Where to store ammunition in an apartment

[AlexanderA]

When I was a young man living in an apartment, and had a small but growing gun collection, I worried a lot about security. Maintenance men would enter the apartment during the day, while I was at work. I put the guns in a safe, and locked the safe in a closet. That meant installing a dead bolt lock on the closet, and, since the door was hinged outwards, "pinning" the hinges. (The ammo, and anything else of value, went in the closet also.) Nevertheless I was very glad to get into my own house.

 

[GBExpat]

Any thoughts?

When I lived in apartments, several decades ago (Ronny RayGun was the President ), I stored my ammo in (<10) USGI ammo cans on the floor in my bedroom closet.

 

[rpenmanparker]

You may also consider not placing ammo cans near anything that may need to be moved or accessed to make a repair, such as a closet wall that backs up to your shower. If your shower valve fails and maintenance or a plumber needs to cut through the wall to make repairs, I wouldn't want to need to move a stack of ammo cans while they're there or need to find somewhere else to hide them.

Another hider. Why would you need to hide ammo?

 

[JeffG]

Why are we hiding ammo? I don’t hide my guns. I lock them up for safety. But it isn’t necessary for ammo except in some states. Locking ammo up is just hiding it IMO.

One reason might be, stubbing your toe on a GI can full of ammo is worse than stepping on Legos. 2. You can't steal or complain about what you can't see. 3. If the neighbor's apartment starts on fire, you can alert the fire department of its specific location.

 

[rpenmanparker]

One reason might be, stubbing your toe on a GI can full of ammo is worse than stepping on Legos. 2. You can't steal or complain about what you can't see. 3. If the neighbor's apartment starts on fire, you can alert the fire department of its specific location.

This makes no sense. Not hiding the ammo does not automatically mean it is in the middle of the room. And as ai said, you don’t hide your $1500 TV. Why do you need to hide your ammo if theft is the concern. What does hiding ammo have to do with a fire at the neighbor? And who is going to complain about your ammo...and to whom are they going to complain.

 

[Scooter22]

This makes no sense. Not hiding the ammo does not automatically mean it is in the middle of the room. And as ai said, you don’t hide your $1500 TV. Why do you need to hide your ammo if theft is the concern. What does hiding ammo have to do with a fire at the neighbor? And who is going to complain about your ammo...and to whom are they going to complain.

If this thread makes no sense then why do you keep responding to it? The OP is asking how to store ammo and wants ideas. Not badgering why, why, why. jmho

 

[chicharrones]

This makes no sense. Not hiding the ammo does not automatically mean it is in the middle of the room. And as ai said, you don’t hide your $1500 TV. Why do you need to hide your ammo if theft is the concern. What does hiding ammo have to do with a fire at the neighbor? And who is going to complain about your ammo...and to whom are they going to complain.

Just one thought since I have been an apartment dweller in my past.

A person that rents an apartment isn't privy to having the only key to that apartment. The apartment management and maintenance staff have access to your apartment when necessary. One necessary time might be that there is a plumbing leak in your particular apartment and it is flooding your neighbor's apartments*. But, you're not home to let them in as you are away for the weekend or you are out of town for work.

So, it sometimes just comes to "out of sight / out of mind". If an unscrupulous maintenance man or manager comes across your ammo, they may not do anything about it personally. But they may mention your ammo (and assumed gun collection) to a drinking buddy or family. One of those people may know someone that would be very keen to know that information and now your apartment is a target due to guns and ammo.

The same situation can happen to homeowners with maids, repairmen, etc. etc.

The few times I've been a victim of theft, the suspect knew what I had inside from a "friend" that had visited my apartment or townhome. Mostly this was due to roommates when I was young. Roommates can be blabbers.

*One apartment I rented years ago did have an internal flood from an adjacent apartment. The flooding ruined just about everything I had on the floor.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

Ammo cans stacked in the corner.

Or in loaded mags... stacked in the corner...

That's pretty much how I used to do it.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

For better or worse, my reloading bench and gun room is in my attic, which is finished. It's a great work space, but can get a little over 85 degrees in summer. There's a window on each end, and if I leave them cracked the air moves. Frequent storms though prohibit leaving them wide open. Once I fire up a fan, it cools off fast.

