Purging air in ammo box

[jmorris]

When I was a teenager, the owner of the local welding shop showed me how he created an inert environemnt in gas tanks so that he would weld them. He had a small Briggs & Stratton engine and had a long tube running from its muffler. He would start it, put the tube over the tank's inlet, wait a few seconds until the tank was full of carbon monoxide and then start welding.

My Grandfather did this except with the exhaust from the engine of the welder for many years, until one blew up on him. Didn't kill him but the practice was stopped. When I have needed to weld on a tank I usually fill with water to reduce the volume as much as possible then use argon to purge.

For long term storage I actually prefer to leave the powder in its original container. If I have it loaded up in something, now I have to keep track of all the load data, worry about tarnish and if things get tight and I have a new toy I want to play with, I am out of luck because I have already tied up what could otherwise be used. Then you have to start another "where's all the ____" threads.

 

[Big7]

No need

Correct-u-moon-do. NO NEED. If the seal is good.

Military don't do it. No reason for you to.

If you are really concerned for serious, long term storage (many, many years)
Take the individual boxes and give them a quick dip in some paraffin wax.
No, it's not hot enough to hurt anything. Put back in the ammo can and you have all you will ever need.

 

[Swampman]

Installing valves in perfectly good containers does nothing but create a weak spot that's more likely to cause leaks/problems than it is to help.

Use GI ammo cans with good gaskets, throw a desiccant pack and maybe a little VCI paper in and you'll be fine.

If you really want an oxygen free atmosphere, you can toss a couple oxygen absorber packs in and they'll eat up most of the O2 to give you a nitrogen atmosphere in the can.

The most important thing is to store in a cool, dry place without a lot of temperature fluctuation and to leave the cans sealed until you decide to use the ammo.

 

[Drail]

Use fresh dessicant packs and don't seal the cans on a damp humid day. Seal it when the relative humidity is low. Do it inside your house if you have a dehumidifier or an air conditioner running. If you have a forced air gas furnace running it will be pretty dry in your house (unless you are also running a humidifier) Don't do it in the garage on a rainy day. If the relative humidity is below 35% to 40% you shouldn't have any problems. Moisture is only a problem if it's in the air when you seal the cans. I wouldn't worry too much about it anyway. I have G.I. cans I sealed up on a nice dry day back in 1995 with the ammo in zip loc bags, no dessicant and stored in both myair conditioned house and an unheated garage. All of the ammo looks and shoots like I made it yesterday. The G.I. cans work very well as long as you don't trap moisture laden air inside them. Ammunition is more durable than you might think.

 

[wally]

Use fresh dessicant packs and don't seal the cans on a damp humid day. Seal it when the relative humidity is low.

Around here that'll be when they serve sno-cones in hell. Y'all are way over-thinking this, is 15+ years not "long term" enough for you? See my post above, I did nothing but load 'em to fill the can, close it, and then set them on a shelf in the garage. I don't think its ever gotten below freezing in my garage (owned the house since '78) but temps over 100 happen every summer typically 10 days or more.

 

[fguffey]

And if I had an interest in reducing moisture inside of a can with a good seal I would heat the can and then close the lid. 10 years later and If I still had an interest in knowing how it worked I would open the container and expect that swoosh sound.

F. Guffey

 

[doubleh]

I recently gave my grandson a box of 30/06 Remington Core-Loct ammo in the factory cardboard box that had been sitting on a shelf of my open front ammo storage cabinet for 30+ years. The ammo was still bright and shiny. I included a belt pouch with 10 more rounds of about the same age that had been closed up in a gunsafe. It was nice and bright too.

 

[bersaguy]

So, what I ended up doing is bagging up my freshly minted rounds with the load data on the bag and putting those bags in gi cans with some silica packs. I've learned over the years that the oils/sweat on my hands is really corrosive,especially to brass. So now I wear nitrile gloves when handling any of my components or loaded rounds until it's time to use them. It's been cool and dry here for the past few days, which is a rarity. I figure I should be in good shape for quite a while. Thank you for all the good info