Every responsible gun owner should know how to store their ammunition properly. Leaving your casings or (worse) fully loaded ammunition just lying around is a bad idea, through and through. Here’s what you should do to store ammo safely and correctly.
1. Keep It In a Cool, Dry Place
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First of all, you should try to store all your ammunition in a cool, dry area, which could be tricky depending on your local climate and the way your house is designed.
Lots of hobbyist reloaders like to keep their ammunition close at hand, but this might not be a good idea if your garage or reloading workshop is humid and hot a lot of the time.
In a nutshell, keeping your ammo in a cool, dry place prevents rust from accruing over time as frequently.
This is true not only for your brass casings but for any other metallic components for your reloading hobby.
You should store any powder you have in a cool, dry spot, as well. That’s because humid, warm air carries additional ambient moisture that can ruin powder, even if it’s sealed in a good container.
Speaking of containers, make sure that you only get high-quality bins or other storage compartments for your ammo stuff. Making sure that bugs and ambient humidity don’t get into your reloading stuff is important.
Ideal spots for storing your ammo include:
- in a basement, as areas beneath the ground are typically cooler and drier even in humid climates
- in your garage, if your weather is typically cool and dry
- in an air-controlled basement with a cooling unit
2. Keep Ammo Away From Kids
We’d also heavily recommend that you take steps to keep all your ammunition away from kids.
All this means is storing your ammunition casings, powders, primers, and other tools either in high, hard-to-reach spots or in containers that have locks so kids can't easily get into the stuff.
Kids simply aren’t aware of the same dangers as adults, and they can easily cause a mishap if they get powder on their hands or get ahold of a box of primers.
3. Always Store Your Ammo When It’s Organized
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Furthermore, you should take pains to organize all your ammunition and parts.
For instance, if you plan to store all your brass casings for different sizes of cartridges in the same cabinet, segregate and label the containers on the outside so you don’t have to dig through all your boxes to find a single part.
This also prevents you from accidentally missing different ammunition components together when they really shouldn’t be.
For instance, storing your primers with your powder is a disaster waiting to happen.
All your reloading ammunition stuff should be clearly labeled and kept in designated areas.
4. Make Sure Primers Are Kept Apart
Lastly, never keep all your primers in the same gun cabinet or storage compartment.
The reason for this is because, even if you get primers from the best manufacturer in the world, there’s always a nonzero chance that one of the primers can accidentally go off.
If that primer is in a compartment with hundreds of other little charges, it could easily set off a chain reaction and cause much more damage than otherwise.
Keep your primers separated by the box in different areas and the likelihood of accidentally starting a fire or blowing apart your storage cabinet is much smaller.
Wrap Up
Following the above tips will make sure that your ammo is always in prime condition and is never misused.
Whether you live alone or have a family, you should abide by these guidelines, it’s better for everyone! Good hunting!
How do you store ammo at home? Do share some tips in the comments section?
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