To avoid any degradation of ammo I store for any length of time, and to avoid wrecking my gun powder and primers, I store everything in chest coolers. Nothing expensive, just some Coleman coolers. You can easily fit a few thousand rounds in one if you get the right size. A lot of the nicer cooler nowadays are lockable too.

With my powder and primers, I am concerned about fire. So with them I actually store them in two soft coolers meant for 12 cans of soda or beer, and then I put them in the chest coolers. It provides temperature regulation and protection from any ignition source. Even when it gets warm in the attic, if I open one up, the air inside is still cool.

 

[Wisco]

I hid or locked everything of value when I was a renter. Guns. Cash. Gold/silver. Small electronics.

Ammo stayed in cardboard boxes in the closet.

Previous renters probably have a key. Landlord has a key. Someone else probably has access to the landlord’s or property manager’s key.

When I bought my first home, a condo, I surprised the property manager in my condo one afternoon as she was snooping through my bedroom “making sure there wasn’t water coming in from the condo above me.” Water in my dresser drawers? The dresser top wasn’t wet? Get out! ...The leak was two floors up and 50 feet over and none of the condos above me had water, so what the heck was she doing there? Getting herself fired is what it turned out. The previous owner allowed access for emergencies. I had not, but would have.

Yeah, what a stupid thread! Jeesh. Some people will complain about anything...

 

[boom boom]

I would get GI ammo cans--you can buy a lock stud that requires minimal installation, they are vented in case of fire and keep any rounds popping off contained in the can, and you can also run a locking cable through the handles if you have more than one. Makes it awkward to take it with them if they break in--most recent burglaries are smash and grab due to alarm systems. Making things more difficult and time consuming causes them to switch targets.
Other advantage, dessicant added to the can if you have high humidity helps keeps your ammo from corroding and they are sealed from things like salt air. Disadvantage, heavy, might need touchup on paint depending on how used they are.

 

[gulogulo1970]

Crime is not nonexistent anywhere. Why not hide what you can hide? Also, why have it out? Mine is in ammo cans on top of my safe in a locked closet.

Really hard to plan to steal something you don't know exists.

 

[rpenmanparker]

If this thread makes no sense then why do you keep responding to it? The OP is asking how to store ammo and wants ideas. Not badgering why, why, why. jmho

There are no rules here. A peculiar idea keeps coming up. I’m curious and am asking why. Is it not interesting that no one has answered? If you aren’t similarly intrigued, just ignore. We all do it our own ways.

 

[chicharrones]

There are no rules here. A peculiar idea keeps coming up. I’m curious and am asking why. Is it not interesting that no one has answered? If you aren’t similarly intrigued, just ignore. We all do it our own ways.

You have been given answers by multiple people in this thread in posts 24, 26, 29, 32, 35, and 37 why they (including myself) like to keep things out of view. It's no different than hiding candy from kids or a woman not leaving her purse on the seat of her car while she goes to pay for gas. "Out of sight - out of mind" tends to keep the opportunistic "criminal" more honest.

Maybe you've never lived in a building where strangers have access to your private possessions?

 

[chicharrones]

There are no rules here.

"Code of Conduct - Rules we expect members to abide by"

found here - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?pages/code-of-conduct/

 

[George P]

I keep about 5,000 rounds on the floor of the closet in my study in the original shipping cartons from Freedom.

In a spare closet, I have 3,000 9mm, about 2500 .22, 1000 .38, a large misc quantity of .45 and rifle plus 35# of powder and about 20,000 various primers.....Shotgun ammo is stored out in the garage because there's about 20,000 rounds of that (I shoot a LOT of clay targets) - plus the wads, shot, etc.

 

[rpenmanparker]

You have been given answers by multiple people in this thread in posts 24, 26, 29, 32, 35, and 37 why they (including myself) like to keep things out of view. It's no different than hiding candy from kids or a woman not leaving her purse on the seat of her car while she goes to pay for gas. "Out of sight - out of mind" tends to keep the opportunistic "criminal" more honest.

Maybe you've never lived in a building where strangers have access to your private possessions?

Fair enough. It is not that I disagree with you. I just wanted to hear it stated explicitly. I don't see the issue because to me ammunition is cheap, and even in a risky environment, there is a lot more valuable stuff to take than ammo. Besides, as I said, in so many places there is no difficulty buying ammo if you want it. So personally I just don't see the reason to not simply leave it on the floor of a closet in its original corrugated shipping boxes. But no big deal. I value your approaches also...now that I have a better understanding of what they are.

