tips on ammo storage?

[HeXeD775]

I Am El Cheapo

I use the little Chicklet type packs from stereo equipment, shoes etc in my ammo cans & gun cases...how can I tell if those packs are still good??

I try & reuse whatever I can for the moment. I will get a safe this tax season w/ a humidity wand. I store in my basement, unfinished, usually pretty warm b/c of the oild burner, there is some humidity. I have never has ammo older that 2-5 years.

 

[Average Joe]

All that surplus ammo we are buying, was just stored in some hot , filthy warehouse in some foreign land, it still works just fine.

 

[dmftoy1]

I use the little Chicklet type packs from stereo equipment, shoes etc in my ammo cans & gun cases...how can I tell if those packs are still good??

If in doubt just put them on a cookie sheet in then oven at 240 degree's for 3 hours and they're fully recharged.

FWIW.

 

[LaibYechiel]

I have question RE: HeXeD775's comment on storing ammo (in ammo cans) in a safe with a heat rod to control humidity.

Is this OK given the increase in interior safe temp over ambient room temp due to the use of the heat rod, or would the ammo have a longer shelf life if simply stored in ammo cans in a closet.

Thanks,
Laib Yechiel

 

[dmftoy1]

I don't know how old you are, but I suspect that you would not live long enough to be able to discern a difference. I think that the goldenrod in my safe maybe increases ambient temp by 10 degree's. . . .that's just a rough guessitimate.

My advice would be to store the ammo where it works best for you and not worry about it. (Unless we're talking high humidity . . in which case I"d put it in an ammo can with a dessicant pack)

I picked up a Garand for the second time in my life last fall and in scrounging around in my old boxes I found a bunch of ammo from the first go round 20+ years earlier. The ammo when I had bought it was already 20+ years old and the boxes (cardboard) were not well treated. (think garage attic in Central Illinois and South Dakota for 20 years - very cold in the winter, very hot/humid in the summer)

Going through that 200 rounds of ammo I had 2 rounds that I had to discard and I suspect it was because I'm anal. They had 2 spots of light green corrosion and I thought to myself "why am I going to shoot those in my shiney new cmp garand". So far I've shot 104 rounds of that old abused ammo in 8 round increments and every single one has gone bang and every single one has been on the Military 100 yard targets I'm using. If she's being shot off a rest then they've even been in nice groups.

Just my .02

Regards,
Dave

 

[45Badger]

I use the little Chicklet type packs from stereo equipment, shoes etc in my ammo cans & gun cases...how can I tell if those packs are still good??

If in doubt just put them on a cookie sheet in then oven at 240 degree's for 3 hours and they're fully recharged.

FWIW.

I did (minus the cookie sheet) with some larger bags of dessicant. The glue that seals the seals the packs melted in 30 minutes. I has a gazillion silicon beads bouncing around the oven. Took me an hour to pull apart the oven and get them all out.

My wife had a field day with that!

 

[alsaqr]

"I'd say don't take your firearm related advice from myspace. I've fired tons of surplus ammunition thats older than I am and I'm relatively certainly it wasn't stored anywhere as nice as my closet in an ammo can"

Bingo!!! We have a very large quantity of various caliber of ammo: Some of it dates to the mid 1930s. Every round of it works just fine. We do have an underground ammunition magazine at one of our places but that does not matter. As long as small arms ammunition is not subjected to high environmental temperature over a period of many years it will work just fine.

All our ammo is stored in US Army ammunition cans.

 

[PAshooter]

Couple points:

1) Just because somebody had old ammo that was stored under less than ideal conditions and still went "bang" is no reason not to treat your ammo well. Mine is all in GI cans, with dessicant, in a cool, dry place. Is this absolutely necessary? Probably not. Will this extend the storage life of the ammo? Absolutely. With what ammo costs today, saving a couple of bucks by not storing it properly makes no sense to me.

2) The post about dessicant bag seals melting in the oven hits home. I bought a bunch of dessicant packs a while back from a well-known online firearms accessory dealer. The dessicant was packed in what looked like Tyvek (plastic) pouches. When placed in the oven for recharging - at the temperature printed on the bags - all the bags melted. What crap! I've only bought dessicant packed in paper or cloth bags since, and never had a problem.

As always, YMMV.

 

[dmftoy1]

PAShooter, I couldn't agree with you more . . . the point I was trying to make was people worried about minor temp swings etc isn't likely to effect ammo in any way. The key bit to my way of thinking is to keep it dry and relatively cool. I don't think that most modern powders or primers degrade much over time and your biggest issue is corrosion on the brass.

GI Ammo cans are cheap if you watch for them at gunshows, etc.

Just my .02

Regards,
Dave

 

[PAshooter]

I concur.

A $5 surplus ammo can is pretty cheap insurance when it comes to storing $400 worth of ammo (at today's prices).

Moderate temperatures (with minimal "swings") and low-to-middling humidity and you'll be fine for years. Mine's in a dehumidified crawl space where the temperature is in the low-to-mid 70's year round, sitting on wood shelves and off the (concrete) floor, sealed in GI cans, packed with dessicant packs. It'll easily outlive me... and that's all I care about, right?