powder storage ?

Also, one other thing.

My powder is stored DIRECTLY underneath the main water pipe and two geothermal cooling loop lines that run through the house. So if it goes, the solder on the copper (or the copper itself melts), and 60 PSI water floods in from the mains and coolant dumped on it from the geothermal wells.

Kind of a built in fire suppression system, redneck style.

I'm not worried about water leaks as the powder is stored in plastic bins.

The powder manufacturers and OSHA lists 1" thick wooden containers with rabbeted joints and only screws to assemble the box, as the only approved powder storage for 'our' relatively small quantities.
Metal conducts static & heat and restricts pressure release. Plastics are combustible.

Here is a small sample powder box with self-closing openings:

You already have a bomb if the fire gets to that many primers in one place. If you think its BS, put on a safety shield, similar to a welding helmet, and heat up one primer with a propane torch. Imagine that single primer effect time how many primers you have stored. In addition all those anvils become shrapnel. Now it starts sounding like a claymore mine, than a bomb

I certainly don't have any enforcement power, but there are guidelines.

NFPA 495 chapter 14 (which has likely been adopted by your local government agencies and insurance companies) states that up to 20 pounds of powder (or 25, I don't remember off the top of my head) is fine stored in its original containers. Up to 50 pounds stored in a residential building should be stored in a 1-inch thick wooden box with pressure-release vents.

toiville2feathers said:

You already have a bomb if the fire gets to that many primers in one place. If you think its BS, put on a safety shield, similar to a welding helmet, and heat up one primer with a propane torch. Imagine that single primer effect time how many primers you have stored. In addition all those anvils become shrapnel. Now it starts sounding like a claymore mine, than a bomb

Click to expand...

I disagree. In modern packaging, the first primer that goes will scatter the rest. They won't ALL go at the same time as the entire package won't hit ignition temperature at the same time.

(NOTE: I disclaim any liability for personal safety with this next sentence..) Put on some safety glasses and throw a pack of 100 primers in the camp fire one night. Back off to a safe area, and watch. It's kind of like a roll of black cats, but slower, and more volatile.

Look at the video posted on THR on SAAMI fire tests on ammunition. They shot it. They burned it. They ran it over with a bulldozer. They dropped it. No mass explosions, even with gunpowder involved, and primers crimped in to cases.

OLD packaging, yes, I would agree with you. I have some CCI primers (very few left now) circa 1970 that were stacked neatly in 10 rows of 10, one primer stacked on another, and nary but a tiny slip of cardboard between rows. THOSE would undoubtely go fast and hard.

But geez, the spacing in the Federals is enormous, and other manufacturers aren't too far off.

Here's a box of those old CCI's, if you're interested.

This is how they used to be packed in the 70's (ish).



(They still work just fine, by the way)