 

[Scooter22]

Fair enough. It is not that I disagree with you. I just wanted to hear it stated explicitly. I don't see the issue because to me ammunition is cheap, and even in a risky environment, there is a lot more valuable stuff to take than ammo. Besides, as I said, in so many places there is no difficulty buying ammo if you want it. So personally I just don't see the reason to not simply leave it on the floor of a closet in its original corrugated shipping boxes. But no big deal. I value your approaches also...now that I have a better understanding of what they are.

Ok . There are rules on the HR. But I'm not trying to bash you. You want to leave ammo around fine. But in a risky environment most of the posters on this thread don't want it left around to be stolen regardless of the price. So do as you please where you live but picking apart why someone wants to hide or keep their ammo out of sight is their business.

 

[SharpDog]

I'

I keep about 5,000 rounds on the floor of the closet in my study in the original shipping cartons from Freedom.

I'm the same as Robert, when I was in an apt. I kept A LOT of ammo stored on the floor in the original shipping containers. I threw towels or rags over any boxes that showed addresses or the ORM-D lettering.

 

[SharpDog]

My ap

Still no one is saying why ammo needs to be either hidden or locked up.

My complex had yearly inspections (which is the main reason I moved out). There was also the various maintenance that had to be done I was pretty careful to be there in person, but it required taking a day off work. Needless to say that storing a quantity of ammo in an apartment owned by someone else would be subject to their likely veto of such a practice.

 

[Bigmike79]

Still no one is saying why ammo needs to be either hidden or locked up.

Because large amounts of ammo is worth lots of money and extremely easy to liquidate. I keep my ammo inside my safe for that reason.

I have about $3,000 worth of ammo in my safe. I have an alarm system and security cameras with two way communication that alerts my phone when I'm not home. Putting my ammo in a safe makes it pretty much impossible for anyone to get it all out of there before the cops would show up in 10 minutes. By setting it out where someone could just grab it and go, it allows for a thief to take at least a couple 50 cal cans has the alarm is going off. I have a single can packed full of various premium defense ammo that probably has close to $1,000 of ammo alone in it.

Add to this fire and flood. My safe buys me an hour in your typical house fire and a whole lot more in a flood

 

[rpenmanparker]

Ok . There are rules on the HR. But I'm not trying to bash you. You want to leave ammo around fine. But in a risky environment most of the posters on this thread don't want it left around to be stolen regardless of the price. So do as you please where you live but picking apart why someone wants to hide or keep their ammo out of sight is their business.

“Picking apart”? Seriously?

 

[GBExpat]

Scooter22 & rpenmanparker,

Please stop.

Thank you.

 

[BSA1]

Another hider. Why would you need to hide ammo?

1. In general ammo cans, crates and boxes do not make good furniture. Our significant others are most likely to object to our tastes and such ideas are best kept in the mancave.

2. Hear of the saying "where there is smoke, there is fire"? If I am in someone's home or apartment and I see ammo cans, boxes or individual rounds of ammunition I am forming the conclusion that the occupant owns firearms. If I see the caliber of the ammo then that helps me to form a better opinion of what firearm the occupant owns. For example 357 Magnum box/round means a most likely a 357 Magnum revolver. So maybe your visitor is actually dishonest who supplements his income by stealing items. He can look around your dwelling and size it up for a burglary.

3. People talk. Your maintenance man is honest and will never steal. He is at his Tuesday night bowling league and talking to his bowling buddies when the topic of guns comes up. (This is a guy group and guys like to talk about man stuff). The maintenance man says "I have a fellow named mikemyers that is renting apartment from us and his place is full of guns and ammunition." Well one of his bowling buddies is less than honest and now knows of a place that is worth breaking into. Or one of the fellows in the next lane over overhears the conversation.

4. It is none of your dang business what I own so I don't leave it out for you to see it. When I know and trust you enough I will let you see some of what have.

 

[John Joseph]

Except for some books on my book shelf, my home is "sanitized" when it comes to shooting. I don't even keep American Rifleman around and I tear off and shred my address before tossing an issue in the trash.
No one needs to know I keep a firearm and ammo.
I see this as one additional "level" of security, not unlike a safe or watch dog.