Ammo Storage

L

loknload

New member
Been thinking about moving all my ammo from basement to my attached garage. Anyone store their ammo there? My garage is insulated but not heated. It does get hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I was going to put a lock on one of my tool cabnets and start storing there.
What do you guys think? Good idea? :confused:
Thanks in advance for you thoughts and ideas :)




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We preserve our freedoms by using four boxes: soap,ballot,jury, and cartridge.
Anonymous
 
Well, if you have enough room in your garage for all of our ammo I sure wouldn't mind getting back the space all of mine takes up. ;)

But to be serious, I think the heat that can build up in a garage might be bad for the ammo. I don't have any facts to back it up, but I believe heat is the worst enemy of ammo's longevity.
 
I would suggest a temperature controlled environment. It also depends on how long you are going to store the ammunition. The powder breaks down over a period of time. Always if possible store ammo in a cool dry place. If you are going to use it in the next year or so it should not be a problem.
 
I keep mine in an old refrigerator with a padlock on it!

Frenchy

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Donnez-moi la liberté, ou donnez-moi la mort!
 
Perhaps it says more for the place where I live, but my main concern would be liability. I never want to store ammunition in such a way that it is easily reached by local kids with a pension for low grade breaking and entering. I would think that the refrigerator idea with a lock would be great if it were within a bolt locked garage.
 
ditto to cool and dry - or no warmer than low seventies and dry. Cold and dry would be better. With dry enough storage conditions you can store ammo for decades and even guns that have been fired but not cleaned for months or even years. Did I say dry? How can I emphasize dry enough? They store old aircraft out in the desert.

Damp basements and any slab floor and porous concrete wall makes for a damp storage space is bad for ammo, guns and accessories. If you've a dry first or second floor, store your guns and ammo there. Do you have spare room under your bed or behind the sofa? Keep it on the floor since cooking and shower humidity rises.

If you live in a humid environment or must use a damp garage or basement, build a vapor proof locker and add dessicant packs which can be periodically dried in your standard oven and reused. Better yet, make it a walk-in insulated room that can keep things cooler during the day. Better would be a dehumidified refrigerator which wrings the water out of the air and pipes it out rather than recycling it within the walk-in. A refrigerator is naturally dry (if condensate is drained out of the unit). In my experience it is the frequent open and closing of the door that introduces humid air which condenses on every metal surface. Even if in such a refridgerator, pack ammo in airtight containers with dessicant and oxygen absorbers just like you would dried foods for long term storage. Which, come to think of it, this unit can store lots of other stuff such as dry foods, canned goods, etc.

But those of us in dry, cool climates are lucky (except during the summer monsoons).
 
Thanks guys, I think I'll just nix the garage idea and clean the closet out in the basement. The temperature is more contolled down there and it is dehumidified. I'm glad I ask :)

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We preserve our freedoms by using four boxes: soap,ballot,jury, and cartridge.
Anonymous
 
According to my father (he has PhD in Chemistry and crazy about guns) the worst enemy for loaded ammo is any solvents even in vapor form (brass) followed by rapid temperture changes (primers) then humidity (powder and primers) and finally extreme heat or cold (primers). If kept in controlled environment ammo can be kept for 100 years or more but controlled environment is hard to find for most of us. Personally I keep my ammo in the gun safe which is in my closet. I have some military .223 ammo from 1970's and they are still great.
 
Most ammo is pretty waterproof. Take a few rounds and store them underwater for a year or two and then see how they work. The Finns were salvaging ammo from sunken freighters.

Heat deteriorates ammo, but extreme and prolonged. A hot afternoon in the trunk is not going to deteriorate the ammo.

The basement is a good choice because it's secure. The ideal situation would be off the floor and not contacting the exterior walls.

Ammo stores pretty well and is quite stable. Powder storage is a different situation.
 
Moisture is not a good thing with ANY metal object. Cartrudges are no exeption.
Finns salvaging ammo from sunken ships?
Lets see some documentation.
 
Don't know about the Finn ammo, but many receivers used on the Finn-Nagant rifles were sea salvage!

Frenchy

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Donnez-moi la liberté, ou donnez-moi la mort!
 
Funny thing is, a couple hundred rounds of .25-35WCF for the old '94 were found in the basement a few weeks ago. And it was fun, I got to be the one that cleaned the oxidization from the rat urine off of all the ammo, and sort it. That was abox that was forgotten about from when we moved into our house about 13 years ago. Thats how that was stored. But store it in a dry, cool place should keep it in good condition.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> HILL
ME THINKS THEY SELL IT TO SILLY ROUND EYE AMERICANS TO SHOOT IN ALL THE SURPLUS WEAPONS..... :rolleyes:Originally posted by George Hill:
Moisture is not a good thing with ANY metal object. Cartrudges are no exeption.
Finns salvaging ammo from sunken ships?
Lets see some documentation.[/quote]
 
This subject has come up a few times and to those of you who have heard it from me before I apologize. I am not an engineer, an active reloader, or a rocket scientist. With that disclaimer let me add a few things. Changing temperature changes humidity. So avoid that. It's better to maintain constant temp than to control any other variable. A little more heat is better than varying temp--within reason, if there is any such thing left in the world.

I have read that shells with a hard crimp on them are more resistant to the vagaries of atmosphere. I have no data to support that assertion. If it is true, then .22 rimfire and many pistol cartridges are more vulnerable to deterioration. High-powered rifle ammo would be the most "bullet-proof."

I purchased one of those vacuum seal plastic bag units at Costco for my Y2K prep, and decided that it would be great for my ammo, controlling the humidity problem that I have in my basement storage room.

Well, the food I bagged is still good. The jury is still out on the ammo. I can say that the Rem. .22 ammo bricks that I stored in Zip-Locs with dessicant have had a few duds, which I've never had before with this ammo. Bad quality control? The target ammo, RWS and Federal, stored in the shrink-wrap, have been flawless. But then, when one brand costs six times as much as the other, one might expect a higher standard of quality control.

The CF stuff is hard to gauge. I put dessicant bags in three .50 ammo cans of .223 from Georgia Arms ( A great company by the way) and stored them in the same room, with variable temp and high humidity. The cans sealed well (they make that sucking sound when opened, like a good vacuum should). All ammo shot well, no malfs, selected at random, for 500 rounds. At least that's what my godson told me when he got back from the range with my Mini-14. How can anyone shoot that much, anyway? :)

By the way, if you try to store pointed bullets in the shrink-wrap style, line them up carefuly. Or put them in another container. A few attempts with my .223 stuff had the bullets piercing the plastic and breaking the seal--creating no seal whatsoever.

It seems logical that the home-style shrink wrap stuff would keep your ammo good for a long period, even buried in the ground if you were so inclined. But that's just my opinion. America; tell me what you think. By the way, Dennis Miller's rant on gun control really stank. Maybe now that we have him doing broadcast TV, we should tell him a thing or two...

Good luck to you.
 
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