ammo can condensation - concern?

[JohnBT]

Moisture doesn't hurt ammo anyway, not that I've ever noticed and I grew up in a time when nobody I knew had air conditioning at home or in their cars. And no, we didn't live in an arid state. Most of centarl and eastern Virginia is sub-tropical. Humid sub-tropical.

Ammo lasted for decades just stored on a shelf or in a drawer. No ammo cans, just in the original cardboard box.

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Virginia‎

Most of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge Mountains,the southern part of the Shenandoah Valley, and the Roanoke Valley, has a humid subtropical climate ..."

 

[Mauser lover]

grab some drywall scraps, heat them in your oven (while she who must be obeyed is away), then wrap them in foil. Voila, inexpensive desiccant.

 

[Tirod]

Most ammo, especially military crimped ammo, will resist the affects of the environment for a long time. Boxed and crated, stored in vented ammo bunkers, it lasts for about two decades max.

One of the issues is that the gunpowder begins to deteriorate, the other is that the can, however well sealed, will suck air into it as it cools. That builds up moisture and condensation.

Try this: heat a brick and stick it in an ammo can, seal it up, then dump it in a bucket of water. Check in the morning. No moisture? Great, you got a good one. Doesn't happen every time, the gasket has to resist 15psi and after a number of cycles, aging, and the affects of the ammo breathing volatile gases into the enclosed space, they weaken and let in humid air. When it hits the cool ammo, it condenses.

Don't arbitrarily assume ammo cans are 100%, we sell surplus after a decade of storage because they aren't absolutely guaranteed. They are just a can and a seal made by the lowest contract bidder, right?

You can and will find moisture in them, accumulating from all those cycles. Happens all the time. It's why the stuff has to be periodically checked and repacked, and the bad ammo demilled and sold for scrap.

 

[doc2rn]

Everything that is sent to DERMO gets hit with a firehose to wash any possible foreign contaminants. The same thing happened to us when we reboarded the USN-2 SAIPAN LHA, every stinking time we came out of country.