Climate Control of Reloading Area

[Soupy44]

I come to from a smallbore background where we try to keep our ammo at room temperature or below. I'm getting into service rifle and just bought a Dillon 550.

I'm trying to figure out where to put my setup and two leading ideas are beside my washer and dryer, or in a walk in storage area by my bedroom. I'm just worried about extra heat ruining powder or primers. The washer/dryer is climate controlled but has obvious radiant heat. The storage area is not climate controlled, not really even insulated.

Thanks.

 

[Sam1911]

Are you asking if temperature changes matter? Or for advice on how to control the temperatures in your spaces?

 

[Soupy44]

I'm wondering if anyone thinks the excessive heat will have an adverse effect on my loads.

 

[Sam1911]

Hmmm... well, as a target shooter looking for high precision, you'd want to minimize those things. But, the higher precision is required the more any changes would be noticeable. For a benchrest shooter, this might be a really big deal. For a highpower shooter? Maybe not so much.

I'd believe the heat would have more detrimental effects over long term storage periods, with powders decomposing faster perhaps over the course of years stored under high temperature conditions.

That's just my gut feeling though. I tend to think that if the rooms are comfortable enough to work in (meaning something between 60 deg. and 95 deg.F, or so) your materials aren't going to suffer any rapid changes. ... but I don't have any data to back that up.

 

[Walkalong]

In general heat is bad for powder and primers. In either environment they would not last as long as they would in a cool dry area, but they would still last for years.

Of the two areas, I would pick the washer dryer area due to its being climate controlled, even with the radiant heat, vs the uncontrolled space which will not only get hotter, but be subject to more temperature changes.

Keep the primers and powder as far from radiant heat as possible in the area and you should be fine.

 

[ranger335v]

"I'm wondering if anyone thinks the excessive heat will have an adverse effect on my loads."

I wonder what you consider "excessive heat." Any heat YOU can stand won't hurt powder or primers.

 

[LiveLife]

Have you considered a portable castered reloading bench? I currently use a 2'x3' rolling bench that I allows me to reload anywhere in the house.

I can resize even the heavier walled military .308 cases without moving the bench.

 

[Soupy44]

For my smallbore ammo, I consider anything over 80 excessive.

The problem with by the washer/dryer is the lack of space. The storage area is easily 5x the space. I could stage in my closet and store components there. Once I get to loading for Bullseye and IPSC, this will be a pain, but maybe by then I'll have a bigger place.

 

[Tim the student]

Personally, I think the heat of your rifle and the outside temp you are firing in will have much more bearing on your loads than the heat at which it was produced or stored in.

 

[HOWARD J]

I have Ammo that I reloaded in 1986--reloaded & stored beside the furnace since 1986.
I shoots just like I reloaded it today.

 

[LiveLife]

For years, I used the 2'x6' bench (stand up height) mounted to the garage wall and had most of my components and supplies stored on/top of it. Problem was that I had to adjust when I could reload if I didn't want to reload in the heat/cold.

Now, most of my components and supplies are kept in the walk-in closet in the reloading room (door left of the bench in the picture) and I only use the garage bench for sorting brass and tumbling. The rolling reloading bench is "sit down height" so I reload on an office chair in the comforts of AC/heating.

If you are loading match grade/competition loads, you'll need to focus/concentrate and produce higher volume of rounds, which means standing for a long time. This will be difficult in the unventilated closet and next to noisy washer/dryer.

Your match target shot groups will depend on the quality of ammunition you produce. It's your castle. Do yourself a favor and find a comfortable location that is well ventilated and comfortable - then you'll be in much better shape when you are at the start box and start buzzer goes off.

 

[Gigs]

Humidity

Humidity is going to matter more than heat, I'd think. I'd be wary of the washer/dryer room suggestion if the dryer doesn't have really good exhaust.

Of course if you don't leave powder sitting in your powder measure then it's less of an issue.