Long Term Ammo Storage

[Parks2055]

Hello All,
I want to start loading qty. for storage.
I guess it would be best to cycle through my stock to keep it fresh, but are there any tips or things to beware of when storing for long term?
Is it better to store with bullets up or down?
Are rounds shipped from the factory bullets down to keep the powder out of the charge hole?
Thx,

 

[rcmodel]

Store in surplus steel GI ammo cans in a cool dry place and ammo will last forever.

Is it better to store with bullets up or down?
Are rounds shipped from the factory bullets down to keep the powder out of the charge hole?

Seriously?
No, it makes absolutely no differance which way it is stored.
Powder in the flash hole doesn't make any differance whatsoever either.

No matter how it was stored, you can't get it from the box to the magazine to the chamber without it getting in the flash hole anyway.

And assuming you charge the cases mouth-up?
Well, you see where the powder charge went when you loaded it, right?

rc

 

[X-Rap]

I store my bulk ammo loose in 30 & 50 cal metal ammo cans, I don't believe it matters which way they lay but the cans seal good so moisture can't get in.

 

[dragon813gt]

Ammo cans. They were designed for a reason. If you won't be moving it often the plastic ones work fine. Problem is when you load them up the top will separate from the bottom and break the seal when moving them. GI cans are great as long as the seals are good. Buying them new is expensive. And the used ones don't always have an intact gasket so you run the risk of buying a bad one.


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[CMV]

I put mine on stripper clips & then used FoodSaver bags & vacuum sealed them.

Worked well, but i was out of FoodSaver brand bags & used a different brand which aren't as strong so I think the corners of the stippers will eventually pierce the bag if moved around a lot.

I put a little piece of paper on each side (facing out) with the qty, load data, & date. Poor man's battle pack.

 

[weeniewawa]

I store them in ammo cans

I think the manufacturers put them bullet down in the packaging just so they are easter to grab and load than bullet up

and they only really have those two choices to save as much space as possible

 

[rcmodel]

Anyone old enough to remember when handgun ammo came in smaller 50 round boxes packed every other round up & down?

No big box with a Styrofoam or molded plastic insert.
Just an open box inside a closed box with 50 rounds up & down in it.

rc

 

[Walkalong]

Yep. Hadn't thought about that in years. Made it so they could fit in a slightly smaller package. I still have half a box of .38 S&W like that.

 

[GLOOB]

I actually made some "boxes" out of index cards to do that. I got the sizes just right. The same size box will hold 50 9mm rounds (5x10) or 32 45ACP rds (4x8). A slightly different shaped box of slightly larger area will hold 45 40SW rounds. I used a 3-sided guide to hold the boxes stable until they were filled. Course, this is a huge waste of time, and while it packs 'em in tight for long term storage, a thick plastic bag works just as well for stowing in the range bag.

Nowadays, I double bag them with a heatsealer in 50-100 rds per bag, and drop 'em in an ammo can. That way I can put multiple calibers and/or bullet types in a can, and I can rotate stock.

I even tried wrapping masses of bullets in stretch wrap. I guess that might end up something like a vacuum sealer. But I prefer loosely packed sealed bags, cuz they pack better in an ammo can or a range bag.

The most interesting way I packed bullets was kinda like a combination of the "old school up/down" box and stretch plastic. I packed 50 9mm rounds up/down in a collapsible box with the sides connected only with tape and bottom completely free. Then wrapped the whole thing in stretch plastic. Then I cut a slit in the corners to cut the tape and to pull out the sides and bottom of the box. Then wrapped a couple more times. I was left with a perfect rectangular brick of ammo wrapped just in a few layers of plastic. It was pretty neat, I gotta say. This was just an experiment, mind you. If someone could invent a machine to do that, maybe with heatshrink plastic, it would be really, really kewl. I couldn't figure out how to make that happen, unfortunately.

 

[JohnM]

Yeah, first time I saw the new modern boxes I wondered why they were wasting all the packaging.
Course the first time I saw plastic shotgun shells, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
Things were kinda behind the times where we lived.

