Proper ammo storage

[SabbathWolf]

I have been a firefighter for 10 years. I have yet to ask about ammo or seen anyone else ask the homeowner. We have had more trouble with peoples collection of half filled gallons of paint and wood stain. Or the most recent one with 7 20 lb cylinders of propane.

I do a lot of wood working.
I've got stain and polyurethane all over the place.
Better just let my place burn and I'll collect the insurance instead.

 

[skeeziks]

So, all these "bullet holes" in the walls....were they concentric, or were they key-holed?

 

[gfpd707]

Last year we had a house that had a small kitchen fire that was easily put out. While cleaning up one of our guy went in the basement and discovered a pallet and a half of various wood stains. The home owner was advised it might be best to store it somewhere else and not within 5 feet of his furnace. To keep this post firearm related I recently went on an accident rollover. The guy had a ammo box full of 223. The field looked like gliter with all the rounds in the dirt.

 

[Steve H]

I have been a firefighter for 10 years. I have yet to ask about ammo or seen anyone else ask the homeowner. We have had more trouble with peoples collection of half filled gallons of paint and wood stain. Or the most recent one with 7 20 lb cylinders of propane.

Same here except I've been in the business for 40 years. Never have had an ammo problem. Paint, solvents and PROPANE cylinders are what scares me.

 

[heeler]

All very interesting.
Currently the majority of my ammo,which tally's a bit of money,is locked up in the safe with of course the guns.
I personally worry far more about theft by burglars than I do fire and statistics as well as my past bad luck say I am correct on this.
I would like to get the ammo out of the safe and have considered the ammo cans but in a burglary they will rapidly vacate the home I am sure.
I have also considered a smaller Knaack type of contractors box but the smallest at Home Depot cost around $200.00 including tax.
I do need to come up with something that is steel,fairly heavy,and can be secured.

 

[M2 Carbine]

So, all these "bullet holes" in the walls....were they concentric, or were they key-holed?

There weren't "all these" bullet holes in the walls. Probably no more than 10.
As I recall, the holes were normal looking bullet holes, like the ones in the gunpowder cans.

There were also a lot of split cases flying around to. My Wife was about 30 yards away and a M1 Carbine case hit her in the face causing a crescent shaped bruise.

The cases had such force flying back wards that they put their head stamp in the ammo can metal and some cases tore through the steel cans.

Interesting that one 50 cal can that contained 7.62x39 ammo was expanded like a balloon and beat to heck but it contained all the ammo. There was not a single hole in that can.

One bullet hit my house roof, about 40 yards away.
A couple days after the fire a mark in a shingle caught my eye as I was looking for damage.
The bullet, M1 Carbine as I remember, hit the shingle on the lower edge. It cut the shingle almost in half and buried in the half inch plywood.


So, like I said, don't put all your faith in such as, "ammo is no problem in a fire because it just mildly bursts".
Up until that fire I believed the same thing.

 

[303tom]

I keep all my Ammo in ammo cans & in a metal locker, I feel inside two steel containers is better than one..............Granted they are just gym lockers.

 

[skeeziks]

Qoute= "As I recall, the holes were normal looking bullet holes, like the ones in the gunpowder cans."

So if the bullets that made these holes were not fired thru a rifled barrel, how do you suppose they made such a "normal looking" hole in the wall?

 

[kb58]

A 30-30 round is laying on the hot ashes of a bonfire...the powder ignites and the expanding gas has to go somewhere. On 1 side, the gas is pushing against a 150-gr. piece of lead. On the other it is pushing against the brass casing that weighs alot less. Unless that brass casing has something to butt up against, the bullet is going nowhere. It's simple physics.

And simple physics says that the round has X amount of contained energy. When it cooks-off, that energy goes into making pressure, which is vented off in any one of about a million different ways. Related to your scenareo above, say that the bullet is resting against something, which would cause the much-lighter case to go flying off at potentially significant velocity. I agree that since the round isn't in a barrel and the expanding gases aren't contained, that the resulting velocity will be lower than it would be, but it could still be enough to be an issue, as noted in the above posts.

I'm considering either buying or making a much more substantial enclosure, one with maybe 1/8" thick steel. Or just man-up and get a proper enclosure, one used for paint and other flammable materials.

 

[Jim NE]

I don't know about safety of live rounds in a fire, but I generally don't worry about loaded ammo. If my family and I aren't out of the house by the time the ammo gets hot enough to ignite, I'd say we were history by then, anyway. One thing I WON'T keep around or near my house is black powder. To me that's about like keeping gas cans in the basement.

As far as firefighters being reluctant to go into a house that has ammo in it, well, I'd never suggest that another man is required to UNDULY risk his life to save my property. On the other hand, if there are 300 million guns in the US, then there are at least that many rounds of ammo. And they're probably mostly in people's houses. I would hope it's a situation that firefighters have prepared for.

Have there ever been recommendations on how to store ammo to minimize risk during a fire?

 

[M2 Carbine]

So if the bullets that made these holes were not fired thru a rifled barrel, how do you suppose they made such a "normal looking" hole in the wall?

Now I'm going from memory of an exciting day years ago, so I wouldn't swear (and I doubt) all the holes were perfect bullet holes. Some were. In any case the important thing is there were bullet holes in things, including the metal walls, caused by fairly high speed bullets

Whether the bullets made a clean hole, like in the center lower can, or more of a keyhole, like in other cans and stuff, really doesn't matter.
The fact that bullets were moving with such force that they went through several layers of metal, etc, was an eye opener.

 

[heeler]

After reading many of M2 Carbine's past post I am willing to take his word on this issue as he has always comes across very straight forth.
Which also makes me ever more consider only using some sort of locked reasonably thick gauge steel as the containment vessel for bulk ammo even if it's a cheapo second safe.
Anyone know the gauge thickness of ammo cans as I see them on sale at every gun show??

 

[skeeziks]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood.... I was under the impression that the bullets flew for some distance accross the room before putting holes in your shop wall. I didn't realize that the rounds were stored so close to the wall.

 

[franx1911a]

Heeler my company sells Knaack boxes. Don't let that sheet metal fool you, there is a reason they are expensive. I used to keep most of my guns in one of the big 2472 boxes bolted to the garage floor. We had a break in while away from home, but when we got back we found the box mangled, twisted where they tried to pry it from the floor, full of holes where it was drilled, even some marks from a skill saw I had in the garage... box was trashed... guns were all still inside it. Had a he l l of a time getting it open to retrieve guns. Neighbors said they called the cops when they heard all the racket in the garage.

 

[heeler]

Franx1911,I have said before in a few other gun safe threads here that during a construction build out in a commercial building I operated as a building engineer(aka maintenance mule) we had a building burglary in which the contractor stored his high priced power tools in a contractors job box in which the thieves went to work on with a sledgehammer and trashed the box but did not gain entry.
Understand people that most if not all of these job boxes are 16 gauge steel which is not even as thick as most cheapo gun safes at 12 gauge steel,but none the less it held up.
The way they lock on each end vs the cheapo composite doors of most low end safes utilize I believe was the big difference on not gaining entrance.