Storing ammo long term ( help )

Bunch of good ideas, but, FWIW, I have been shooting military surplus ammo, produced in the 60s without any duds. I purchase them in loose 200 round plastic bags. These are re-packs and I have no idea how they were packaged prior to my getting them. So far my M1 has digested 400+ of these without a hick-up.

My reloads go in either zip-lok bags or plastic boxes, and most in GI ammo cans, nothing special. I just shot some .44 Mag, lead bullet reloads assembled in '90 quite successfully. Most of these reloads are put together within one-two miles of the ocean and at super rainy Oregon coast. No problems...
 
My ammunition has all the degradable components sealed inside a brass case with the interference fit of the bullet and primer. No additional sealing is needed. They live in my house to avoid unnecessary temperature swings.

That said, the degradable components continue to degrade regardless...
 
I've had some of mine buried on end in 4 inch X 4 foot PVC tubes since the Clinton years. Dig one up every now and then and have had no failures. (Hard to remember where they all are though).
 
The lengths that some of you guys go to with you ammo......I posted a link earler this year where a group tested ammunition. They drove over it with a crawler tractor nothing went off. They set up ammo and shot it and they had to hit primers to set rounds off finally they set piles of ammunition on fire and as long as you were twenty feet away and wearing a standard fire fighters coat helmet and Eye pro you would be unharmed. The final step they set a tractor trailers trailer on fire and filmed the debris only showering out that same twenty feet. It just aint that big a deal. Just keep that ammo is a reasonably good storage place away from extremes and it will last more then fifty years.

I was bear hunting this year with ammo I loaded myself more then twenty year ago. I have no reservations about it.
 
I have ammo that used to be my grandpaws, over 100 years old that still works. I've also seen much much newer ammo that was so corroded I'd be afraid of it.
Ideally I try to store mine in airtight ammo cans with a desiccant pack. I make the packs out of ever dri from hobby lobby placed in coffee filters.
 
Correction... It's called Dri Splender. It has the blue indicating crystals to let you know if it needs recharged. Which can be done in microwave in a cpl minutes.
 
I started out thinking ammo cans were the way to go... & if putting them in zip lock bags, or vacuum sealed bags they should work great... however I prefer my ammo in plastic hinge top 50 round plastic boxes, & the ammo cans just didn't work for me... so I'll be selling a pretty large quantity at the gun show this next weekend...

BTW... I have a humidity controlled walk in gun safe & reloading room... because I also keep wood stocked rifles & handguns in the room, as well as reload in there, I keep the moisture level at 40-45% because the room is underground, it's very temperature stable & stays cool through the summer... I have storage benches built under the guns that are displayed on the walls... the benches hold a lot of plastic boxes of ammo or brass cases... the bottom of the storage benches have a 1.5" thick treated wood bottom, that sits on a layer of closed cell foam sill seal, that sits on the concrete floor of the room... there are 2 dehumidifiers & 2 sump pumps in the room, to insure the room is always dry... nearly all my ammo is handloads, & I keep several hundred loaded for each firearm, the rest of the brass is prepped & ready to go, stored in those hinge top plastic 50 round boxes... I've started to prime them, so I have less bricks of primers sitting around... my thoughts being, if I had 10's of 1000's of loaded handloads they could be a burden for my relatives... should they decide to get rid of some of it, after I'm gone... if I keep all I'd want to shoot in a couple years of each caliber, & components on hand for several reloads of each case, for future SHTF... then if they wanted to sell the primed brass or the components, it has more value than handloads...

BTW... IMO, as long as you are maintaining the humidity level, & keeping the temperature stabile, you can store your ammo in cardboard boxes if you wanted, & it would still be good enough for your grandkids to use
 
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