Storing primers in ammo cans?

[RCB]

New to reloading.

So SAAMI says to not store primers in ammo can, but then again ammo cans are designed to store ammo, which has primers. I can understand why you don't want a pressurized container, but it's also good at protecting them from damage and moisture.

Also read not to store primers together. Well how many can be stored in one area? Considering we buy them in bricks of 1000, what's the limit? How far apart?

So what does everyone else do?

 

[George P]

I buy mine in sleeves of 5000 and simply leave them on a shelf for my shotgun primers. Smaller ones like rifle and pistol go in ammo cans on a shelf. The danger comes more from them banging around together.

 

[milsurpguy]

There's a youtube video of a guy shooting a case of pistol primers dumped into a Gatoraid bottle. It blows up like a stick of dynamite.
If they were to blow up in side an ammo can for some reason it would suck extra with all the metal confetti that would be flying around.

 

[Blue68f100]

New to reloading.

So SAAMI says to not store primers in ammo can, but then again ammo cans are designed to store ammo, which has primers. I can understand why you don't want a pressurized container, but it's also good at protecting them from damage and moisture.

Also read not to store primers together. Well how many can be stored in one area? Considering we buy them in bricks of 1000, what's the limit? How far apart?

So what does everyone else do?

Primers are the only thing we use that is considered an explosive. You do not want to have them stored in a hard container, your making a bomb. As not store primers and powder together. Primers are not sensitive to moisture and heat like powder is. Primers stored together in original packaging is fully acceptable. As to quantity it's more regulated by fire codes. Store as mush as you feel is necessary for your needs. If it 5k or 50k we all consume at different rates.I like to rotate my sock in 4-5 yr cycle.

 

[Walkalong]

So SAAMI says to not store primers in ammo can, but then again ammo cans are designed to store ammo, which has primers.

A can full of primers is a bomb, unlike a can full of ammo. They are bad enough if they go off by themselves. Store in a safe cool space away from heat or heat/flame sources. I like to clearly mark the area with a hazmat sign for firefighters.

 

[RCB]

So, it sounds like no ammo should be stored in ammo cans since there are both primers and powder together in the cartridges. Are ammo cans a relic of the past? Just store everything open? I get the difference between powder and primer, one is an explosive and one is not. I've never really considered any of this before, but all the indicators would suggest none of it would be proper to be stored in ammo cans.

 

[Soonerpesek]

So, it sounds like no ammo should be stored in ammo cans since there are both primers and powder together in the cartridges. Are ammo cans a relic of the past? Just store everything open?

SEE BELOW.....

The danger comes more from them banging around together.

It blows up like a stick of dynamite.

Primers are the only thing we use that is considered an explosive. You do not want to have them stored in a hard container, your making a bomb

A can full of primers is a bomb, unlike a can full of ammo. They are bad enough if they go off by themselves

 

[Hartkopf]

A primer that ignites will ignite other primers, which ignites more primers, etc, etc.

A round of ammo that ignites will almost never ignite another round of ammo.

 

[9mmepiphany]

So SAAMI says to not store primers in ammo can, but then again ammo cans are designed to store ammo, which has primers.

An ammo can full of ammo has a lot fewer primers in it...and the primers are well separated and protected (by the case)

... but it's also good at protecting them from damage and moisture.

Primers aren't sensitive to moisture. As long as you keep them in their original packaging, they are protected from damage...the packaging of Federal primers is the most protective

Also read not to store primers together. Well how many can be stored in one area? Considering we buy them in bricks of 1000, what's the limit? How far apart?

You might have misread or misunderstood what you read. The common understanding is not to store primers and powder together

So what does everyone else do?

I store my primers, in their original packaging, in an insulated cabinet with rubber gaskets surrounding magnetic strips to keep the doors closed...commonly referred to as the freezer compartment of a old refrigerator; my powder is stored in the lower compartment

 

[Slamfire]

You know, the shooting community takes gunpowder and primers and ammunition for granted. No one should do so. We are lucky that more shooters are not killed or injured by their reloading components.

Military accidents tend to go high order. During wartime, Soldiers and Sailors get sloppy and what comes next are some big baddy kabooms. I found this one interesting. Smoking next to leaking barrels of diesel fuel, while loading munitions. What could possibly go wrong?

World War II Coverup at Pearl Harbor: Six Ships Went Down in a Blazing Inferno Due to Unsafe Ammunition Handling

 

[RCB]

Well interesting information. Much appreciated all.

 

[AJC1]

You know, the shooting community takes gunpowder and primers and ammunition for granted. No one should do so. We are lucky that more shooters are not killed or injured by their reloading components.

Military accidents tend to go high order. During wartime, Soldiers and Sailors get sloppy and what comes next are some big baddy kabooms. I found this one interesting. Smoking next to leaking barrels of diesel fuel, while loading munitions. What could possibly go wrong?