 

[Twmaster]

Storage might matter depending on the ammo. My uncle has an old Remington rolling block in .32 rimfire. All the old Remington ammo that was standing upright in the box failed to fire. I suspect wax or some such worked it's way down to the bottom of the case and fouled the primer.

Like others here I store my ammo in USGI ammo cans.

Here's my continuing effort to fill a 50 Cal can with 9x19. That's 1200 rounds. The can is now almost full with just shy of 2000 rounds....

 

[rcmodel]

I suspect wax or some such worked it's way down to the bottom of the case and fouled the primer

Yes, I failed to mention that.

Lead bullet lube can melt and migrate down into the powder and primer if stored in very high temperatures.

But it is not a problem if the ammo isn't 75 years old and stored improperly most of those years.

rc

 

[Slamfire]

Heat is the worst enemy to ammunition as heat accelerates the deterioration of gunpowder.

One common gunpowder stability test uses heat. Gunpowder is tested in ovens at 150 F. If the gunpowder fumes within 30 days it is tested for stabilizer content. If the stabilizer is less than 20% the ammunition lot is scrapped.

Water is not good as it interacts with the powder grains. Water is a polar molecule and will interact, breaking the NO double bonds in nitrocellulose, as it evaporates and condenses. When gunpowder deteriorates it outgases NOx. Water ions in the air will react with NOx and one of the by products is nitric acid gas.

I store my pistol ammunition in GI ammo cans and they are stored in a cool dry area.

 

[cashking]

Is it really necessary to put in an ammo can if you were planning to use it within 3 years? How the heck do the retailer store them? Just stacked on the shelves I bet. Are we being too paranoid?

 

[JohnM]

When I was younger I had old ammo cans coming out of my ears.
Over the years they just went away and what few I have left are used for other things.
I keep ammo in the old cardboard boxes it comes in as long as they kinda hold up, some in those neat plastic ammo boxes, and gobs in plastic freezer boxes, coffee cans, whatever is handy.

 

[Blue68f100]

I have a combo of stuff. I keep my reloads in vac seal bags but not hard vac. I want the bullets capable of moving to get a flat even lay. I package either a 100 rounds MTM box of 9mm or 200 bare. With 45 I do the same thing. Having them in bag's/boxes makes it easy to rotate stock. Since I have a load limit on my bad back I can't pickup up a full ammo can so this allows me to move them if necessary.

 

[Walkalong]

All my rainy day ammo is in ammo cans. A lot of my ammo for the range is in ammo cans. I fill the bags/boxes/etc that I bring to the range out of them. Anything loaded in bulk (500 or more) is put in ammo cans for starters. Some is in plastic ammo boxes.

This was a first aid kit originally, but it has a rubber seal and locks tight just like an ammo can.

 

[GLOOB]

Is it really necessary to put in an ammo can if you were planning to use it within 3 years? How the heck do the retailer store them? Just stacked on the shelves I bet. Are we being too paranoid?

This is the reloading forum. We're talking about loose rounds. I put mine in an ammo can, because I don't have a machine that boxes them up for me. With an ammo can, you can put a lot of rounds in a small footprint, rather than sprawling a mound of ammo across a shelf. Replace ammo can with any sturdy container, same thing.

I have a bunch of MTM ammo containers. But after you have so many of those, they start taking up too much space.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I put mine in gallon ziplock bags and store them in a rolling tool chest that I keep under my reloading bench.

 

[loose noose]

I've stored mine in .50 cal ammo boxes, as well as the MTM plastic boxes, as a matter of fact a couple of weeks ago I found 200 rounds of .45acp that I reloaded in March of '78 in plastic boxes out in my garage where the temperatures get up to 120 degrees in the summer time. I took them out and shot all 200 rounds without a hitch thru my XD and my Colt Gold Cup. Accuracy wasn't all that bad either.

 

[FROGO207]

I put my ammo in quart Zip-Lock freezer bags along with a piece of paper with the load specs. Then I put that in any of my various sized ammo cans for safe storage. BTW the ammo can is supposed to safely contain the rounds in case of a fire as well as keep them dry otherwise. Anything larger than a 50 CAL can will be really hard to move when full of ammo.