Storing ammunition - pros, cons or otherwise.

[mpmarty]

I've got two large older referigerators in my shop bought used. One is for powder the other for primers. All ammo is stored in 50cal ammo cans in my basement on wooden shelves off the floor.

 

[DC3-CVN-72]

I was a Damage Controlman "Firefighter" in the Navy on an Aircraft carier. One of my jobs was Flight Deck Crash Rescue. We were tought 1st. priority was ordanence, 2nd was the pilot, 3rd was the fire. First team on scene would cool the ordanence, second team in proxsimaty suits, the silver looking ones, would Rescue the pilot, third would consintrait on the fire. The reason that ordanence is 1st priority is that you don't want 1000 lb. bombs cooking off, killing the Rescue Team, the pilot, and starting a mass conflagration that might sink the ship. Ordanence is also given a set of priority's, largest to smallest. The smallest being small arms amunition. On my ship we had 10 .50 cal. Gun mounts in the catwalks. When underway the .50 cal. Amunition was stored in armored containers next to the Gun mounts. these were designed to contain the amunition even if it all cooked off. Even so, After a Flight Deck crash any .50 cal. storage container near the area was soaked, a fire watch was set, and E.O.D disposed of all the amunition.

 

[gezzer]

Nasty Jack, your Dept needs traing they are wrong and INCOMPETENT join the real world as they say NFPA, the US fire academy and all educated Fire depts proove yours is wrong. Do some research spreading rumors or non truths is wrong.

Retired Proffesional FF/Investigator from a Class A fire dept.

 

[Silver Bullet]

This has been discussed a lot here. I believe the concensus is that ammo in a fire is fairly safe because the most burning ammo will do is "pop": the bullet will push out of the cartridge and then the expanding gases will immediately dissipate in all directions without accelerating the bullet.

An exception would be a cartridge that is in the firing chamber of a loaded gun. If it sets off, it will accelerate down the barrel the same as if the primer was struck by the hammer.

I haven't verified any of this personally, so don't take my word for it !

 

[g5reality]

All of my ammo is kept in surpluss cans with silica gel packs.