Ammunition Storage

[Unbreall836]

In our previous home my safe was in the house.
In our new house the safe is in the garage. I store most of my rifle ammunition in the safe. What I am curious about is how the heat is going to affect the life span of the ammunition.
Humidity is not really an issue here. Especially since we have been in a drought since we have been here.

All opinions are welcome.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I have had my safe in the garage for 35 years and I have not notice any adverse effect. Humidity is always a problem especially for the guns. It may not have rained in a long time, but there will still be humidity. My brother-in-law lived in the desert, he kept his guns in his garage and because he didn't oil them down before storing them, and not having moisture absorbing desiccant in the safe his guns had rust spots on them when he went to get them out. Buy some desiccant for your safe, it's cheap insurance against rust.There are some states where you can't legally store your ammo and guns in the same state.

 

[Macintosh]

A safe? A really BIG safe, I hope?

I keep my ammo on a pallet in a corner of my un-heated basement. I live in new england, so this means temp swings and high humidity. Zero issues in over 20 years of doing so. I dont think you’ll have any issue in a low humidity environment.

 

[Brock A]

I have something like this in my safe

Amazon.com

 

[Matt5266]

I keep all my ammo and reloading stuff in the garagez most of it isnt even in the safe. I've never had a issue.

 

[justinspicher]

It is all in my safe. No issues. We do live in an area that is prone to forest fires, which is my reason for it being in the safe.

 

[RockAndSage]

You're good. About the only thing I know for certain that will really damage the powder and primers in stored ammo over time is repeated cycles in direct sunlight. That, and moisture getting into the cardboard cartridge boxes and leaching acids against the casings, causing corrosion.

DoD has done multiple studies on this, and as long as ammo is stored in the proverbial "cool, dry place", it essentially lasts indefinitely.

When I was a kid, for years some friends of mine and I intentionally sought out the oldest ammo we could find at things like garage sales and gun shows, and about the only stuff that didn't almost universally go bang was paper-hull shotgun shells. I have heard that in the UK, with shotgun shells specifically, when stored in the open air the powder can sometimes clump up because of the humidity and overall dampness of the environment, but I've never personally experienced it. But we found metallic cartridges going back over 80 years, and I can't really remember ever having it not go bang.

 

[Poltax]

How long is military ammo stored in the Middle East in high heat? How good is ammo from WW2, if you have some it will still shoot. Keep it dry and your good. Temp swings may or may not degrade the powder, but in the long run if its been kept dry it will most likely shoot. I have some CCI Stingers that I bought back in the 70's that still shoots great. Most of it has not been stored at even temps.

If you have a big concern over storage, then keep the ammo at a constant temp. Store in ammo cans either loose or in factory boxes with desiccant in each can. Store ammo cans on shelving, in a gang box, in a safe, or stacked on top of each other.