So I Am Cleaning Out The Safe......

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AKElroy

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This is the finished product. I found ammo I did not know I had, and shame of all shames, a box full of random rounds of various calibers, weights, manufacturers. Am I the only one that comes home from a hunt / range with random rounds that never find their way back into the right box? Well, that "various" box is nearing 800 rounds.

Anyway, as always happens, I start consolidating all the ammo. I wind up with easily 10 boxes of 30-30 marked "various", and 4,000+ rounds of various 7.62x39, with another case of Golden Bear on the way next week. Lord knows why I thought I needed it. With only one AK to feed it to, I feel like I need another one. Something cheap, a bit of a beater, so I am thinking one of the newer WASR10's. I can't really justify the expense without getting rid of something. That, and I don't have any room for another purchase.

Something has to go......The only thing I am certain of us this; whatever I sell that has not been touched in a bazillion years, I will immediately regret getting rid of.

Am I the only one that winds up needing another gun after cleaning a safe that is already stuffed with stuff?
 

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What you need to do is get rid of all the 7.62 you need to send it to me. And my wife will tell you I always need one more gun, when m safe gets full I'll need another safe. :D
I'll also share a trick you may feel free to disregard. Take a 5/16 wooden dowel say roughly 20" long and put it down the barrel of the AK so the top will stick out of the barrel and rest in a slot. It helps me keep things nice and neat, well it did before the boating accident. :uhoh:
 
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I just started a thread about re-organizing after being seriously disorganized for a while. So, no, you're definitely not the only one.
 
I cleaned out the gun-closet as well. This is a little storage area under the stairs where I keep shotgun shells, cleaning supplies, tools & doodads. In organizing a plastic drawer unit, I found stuff I have purchased again because I couldn't remember having bought it before. What a mess it was. Just the trash that accumulated over the years in that little space filled three complete garbage bags. Every box/bag/packing stuff for every purchase was in that closet. I found three cases of my pet Remmey 8-shot for dove season. Why on earth I bought the extra cases without looking to see what I had, just stupid.

I had brass in easily 10 different bags & boxes, I have that all sorted now. I either need to start reloading, or sell the brass to offset the ammo cost. I probably found 2,000 once-fired 30-30 & .308 brass.
 
Well, I for one haven't.
Because I Would Never keep that much ammo in a safe in the first place.

The guns in the safe are there 'for safe-keeping' I presume?
And it's probably a pretty good fire-proof safe for a good reason, right?

So why would you want to fill it half full of self-oxygenating smokeless powder filled ammo that will burn everything in the safe to ashes in the event of a house fire that would not have otherwise done irreparable damage to the contents?

And possibly blow up the safe like a big pipe bomb if the tiny crack in the door can't release the pressure from the 'cook-off' ammo faster then pressure is being generated by it?

Store your ammo in steel GI ammo cans.
That's what they are designed for.

Or a metal wall locker that is able to release pressure faster then it is building up.

rc
 
If it were my gunsafe, I would tip it up, 90° clockwise ... but that's just me. ;)

I gave up storing QTYs of ammo in my (first) gunsafe within a year after getting my 03FFL ... and months before I had to re-up that C&R, I needed to buy my 2nd gunsafe (duplicate of the 1st). I decided to draw the line at 2 ... so now I have multiple longguns (sans bolts or trigger groups) living outside of the gunsafes.
 
RC, that is a good point, and one I had never considered. I have 6 full GI ammo cans in that safe, plus all the stacked ammo. There is probably 9,000 rounds of center-fire ammo in that safe. I figured in case of a fire, it was the best place for it. The under-stair storage is in our utility room, and the washer/dryer run constantly in our home full of kiddos, so I don't really want to store ammo in that moist environment. I need to think about where I could put some of that ammo.....
 
Put it in GI ammo cans with good lid seals, and it don't matter where you put it.
Or, leave it the unopened sardine cans most com-block ammo comes in.
It still doesn't matter where you put it.

(as long as it is not in the attic, or lawn storage building in the sun & snow.)

Your average kiddie can't lift one, or get it open if they wanted too!

GI ammo cans are hermetically sealed against moisture, or a flood covering them for days.
And they are designed from the get-go to release pressure before they can become pipe bombs!

Shown here in my reasonably damp basement when we get 4" of rain in half a day.
image.jpg

rc
 
I need to think about where I could put some of that ammo.....
Click to expand...


When I had asked a local FD about the safe storage of Coleman camp fuel (one gallon tins of naphtha), they said, "just don't stash it underneath a stairwell"... one doesn't want to cut off any escape routes between floors.

AK, thanks for your post! I have most of my ammo stored elsewhere other than the safe... but there are a few, immediately-accessible rounds in it. I might move those...

Thanks to rcmodel's post, I'm going to stash all of my ammo in a gun storage locker... and eventually, in a second safe. And with all due respect to my colleague rc, a "pipe bomb"? If I remember correctly, no; but it's been some time since I watched this video. I suspect most of us have already seen it.

SAAMI video on ammunition and fire fighter safety
 
Yeah. What RC said. While my actual gun cabinet (actually, I re-worked a closet in the master bedroom) is kept neat, the ammo storage was getting out of control. Ammo storage is in the basement, along with the reloading bench and supplies. The majority of it is stored in .50 caliber and 20 mm cans. I had a 40 mm can, but gave it to my cousin. Sorta regret that now.
 
200apples
The SAAMI video you linked was of ammo burning unconfined, in the open, in a parking lot.
In it's factory packaging, designed to slow down internal temperature of all the ammo cooking off at nearly the same time.

