Storage question - Ammunition

[MTboatguy]

Well with the passing of my Father, I ended up bringing home 5 pistols and several thousand rounds of ammo, he was a gun nut! Now in addition to the thousands of rounds I already had for my long guns and shotguns, I have lots of ammo for pistols, there is over a thousand rounds of 9mm, 800 rounds of .45, 400 rounds of .357 mag and 1700 rounds of 9x18 Makarov as well as about 200 rounds of .38 for my great grandfathers off duty weapon. I am trying to figure out a good safe dry place to store all of this stuff, I already have a safe with 16 long guns in it as well as a safe with my Military weapons and now I need to figure out the best way to store this additional stuff, it seems like every single time I think I have a solution, I end up with a bunch more guns as well as ammo.

I don't plan on acquiring much more, but am starting to think I am just going to have to build a walk in closet to store all of this, I have been looking at premade solutions, but none of then seem to fit the bill, what do you guys do with your guns and ammo?

 

[RGrew176]

Store in a warm dry place and you should have no issues. I have shot 10 year old ammo with no problems.

 

[MTboatguy]

Store in a warm dry place and you should have no issues. I have shot 10 year old ammo with no problems.

Thank you for your response, keeping it dry is not a problem, I have stuff around here that is 20 years old and it still fires with no problem, I am just wondering what others do when the volume is getting large, after 30 years in the Military and retiring as an Officer, I have acquired a lot of guns over the years and I am running out of room! I guess I am a hoarder!



But I can tell you this, nobody will be able to take my mountain, cause the few neighbors I have are exactly the same as I am, old military guys with lots of guns! I guess I just want to be able to store everything in a orderly manner so when my day comes, nobody has to be searching the house as I did with my Fathers place to find the guns and the ammo.

 

[Scott Danforth]

some build a gun room, some get another gun safe, some go to the range and fire off 100 rounds a week.

I have a co-worker with 3 gun safes in his "he-man-women-haters-room" He is currently building a 4th.
I have an old boss that built a fire proof gun-room / panic room in his garage that was air conditioned and held just under 800 guns and about 6000 rounds of amunition.
I have former in-laws that had an in-door firing range and gun room in the basement

 

[aspeck]

In one place I lived, I added on a fire resistant gun and storage room with heat and dehumidifying capabilities. After moving from there, it was a gun safe that was most prudent. Gun safe currently resides in my "special room" where I get to store my ammo and collectibles. There are multiple safes and lots of shelving ... Adapt and overcome!

 

[Cat nip]

Sorry to hear about you father. Sounds like a long weekend at the range will take care of that problem lol! Probably another safe is the easiest way to remedy that problem.

 

[Tnstratofam]

I have weapon and ammo storage in 2 gun rooms. One in the house and one in my garage. Both are fireproof designed and heat and humidity controlled. As for the actual storage in the rooms I picked up some good real wood cabinetry from a closeout hardware store we have locally. They are unfinished natural wood, and each cabinet can be locked if I so choose. The rooms themselves are VERY secure.

In fact if either my house or my detached garage burns the gun rooms will be all that remains I imagine.

 

[gm280]

I also think a good gun safe with storage shelves instead of gun rack will do just fine. Since a good safe can withstand fire for a loonnngggg time, that would be my suggestion. I reload and understand having such amounts of ammo. And IF you take proper care of the ammo, it will last longer then anybody thinks and still be good when used! There are even ways to water proof ammo if you need to do that. If you do store the ammo in a gun safe, get a lot of desiccant bags (large pounders or larger) and put them in with the ammo too. :thumb:

 

[thumpar]

I am a reloader so at times will have lots of ammo on hand. A couple years ago I used some reloader 7 that was still labeled Hercules from the early 80's. It shot just fine. Here in eastern WA we don't have to worry about humidity. I don't put the ammo in a safe, just the guns.

 

[littlerayray]

Why not go do a bunch of target practice

 

[gm280]

Why not go do a bunch of target practice

With the availability these days of primers and powder, I don't shoot as much as I used to. The prices are so over priced because of situations I can't talk about on these forums. But until availability becomes better and cheaper, I will hold off dispatching too much ammo. And 22 rimfire is the worst! JMHO!

