Storing ammunition - pros, cons or otherwise.

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Wesson Smith

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This post of mine dovetails with other discussions of late regarding ammo stored within our dwellings. If this is redundant, I would ask our esteemed moderators to delete it or move it.

I have a fairly significant cache. Everything from .22LR to .45 ACP, .223 and 7.62x39. I store all of my ammo in surplus ammo cans. Lots of them. I keep them stored in a cool, dry basement, away from windows or other potential exit points. I was particularly interested in comments on the earlier thread regarding the "nut" that supposedly stored 1M rounds in his house. I found no useful information as to how ammunition reacts in a house fire, under intense temperatures. Am I exercising due dilegence in my storage methods, or do others have more helpful suggestions?
 
I keep them stored in a cool, dry basement


That is where I keep most of my ammo, except a small amount in the den closet. Mine is in mostly plastic boxes where I put them when done reloading. I keep my factory ammo for my carry guns in the origonal boxes. Jim.
 
Mines in my garage, standard issue ammo cans. The cans have an air opening behind them so they get good circulation and they are right next to a door so if it is necessary to chuck them outside the door is right there.
 
I don't recall where I saw this, but...several years ago, an ammo sales business "donated" a medium-sized trailer (shipping-type) and several pallets of ammo to a fire department, for a comprehensive research test. Half of the ammo was in G.I. steel ammo cans, and the other half was in wood crates. The interior of the trailer (and the ammo) was doused with some sort of flammible liquid, then set on fire. The door to the trailer was closed, but the trailer was not air-tight.

Less than 25% of the ammo actually cooked off! The steel ammo cans fared better than the wood crates AND the steel cans helped to contain the shrapnel and detonation of the rounds (If I'm not mistaken, most of the ammo CASES exploded, with only a few bullets that were propelled from the cases).

The thin steel sheeting of the cargo trailer was charred by the fire, and there were a few minor dents in the sheeting, but NO holes!

I spoke with my brother-in-law, who is an engineer on a city fire department, about ammo cook-offs. He said that (A) the fire would have to be extremely intense, (B) that ammo in the chamber or cylinder of a firearm might detonate and cause bullets to be propelled, but (C) properly stored ammo (and he specifically stated STEEL cans) is not much of an "issue", danger-wise.

Sunlight, heat, moisture and chemical compounds can "compromise" loaded ammo. It's best to keep it stored in a cool, dry, chemical-free and dark environment. Store it ABOVE concrete flooring, for moisture might be able to seep into the storage container. Air circulation tends to keep the moisture down, so don't store the containers against walls (especially exterior walls). Basements or garages, as long as they're relatively cool and dry all year 'round, are fine. Attic storage COULD create a problem, due to the heat from the interior of the house rising into the attic and being "captured" there. If you ever climb into your attic during the hot summer months, you'll know what I mean.
 
Thanks for the replies, and thanks for your detailed response, DesertShooter. Much appreciated.
 
Kinda tough for those of us in Las Vegas. Most houses do not have a basement, and garages get pretty hot in the summer unless they're climate controlled.

I guess I'll have to move my ammo cabinet into the house.
 
I live in Florida, so I have no basement. I am a little leary about the long-term effect of humidity in my garage, so I plan to put my ammo cabinet in an air-conditioned storage room off of my garage. So far, my stash is limited to 1000 rounds of 7.62x39, 100 round of CCI Mini-Mag .22LR, 200 rounds of CCI Stinger.22LR, 200 rounds of Remington Gold-Dot .22LR and 30 rounds of .380. I definitely need to work on that.
 
Don't store ammo in magazines. It puts the ammo under pressure similar to a gun barrel. Loose ammo will not harm a thing, it will actually be the case, and not the bullet, that will go flying (and do very little damage).
 
I use the cheaper gun safes to store ammo in. You have seen them at Wally World or KMart. StackOn, or Sentinal brands. These are the kind that lock with a single barrel key.
I frame them inside with 1x1s, and put in a shelf or two. You can store a LOT of ammo in one of these.
 
Kinda tough for those of us in Las Vegas.
Click to expand...

I converted 2 closets by installing Gorilla Racks in them and keep my ammo on those. I don't want my ammo out in the extremes of hot and cold and that seems to work pretty well.
 
I can't wait until I move out of South Florida so I can have a basement.

Plus the humidity down here isn't good for ammo.

So far I store my ammo in Plano ammo boxes (plastic boxes with O-ring seals) and two large Zorb-it desicant+anti-corrosion bags on each side. I only have about 2,000 .40 GDHP's stored and about 4,200 rounds of .22lr, but I'm working on getting my hands on more before prices spiral totally out of control (or some tax is implemented).

As for a fire issue - my take is this - you probably want your ammo stored in one place away from flammable objects if possible. A corner of a basement is good, even better would be a closet in the basement.