NOT sealed in an air-tight fire safe.
In a house fire, internal safe temp will gradually rise until All the Ammo starts cooking off at the same time.
Releasing a huge amount of expanding gas in a very short time.

Believe me.
If that much ammo lit up in a sealed fire safe?
You would have the all the makings of a very large pipe-bomb.

Gas pressure from the burning powder simply could not escape through the cracks in the door fast enough to relieve the pressure inside the safe.

rc
 
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Happens all the time. How else would you have auctions from estates of dead guys with items that have never been fired... Heck, I even have more than a few of those. Also, I bet if I looked hard, I would find at least a couple of thousand rounds of ammo that I forgot about, and I'm not talking about 22LR.
 
NOT sealed in an air-tight fire safe.
In a house fire, internal safe temp will gradually rise until All the Ammo starts cooking off at the same time.
Releasing a huge amount of expanding gas in a very short time.

Believe me.
If that much ammo lit up in a sealed fire safe?
You would have the all the makings of a very large pipe-bomb.

Gas pressure from the burning powder simply could not escape through the cracks in the door fast enough to relieve the pressure inside the safe.
Click to expand...


Yea.. I thought about it for awhile; what you said... AFTER I posted. lol.

I've been so intent on another safe... just for ammunition...

Thanks to this thread and to you, sir... I'm going to save some money and instead simply purchase a StackOn or two... simple, sturdy metal lockers for ammo. Thanks again!

:)
 
If it were my gunsafe, I would tip it up, 90° clockwise ... but that's just me.
Click to expand...

My thought as well. I was wondering how he keeps everything from falling over.
 
Oh man, is this thread ever pertinent! I decided (OK, my wife decided) that I needed to organize the guns and gear so we would have some idea of what is on hand. Just getting started and already found:

thousands of brass cases, some still unfired,

an extra 10,000 primers I had forgotten about,

a complete Lee turret press still in the box,

shot and shotshell components, enough for 100s of rounds.

There's more but you get the idea. This is embarrassing. At least now I know what my autumn project will be.

RC, I like your GI can arrangement. It's safer and better organized. I have the shelf space, now to keep an eye open for them.

Jeff
 
RC, in your picture, what are the white storage containers you have there from? Would be a perfect size to store brass in.

I 2nd what RC said. I store all my ammo in cans. And you don't need any of those dessicant packages either.
 
Am I the only one that comes home from a hunt / range with random rounds that never find their way back into the right box?
Click to expand...

Yep. Mainly with shotshells. I have over a case and half of partial brands and loads of 12 ga. shells leftover from various bird hunts.

I probably found 2,000 once-fired 30-30 & .308 brass.
Click to expand...

it just so happens I have some room for some of those unwanted 30-30 brass.

Store your ammo in steel GI ammo cans.
That's what they are designed for.
Click to expand...

G.I. Ammo cans are great. Not only do they hold a lot of ammo but they stack neatly.
However them things sure are heavy when they are full of ammo.
 
When you remove the ammo, you'll have room for some more handguns, or a broken down AR or two.
 
USGI ammo storage cans make excellent ammo storage containers (DUH. :))

I am currently using (in the basement) a bit over 100 of them in that way; ~60 .50cal, ~40.30cal and ~10 20mm.

Whenever I break open a non-resealable case of ammo (I always endeavor to use up whatever is in the ammo cans first), the unused goes into one (or more) of the few spare ammo cans with a Contents Note taped to the front.

My original 8' gun-/reloading-bench that I built between my 2 gunsafes sports 33 .50cal & 15 .30cal such occupied ammo cans on the lower shelf. With all of that weight, that bench doesn't move. ;)
 
Follow RC's advice and store ammunition in ammunition cans on shelves or stacked on the floor away from entrance/exit paths. It will free up precious space in the safe and ammo stored in ammo cans are no hazard unless you've stored them where they'd affect exitways.

To address the concern about exploding safes and ammo- Unless your safe is waterproof against a flood, and there are very few that are, they're also not air tight and you have no possibility that pressure will build up. Also, ammunition will not cook off simultaneously and the pressure will not be trapped in the safe.

Now, all this talk about fires and exploding ammunition is really a very minor problem opposed to the sauna your safe interior will turn into in a fire. Look at some of the threads on fires and safes in Accessories and you'll learn that the fire rating on most gun containers isn't what we commonly think they are. They are rated for too short a period of time most will experience in a fully involved house fire and the temperatures they allow to the contents to reach during their rated time is high enough to ruin your guns without additional precautions. Safes capable of protecting your guns against the consequences of a fire are more expensive than most of us can pay unless we get very lucky and get a used fire safe big enough to convert to a gun safe, BUT we can place our gun lockers in places where they'd be exposed to the lowest temps in a house fire. Also, if you're going to put your safe in the basement, make sure that the basement won't flood when the fire department gets there and turns the hoses on the place to drown the fire. Even then, you probably want to put it on a plinth to keep it above the standing water in the basement.

That's a long winded way to indicate that there are a lot of considerations for protecting your valuable firearms from theft and fire and water and we have a couple of experts who contribute to threads on this in Accessories that everyone should read.
 
I did something very similar.
However I removed all the ammo from my Amsec BF gun safe and bought several ammo cans.
I also purchased a job box and placed the ammo cans inside of it and now even the ammo is locked up without worrying about a fire and what the cooking ammo would do to my firearms inside the gun safe.
The job box is also in the same room as the safe so things like temperature control and humidity is no worry.
 
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