TargetTalk

Anyone using fire approved steel storage lockers for protecting your ammo supply? ... Any suggestions for safe ammo storage?

Best for the useful life of the ammo:
Keep it in the house at room temperature.

Rounds cooking off during a house fire:
The rounds *will* cook off; all you can do is protect the fire/LE/EMS personnel working the fire from the flying primers and shards of brass cases.

Not sure if that addresses your issues . . .

Steve Swartz

Steve Swartz wrote:Best for the useful life of the ammo:
Keep it in the house at room temperature.

Rounds cooking off during a house fire:
The rounds *will* cook off; all you can do is protect the fire/LE/EMS personnel working the fire from the flying primers and shards of brass cases.

Not sure if that addresses your issues . . .

Steve Swartz

Steve, thanks for your reply. I was actually looking for ideas on storage type lockers or trunks that are fire rated. ... Something on the lines of an Explosive Locker used on construction sites and for transporting. Just sort of curious what others are using for storing a few or more cases of ammo.

I break my cases of ammo up into groups that will fit into standard surplus ammo boxes. I seal them, label the locking flap with the contents, and never worry.

As far as fire rating for ammo storage, check with your local retailer for advice. A few years back I saw a film, produced I believe, by the NRA, that showed that ammo in a fire does not explode, but as Bill says, it "cooks off", which is when some component fails due to pressure or heat and then the round burns off.

I may be causing a bigger problem for fire/rescue/EMS personnel by placing my ammo in a sealed metal container. If so, then a reasonable place to start is to keep the ammo in an expanded steel box..... secure, but not enclosed.

I hope this helps,

Tom

Mass Shooter:

I used to do the same thing as Tom- milsurp ammo cans (50 and 30 cal standard).

I am assuming everything is going to cook off.

I also assume the US military has designed their containers with this in mind.

The ammo cans are relatively cheap and widely available. Check with your local surplus store for a bulk buy.

Steve

Highly sealed case are probably more dangerous for first responders than ammo cooking off. Bullets cooking off unconfined are about as dangerous as small rocks. Now if you put that same ammo into a sealed container and heat, then you have a bomb and it is very dangerous.

Example powder sitting on a surface and lit with a match simply burns, put that same powder in a pipe and seal it to now have a pipe bomb. With ammo the bullets will cook off, the bullet will fly off with minimal force (because ithe explosion isn't confine in your gun barrel), now if you fill a sealed container with the same ammo in it, if it now starts to combust and the container fails is a bomb with bullets as shrapnel.

Standard lockers in temp controlled rooms are good as are wooden boxes (which powder lockers are suppose to be made off). Keep it cool and dry.

Mass shooter,

Ar you thinking of a Knaack tool box? Or similar metal box? A typical jobox aren't completely sealed when locked as the lid has a small amount of vertical play allowing for gas to leak out.

-s

bummer7 wrote:Mass shooter,

Ar you thinking of a Knaack tool box? Or similar metal box? A typical jobox aren't completely sealed when locked as the lid has a small amount of vertical play allowing for gas to leak out.

-s

I was considering those type of containers, but after reading other comments which make good sense concerning "fire protection". G forbid if ever a fire, I'll have more to worry about than ammo.

I believe at this time I'll simply place a few cases into stackable-type plastic bins, place inside a few packets of dessicant and store in a suitable area.
The plastic will be opaque (non-see through)inconspicous as it gets.

Thanks for all the comments.

Before I was married I stored ammo in my linen closet---cool and dry and out of sight. I thought it was an excellent place.

Alas my bride wasn't thrilled about moving around boxes of 12 ga and .38s when putting away freshly laundered linens so...they got moved into a lockable filing cabinet (which is better than me moved into the dog house!) They major drawback is that if you're storing a lot of ammo (and I'm learning that this game requires a lot of ammo!) A filing cabinet fills up quickly (especially with flats of 12 ga) and the cheaper ones made from thin metal can "give out" under the weight.

On the TV show "Myth Busters" they cooked off some ammo in a campfire, which was surrounded by a wooden screen for safety. Oddly it wasn't the bullets that travelled but the brass casings that pierced the wooden screen (the ammunition was a mix of everything from .22LRs to .50 BMG---I don't recollect if any shotshells were in the brew)

John Kasaian wrote:. . . . . Oddly it wasn't the bullets that travelled but the brass casings that pierced the wooden screen (the ammunition was a mix of everything from .22LRs to .50 BMG---I don't recollect if any shotshells were in the brew)

Actually, one would expect the case to fly farther and faster than the bullet because of the difference in mass. The same phyics when a round is fired, the bullet goes faster than the much larger mass of the rifle.

The NRA did a series of laboratory studies a while back (2001?) that they wrote up in American Rifleman.

Cases basically split and "poofed" off. Sometimes a primer would pop out. Some cases (milspec sealed?) did "fling" the cases off.

I think they did conclude that flying pieces of split brass were dangerous to EMT and fire department folks . . . you could put an eye out.

IIRC their protocol was to heat the rounds with a propane torch.

Didn't see the MB episode.

If cooking off ammunition respondes in the way the NRA and MB say it does then using surplus ammo boxes might be the best arrangement. These heavy metal boxes would likely provide a good containment for ruptured brass, primers & projectiles in the event of a "cook off." A fully packed ammo can would, I'd guess (and this is a guess!) initially fail at either the hinge or latch, venting some of the gasses while containing much of the shrapnel. Perhaps an ammo box filled 2/3 or 3/4 might present less of an "explosive" situation?

This sounds like a good idea for Myth Busters to replicate!

I scored on the last two .50 cal cans at the local hardware store for $7, as they've recently raised thier prices by 2-bucks.

I store my .22 cal ammo in a big 30mm ammo military cans in my basement.
Its sealed for moisture and the way I figure it, if thats the way the military thinks it is the safe way to store it so should I.
also under the extreme heat needed to cook off a round it would most likely burn and blow the rubber seals first.
I would guess they are designed that way.
As for reloading powder i would not go this route.