Ammunition storage ?????

[tommyg]

I have a gun safe in my garage. This is the first year I have had the safe.
It gets awful hot in the garage during the summer. I keep ammunition in the safe for
Shot gun and Hand gun. What is the max temprature I can store ammo at safely???

[RPB]

I really don't know, but I knew a guy who stored ammo in his uninsulated Houston attic in a cardboard box for many many years and it was fine. I wouldn't store that way in a hot attic though. Attic fires happen too often.

[CC Italian]

My cousin was in Iraq and he said it made a Texas summer look mild! They had thousands of rounds out in the sun or in a Humvee with no ill effects. As for the long term effect? If someone told me that storing ammo in your garage made it last only a couple of years I would laugh at them. I have personally seen 20 year old .308 rounds that fired perfectly in a savage bolt action. Others will probably have similar stories.

I personally cycle through ammo and nothing lasts more then 3 years so far.

[C-dub]

Fire is bad for them. Otherwise, I think they will be fine.

BTW, the melting point for lead is 625 degrees F. I think of all the components used to make bullets, lead has the lowest melting point.

[mgood]

As long as they're kept dry, shouldn't be a problem.
There's still a lot of WW2 ammo around that works just fine.

[A-R]

I would think humidity would be a bigger problem than heat for ammo - if you're near the coast especially, some dessicant may be a worthwhile investment.

[tommyg]

I use silica gel in a woman's stocking inside an army ammo can this works well
in preventing moisture. Get silica gel from walmart it is sold as cat litter

(fresh step crystals)

[eureka40]

This!

http://www.freshstep.com/cat-litter/pro ... al-litter/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[G26ster]

I use silica gel in a woman's stocking inside an army ammo can this works well
in preventing moisture. Get silica gel from walmart it is sold as cat litter

(fresh step crystals)

How does Fresh Step Crystals let you know they are saturated and need to be replaced. Do they change color?

[tommyg]

I use silica gel in a woman's stocking inside an army ammo can this works well
in preventing moisture. Get silica gel from walmart it is sold as cat litter (Fresh step
crystals be sure to get the right kind most cat litter is made of ground clay the clay type won't work)
Some of the crystals are blue and some white. when the blue crystals turn pink they are saturated.
When they turn pink spread crystals out on a pizza pan or cooky sheet and put crystals
in an oven at low heat. They will turn blue again then you can reuse them. About 150 oven temp works well.
I have used this trick for decades I have ammo that I bought from Gibsons (went out of busisness in early 80s) and it looks new
I bought silica get from a chemical company before thay started selling it as cat litter it is the same stuff.
You can get it from arts and crafts stores it is also used for drying flowers.
It is also used in electric department bucket trucks they put it inside the fiber
glass boom to keep the operators from getting fried due to conductivity caused by moisture build up in the boom.
I got the idea from the electric department. I was a parts man in the shop where they repaired
the electric department trucks for the city of Austin.

I've had the moisture issue licked for a long time I'm worried about heat since
my new gun safe is in a garage and it gets awful hot in my garage during the summer

The Feline model used in this post was paid a can of Friskies cat food for her efforts

[C247]

The Army stores ammo in shipping containers while overseas in 120+ weather. 5.56, .50, grenades, and everything in between. The only damaged ammo I've seen was rusted from exposure to the elements.

[WildBill]

Ammo cans are a good way to store ammunition.

http://www.armysurplusworld.com/product ... ductID=920" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AustinBoy]

Find the episode of "Mythbusters" were they put live ammo in an oven to see when it would go off.

It was a great episode. I cant remember the exact temperature but I think it was above the 300 degree mark.

[TexasGal]

See, that's one of the things I really like about this forum; you never know when you will find a new use for cat litter
....as long as I don't leave the lid of the ammo can open and the cat finds it ...

[C-dub]

Reviving this thread.

Up until a couple of months ago I was just storing my ammo on the floor of my closet. I went down to the local Army/Navy surplus store and picked up one of those large ammo cans. It says it is for 48 40mm and a couple other things and also says WT 60 on it. I got another one two days ago and moved my ammo around so that handgun is in one can and rifle is in the other. If anyone else uses these I'd be curious to know how much you put in each can. The can with handgun rounds seemed a little heavy, so I weighed it and was shocked. It came in at 112 lbs. I was surprised for two reasons. One being that it was that heavy and the other being that I was able to pick it up so easily. The rifle ammo can weighed in at only 58 lbs. Volume wise, the handgun can is a little more than half full, while the rifle can is less than half full.

For those with experience with these cans what do you think?
Is the one can weighing over 100 lbs. okay or what kind of weight maximum do these things have?
Should I keep to less than 60 pounds in each can? That seems like such a waste of space. I like these cans, but didn't think about how heavy they were going to get when loaded.
Should I store more bulky items in these and go with the smaller cans for the ammo? Even those little cans are gonna get a bit heavy. I bet if I filled one with handgun rounds it would be at least 60 lbs.