using a vacuum bagger like the foodsaver?

The material comes in rolls 12"x20' long so you can size your own bags.

Seems like no air at all would be the ideal solution.

"it was 53 years old and fired fine."

"i think the hipe of storage is a little over rated."

I've been saying that for years, especially when ammo is stored in a residence. Of all the old ammo I've shot, or that I've seen my relatives shoot, the only bad rounds were from a half a box of .32 S&W blanks from the late '30s or maybe 1940 or '41. As far as I could determine they'd been stored on a shelf in an unheated smokehouse that was used for storage and half of them were duds.

John

I'm off to the military surplus store today.

There're gonna think I'm nuts sniffing
the ammo cans, but I'm going to do it.

Good tip.

I like the gun safe storage for safe keeping but to hard to rotate the stock. I have 30 50 cal ammo cans filled with ammo. I inspect 3 or 4 cans each month and check the desicant. I have not had a problem with ammo storage in the last 40 or 50 years that I can remember