World War II Coverup at Pearl Harbor: Six Ships Went Down in a Blazing Inferno Due to Unsafe Ammunition Handling

Some of us passed our a a and e certification the last 23 years....

 

[AgPilot]

Mine sit on top of the safe in My Room.

 

[Jim Watson]

Those are ARMY ammunition cans, made for shipping and distribution by the Army.
Most of us have different needs.

We once had a commercial reloader set up a demo at a range. He had a primer collator so he just carried primers in a quart Mason jar. Scared the hell out of me.

Opposite of milsurpguy's example, there was a pallet of factory package primers shot with a rifle. Only the primers struck by the bullet popped.

Which gets you to the usual question about the Big Federal Box.

 

[FROGO207]

Yeah store your reloading stuff in origional containers and make sure they can't fall off high shelves and land on the floor. Common sense goes a long way to make things safe. Ammo cans are designed to safely vent pressure and contain the shrapnel of loaded ammo in the event of a fire.
As a firefighter I am more concerened with containers of gasoline, paint thinner, etc. and your propane grill that is stored in your garage. More so if it is attached or close to your house.

 

[Bush Pilot]

New to reloading.

So SAAMI says to not store primers in ammo can, but then again ammo cans are designed to store ammo, which has primers. I can understand why you don't want a pressurized container, but it's also good at protecting them from damage and moisture.

Also read not to store primers together. Well how many can be stored in one area? Considering we buy them in bricks of 1000, what's the limit? How far apart?
So what does everyone else do?

It sounds like you're a bit confused on proper primer storage. I normally wouldn't do this but you seem like a nice guy.
Send me your primers and I will store them for you at no charge. This offer applies to anyone who is still a bit confused on primer storage.

 

[RCB]

It sounds like you're a bit confused on proper primer storage. I normally wouldn't do this but you seem like a nice guy.
Send me your primers and I will store them for you at no charge. This offer applies to anyone who is still a bit confused on primer storage.

Now see... that's what I like about this forum. Plenty of helpful folk around.

 

[Rule3]

So, it sounds like no ammo should be stored in ammo cans since there are both primers and powder together in the cartridges. Are ammo cans a relic of the past? Just store everything open? I get the difference between powder and primer, one is an explosive and one is not. I've never really considered any of this before, but all the indicators would suggest none of it would be proper to be stored in ammo cans.

The answer has already been given.

Think about it. To ship primers alone there needs to be a hazmat license

To ship ammo or PRIMED brass no Haz Mat needed.

Why are Federal Primers in such large boxes compared to others?

Primers can set off a chain reaction with all the others, ammo does not.

SAAMI publishes what it does as it knows things

Read it again.

https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Info-Doc-Primers.pdf

 

[edwardware]

. . . but it's also good at protecting them from damage and moisture.

Avoid dropping them, and the cardboard carton will protect them. Keep them in the HVAC, and you won't need to worry about moisture. Primers aren't anywhere near as hygroscopic as powder.

As an alternative to an ammo can, I suggest a cardboard box in your closet. When you run out of closet space, we'll talk.

 

[Charlie98]

I guess I have to ask... what is it about primers setting on a shelf, or in an ammo can, that would cause them to detonate, aside from a house fire, anyway?

I've stored my primers, typically CCI or Winchesters, which are packed pretty densely, in ammo cans for 30 years. They are on a shelf in the reloading room near the floor. I don't shoot my ammo cans... so there is that. I don't throw them off the roof, kick them, whack them with a baseball bat. I don't see the danger. Carriers haul primers in trucks... they see far more vibration and impact from a trip in a truck or trailer than they have ever seen in my ammo cans... and I don't know that I've ever heard of a Buster Brown truck catching fire because he had a sleeve of primers in the truck out for delivery.

 

[Slamfire]

Some of us passed our a a and e certification the last 23 years....

You are clearly in the minority by having education and certification in munitions. I would say, if the number of people who have formal educations in insensitive munitions were divided by the total number of individuals in the shooting community, the resultant number would be so infinitely small as to be considered zero.

I self educated myself on this topic, a lot of information is out there, but no one reads or researches this stuff.

 

[gonoles_1980]

I store mine in Styrofoam coolers with a loose fitting lid.

 

[bluejay75]

Buy a bag of silica gel cat litter. Recycle your old socks. Fill them...tie them...put them in places or with things you want to keep dry. Works in gun bags too.

 

[jmorris]

I keep them in their original packaging and put them on a shelf or in a drawer, in a claimant controlled environment.

I do have some that were given to me by a friend that kept them in his garage, he had vacuum sealed them like I do for freezing meat, they all work fine too.

I guess a steel pressure vessel would be better than a glass jar....

 

[lightman]

I really don't see an issue storing primers in an ammo can, be it plastic or metal. But I just store mine in their original boxes, on the shelves in my loading room, out of direct sunlight and in a controlled environment.