Best way to store ammo: on end or side?

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Nando Aqui

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I'm in the process of organizing my ammo in a new cabinet, and wondered if there is a preferred way to store the boxes, clips, etc.

Given a choice, and whether the ammo is in boxes, clips (that is, 5 or 10 round stripper clips), Garand enblocks, and even loaded magazines, which is better, or does it make a difference:

To store the ammo such that the cartridges...
A. Rest on their sides
B. On end, with the bullets up
C. On end, with the bullets down

Or perhaps, whichever way makes the most efficient use of the available space?

Thanks!

Alex
 
Well, for wine, you'd store the bottle so that it sloped slightly downward from base to cork, so that the wine covers the cork and keeps it wet. Applying the same principle to ammo...

:neener:
 
Keep it dry (low humidity). Stand it however it fits best.
 
Rotate it out over time

Just like stored foods, etc., ammunition should be rotated out. Move the oldest items to the front, and always adding the newest items to the farthest point back.

Doc2005
 
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I have had older ammo, only about 25 or so years old, begin to deteriorate. It had been kept under cool and dry conditions too. It was a brand name ammo, S&W to be exact. Some 9mm stuff made in the 70s. S&W must have had a lot of quality control problems because this stuff was horrendous. Failures to fire, failrures to feed because the bullets would often get pushed back into the shell casings when feeding in semi-autos (that is ievery pistol I tried except my Berettas, they fed it flawlessly). Lead inside the bullet started to turn into a white flaky or crumbly substance almost as if it had come in contact with a corrosive. Not stuff I would buy for myself, but I got about 2,000 rounds for free. I sold a 1,000 rounds of it to a guy to whom I explained the problems before he made the purchase. He did not care because of the price at which I was selling it. I gave the rest away or shot it through my Berettas.

Maybe doc has something there about rotating ammo; I usually don't do it, but that stuff would have been better used up within a few years.

All the best,
Glenn B
 
Since John Titor's war is due to start this year (next year?) I'll have to add my vote for who cares? :D
 
Goofy remark -

Balance each round on it's tip (only possible during full moons {or was that new moons}) :evil:

It shouldn't matter unless you have so much ammuntion that cases on the bottom of the pile risk being deformed by the weight on top of them.

BTW Peter, I've heard the reason you cover the cork is to keep it from becoming moldy and the wine from spoiling as well as to prevent it from drying out and allowing air in that degrades the wine (but as you know we rarely have a bottle last more than a week so it's not a problem for us).
 
I buy hundreds of extra mags, and keep all my ammo in them. It will help stop the springs from expanding, causing feeding problems for my 11 year old grand daughter's kids. I unload them every few years(1983 was the last) to rest the springs, to stop contraction. I then reload them all. It works well. I store the mags. diagonally, because I can't make up my mind! :neener:
 
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