ammo storage

A few years ago we had a house burn 2 doors down from me. When the fire chief came to me and asked me to get anything valuable out of my house that I could not live without i asked him if the ammo I had stored would be a hazzard to any of the firefighters. He said it was no problem.

Given the current state of hoarding going on, just how many thousands of rounds would be considered safe/prudent to keep around the house? Just rough numbers...I'm trying to aqcuire a certain amount for about 15 diff calibers and would like to know generally what others are doing..I'm not speaking of primers and powder....loaded rounds.

Thanks

msredneck wrote:A few years ago we had a house burn 2 doors down from me. When the fire chief came to me and asked me to get anything valuable out of my house that I could not live without i asked him if the ammo I had stored would be a hazzard to any of the firefighters. He said it was no problem.

Given the current state of hoarding going on, just how many thousands of rounds would be considered safe/prudent to keep around the house? Just rough numbers...I'm trying to aqcuire a certain amount for about 15 diff calibers and would like to know generally what others are doing..I'm not speaking of primers and powder....loaded rounds.

Thanks

Many places I have lived, especially in the "big city", they had strict ordinances about ammo. One place, out in the county, no city near, they were real fussy. Would be good to check into that, depending on your location.

Politicians have tried pushing through legislation which would require certifiable storage of ammo by everyday citizens, in "approved armory-type enclosures". None has passed, I think, but nowadays, anything is possible from them jerks.

Ammunition exposed to fire can of course explode. I have done this quite a few times just to disprove the "flying bullets" idea. Given an example, say a .308 Win. rifle round, heated until it explodes: The case ruptures well below 10,000 psi pressure, far below that developed when fired in a rifle. It still produces a pretty good "bang", and flying bits of shrapnel are a hazard. The bullet, being the heaviest component present, moves the least distance of any of the flying debris.

As massair stated - there may be local ordances that govern this ... you may or may not want to check ... what if they tell you that you can only store 500 rounds? What you gonna do? If you have another location to store it, then OK -- but remember, that tempature and humitidy is a enemy when considering long term storage (years).

As I stated in the original post, the chief of the FD was not concerned at all about any ammo in the house being a potential hazard.

Given the current political environment and the run on reloading components lately, I would think that there are many homes out there with "considerable" ammo....you can define considerable however you want...I guess I was just trying to get a feel for what was considered "reasonable or safe"

Reasonable would be considered "as much as I want and can afford before my wife finds out"

I hear ya Limbic! Best answer yet!...just poling to see what others can get away with!

well i have several thousand rounds of loaded ammo at my house along with about 60 pounds of powder and a couple flats of primers. My ammo I keep in sealed cans with desicant in the cans. Personally if my house catches on fire im running away very fast...

Not familiar with a flat of primers....is that 1k, 10k 100k primers?

I buy them by 1k which I call a case

60 lbs of "fertilizer"...impressive

Does "truck tool box" qualify as secure?

10K rounds in my truck tool box...hmmmmm let me see...than would be about plannnnnnnnnnnn......bout plan P You ought see Plan A

How 'bout a closet FULL?....But, I'm not married!

I try not to get below 2k on any centerfire handgun cal. , about 2k on 7.62, about 5k .22, about 2-3 hundred 12 ga. same on 20 ga., hunting cal. are about 20ea. of favorite loads, and I don't even own a .257 Roberts so I only have about 25 of those! I "roll my own" so i can replenish if materials are on hand! And they are usually on hand.

Let's see now...So you are sitting on at least 15 - 20K rounds

In the old days...A nice day at the range.....

Atta Boy!

That comment angers me right there. I was born in the wrong generation. I buy alot of ammo at a time like 20k rounds, but thats to last a good part of the year. My father in law talks about shooting 10k in a saturday. Dang you guys Im jealous

msredneck wrote:Let's see now...So you are sitting on at least 15 - 20K rounds

In the old days...A nice day at the range.....

Atta Boy!