You don't want it in a firesafe though because what that will mean is the temperature will get to the point where the ammo goes off and likely all the ammo would go off simultaneously because of the oven-like effect. Whether or not that would make for an explosion or just a big bang with lots of fire - I don't know. Non-black-powder is just a flammable, so I'd venture to say it wouldn't fully blow up - but it still would be the best idea IMO.

I think you should keep the ammo in ammo-cans with desicant for storage purposes, and also by taking the modular approach like that, if the ammo does go up, it will just pop-away like popcorn, and if that's underground - who cares? You know? You'd care - sure, but at least there'd be no realistic fear of bullets shooting everywhere in the neighborhood or something like that.

You can't 100% fireproof anything unfortunately. Just keep it away from flammable materials, have a fire-extinguisher, and if possible a fire-sprinkler system. If the ammo is stored in water-tight cans with desicant, and you have a fire-sprinkler, it should be fine.
 
No, the underground bunker would be next to the house. Bomb proof and covered in tin-foil! (so the aliens can't use their X-ray vision) :neener:

LOL
 
I only keep a small "ready" supply of ammo in the basement. Most of my ammo is stored in the heated/cooled shop out in the barn. While I don't expect a fire in either structure, I would prefer not to have exploding rounds discouraging any firefighters who are trying to save our house. If they don't want to save the barn, too bad, but the value is in the house.

Most of the ammunition in the basement is in military surplus ammo cans, and it is in the Safe Room (Kansas has tornadoes!) where we also keep our "valuable" papers (wills, tax returns, etc.). Eight inches of reinforced concrete floor, walls and ceiling with metal doors - nothing is totally fire, (or tornado) proof, but we try. We have a gun cabinet in the safe room as well.

The barn is a wood-frame structure with metal siding and roof and a concrete floor. Again, not fireproof but also not an old firewood-kindling farm barn either. All ammo is in metal containers. Some of the old milsurp stuff is still in the original metal cans. The rest is in metal military surplus ammo cans. In addition to the ammo, I also keep my milsurp gun "collection" in the shop.

We don't keep the shop heated or cooled all of the time, so there is a substantial temperature fluctation. I am contemplating getting an old non-operating chest freezer as an ammo locker and moving the stash out of the shop and into the open barn area. My thought is that the insulating qualities of a freezer might dampen out the temperature swings that are detrimental to stored ammo. If placed by one of the metal-sheathed walls and away from the shop, it could provide a modicum of fire protection as well. Might need more than one - can't have too much ammo and the price just keep going up.........(Buy cheap/Stack deep)
 
Basements are damp. Ammo will survive "damp" -- but "cool dry" is a better choice. Condensation is always an issue. Ammo cans are designed to keep ammo dry, but they're not intended to keep condensation out.


As a fireman . . . we train locally for car fires, from crashes. On item of concern is "loaded bumpers" . . . shock absorbing features in the crash system. Air bags are an issue.

But we get reminded repeatedly . . . "Locally, most vehicles have ammo in them." We also get drilled on hazardous materials at a fire -- fuel, diesel, propane tanks. But ammo stores are an issue too.

Any time we respond to a fire scene, we want to know what's stored in the structure and if it's dangerous. Fuel and ammo are concerns.

Basement is a bad place to store ammo, unless it's a "daylight basement" . . . and even then it's got more damp than the ground level floors.
 
"I wouldn't know ... all I have is about half of a 50 rd box of .22 LR ... really "

Me too. I shot the last of the old $15/brick Wolf MT and $18 ME .22s last week - all 3 cases. Really. :cool:

John
 
Keep mine (as shown) in a basement crawl space. The space has a concrete floor, and the ammo is stored - some in cans and some just in boxes - on shelves against an interior wall. I keep a dehumidifier running in the space 24/7/365, though it only really finds any moisture to remove from the air in the warmer months. Pretty much qualifies as a "cool, dry place" and keeps the stash out of sight. So far no issues.
 

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Live in an apartment with no basement or storage (that I'd trust) so my rather limited ammo supplies rest in the bottom of the RSC I have.

I do have either plastic or metal ammo boxes for each type, mostly just for organization reasons. If TSHTF I'd have to be extremely conservative about my resources but you can only do what you can do.

I feel like my metal ammo cans are much more secure than the plastic ones. The gaskets on the plastic ones I own are pretty darn wimpy.
 
I've never bothered much with ammo cans or airtight ammo storage, although I do have a dozen or so that came with the ammo. Even going back 40 or 50 years to the days of unairconditioned houses in Baltimore and D.C., we just didn't worry about it and it never made any difference that we could see. My bedroom still isn't airconditioned (by choice) and the old ammo does just fine in the closet or under the bed in its original boxes.

My uncle stores his ammo under the basement steps and some of it is well over 20 years old.

John
 
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