 

[littlerayray]

Sorry I don't own any firearms I have no need and it would cost too much and here in canada we settle our disputes wrestling in maple syrup

 

[Tnstratofam]

Sorry I don't own any firearms I have no need and it would cost too much and here in canada we settle our disputes wrestling in maple syrup

I think you could get big money for that on Pay Per View here in the states.:rockon: I'd pay to watch some of the knuckleheads I encountered overseas have a Battle Royal in some Maple Syrup.:bounce:

 

[gm280]

Sorry I don't own any firearms I have no need and it would cost too much and here in canada we settle our disputes wrestling in maple syrup

My motto is, "You can never have too many Guns or Fishing Rods". I won't even get into numbers on here. But I can say with absolutely certainty, not one of my guns has ever shot a person...ever. But I do like target shooting! :thumb:

 

[MTboatguy]

I agree gm, I am gun and fishing pole poor! I think I am just going to go pick up another gun safe and make sure I can configure to use just for ammo storage, that is going to be easiest solution at this point in time, I am going to look around this weekend and if I can find a new safe for the guns and pistols, then I will take the old one and put the ammo in. My wife is starting to ask questions about where all of this came from, like I told her, you helped me load it in the truck, so don't ask anymore, you will never have an answer that will satisfy you after all of these years.

 

[Rick Stephens]

I'd just get a standard office 2 door storage cabinet. No reason for ammo to be in anything specially thick walled or stringently locked.

I have a room in the basement that has a couple hundred pounds of powder and 20 or 30 thousand rounds of this and that. Used to shoot 25-30,000 rounds a year in practice and competition. Afraid most of this stuff is going to have to be shot up by my kids.

 

[littlerayray]

Hey Rick I would be terrified if a fire were to break out in your home honestly at least put it in a steel gun case that's an explosion waiting to happen I would hate for a first responder to be a casualty because of your carelessness

 

[Rick Stephens]

I am the first responder...... literally, that's what I do.

There is NO EXPLOSION risk with un-contained ammunition.

Exposion risk comes from containing propellants. Propellants, and ammunition, are not explosive until you stick them inside a safe or other tightly contained box. Then you built a bomb. All those are when sitting on a shelf is somewhat flammable. Not even highly flammable since there are no vapors. Not like storing gasoline or propane where the mix of vapors and fuel is explosive. In a building fire, when the flames reach your flammable propellants, they go whoosh and increase burn temperatures for a little bit. You might hear minor popping from the contained propellents that is loaded ammunition. You will hear explosions from ammo stored inside guns or inside gun safes.

Rick

 

[gm280]

I am the first responder...... literally, that's what I do.

There is NO EXPLOSION risk with un-contained ammunition.

Exposion risk comes from containing propellants. Propellants, and ammunition, are not explosive until you stick them inside a safe or other tightly contained box. Then you built a bomb. All those are when sitting on a shelf is somewhat flammable. Not even highly flammable since there are no vapors. Not like storing gasoline or propane where the mix of vapors and fuel is explosive. In a building fire, when the flames reach your flammable propellants, they go whoosh and increase burn temperatures for a little bit. You might hear minor popping from the contained propellents that is loaded ammunition. You will hear explosions from ammo stored inside guns or inside gun safes.

Rick

Rick I will agree with your comment IF folks were storing ammo in a little tightly enclosed safe with no area surrounding the ammo, but even that is maybe. But not in a wide open tall long gun safe. There is no difference with ammo in a long gun safe as opposed to a mere shelf. I know reloading like the back of my hand, and the explosive potential of ammo in a fire as well. And a long gun safe will not cause ammo to explode with any more potential then sitting on a wooden book shelf.

A safe, while contained and secured from anybody getting to it, does not pose an explosive container to ammo. I also know that the gun powders folks use to reload ammo will not explode in the least UNTIL it is packed tightly in a container. But a little tight container, and certainly not a huge wide open safe area. If you pour some on the ground and light it, it burns very slowly and way less then gasoline. I know, I've studied such for decades and have easily loaded over a half a million to a million rounds of ammo myself without even one issue...ever!

In fact ammo going off in a gun safe would be a heck of a lot safer to any responder then ammo going off outside a gun safe. But in either condition, the ammo doesn't explode like in a gun, but a mere spew sound because there is nothing directing the gases in any one direction. JMHO!

 

[thumpar]

Hey Rick I would be terrified if a fire were to break out in your home honestly at least put it in a steel gun case that's an explosion waiting to happen I would hate for a first responder to be a casualty because of your carelessness

Without a barrel and chamber the bullets don't fly. The casing would probably be the thing the got propelled the furthest.