Opinions On Keeping Ammo In A Safe

[94zcar]

Guys I have been keeping most of My ammo in my safe. It is in my basement. I keep a dehumidifier in the basement so the air is dry down there. My gun safe has a 1hour fire rating so I figured it would be ok, what do you think? Would the safe just blow up in a fire?

[slowpoke]

Well it’s hard to say. Confining an explosion is a good way to make it bigger. However if the volume inside the safe is large enough and the amount of ammo is small enough then perhaps the explosion could be contained within the safe. There are as many possibilities as there are variables. And as you have realized by now I have just said a whole mouth full of nothing! :D

[MW surveyor]

OMG!!!!

Nah, you should be OK. Rounds usually cook off and do not in reality explode as the bullet gets pushed out of the case. In reality the case separates itself from the bullet as it is lighter. Just don't keep any black powder with them. :)

[Bawanna]

MW Surveyor has it correct.

But how is it you have a safe with room for ammunition? You need more guns or what?

[pm9fan]

Clearly, if your ammo fits inside a safe, you do not have enough ammo.

Ted Nugent gets his deliveries via a semi truck load at a time.

It's tough to keep up with Ted, especially when it comes to 2nd Amendment advocacy!

[Scoundrel]

In the defensive firearm training class I took recently, the instructor told us a story about a guy who had a crapload of ammo in a safe, and after he had a house fire, he had a lot less of his house left over than if he had kept that ammo "loose". Apparently it exploded with a lot of gusto because it was confined.

Now, this is an unconfirmed story. Who knows about the accuracy. Maybe MythBusters has done this one!

[MW surveyor]

Mythbusters has done - 22 round used for a fuse in a truck, rounds in a fire, rounds in a microwave, hitting rounds with a hammer for sure. Don't know if they did one for rounds in a safe though.

I have a small safe so I don't keep any ammo in it. Store mine in my filing cabinets. Bottom drawers of course. :)

[Scoundrel]

I just went looking, and did not find a Mythbusters segment where they put ammo in a safe.

I did, however, find the gas oven one, and the campfire one. They are both educational AND entertaining, in the unique Mythbusters way.

Loose rounds in an oven, followed by a loaded revolver in an oven:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BX1kvJVrjc

Loose rounds in a campfire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfoJAwlUopI

[heeler]

Well you can be sure that a couple of years ago I kept a case (20 boxes) of bullion grade .380 in my Amsec BF just to make sure it did walk off with someone else.
To think in late 2009 people were paying 30.00 a box for the stuff.

[94zcar]

After watching those videos, it looks like if it got hot enough in a safe with many hundreds of rounds going off your guns would be damaged. But if it got that hot (500 degrees) maybe your guns would be trash anyway.

I agree I do not have enough ammo and guns if they both fit in one safe.

[OldLincoln]

I hadn't seen those videos before and take away two things. 1) Confirmed that unchambered rounds aren't normally lethal, and 2) Rounds fire off at a lower temp than I ever imagined. Certainly a house fire would set them off on a shelf, and a good chance it would in a plain safe, but even a fire safe isn't fool proof.

From the campfire video, it demonstrated a lot of them going off produces quite a bit of pressure, so I wonder what would 2K rounds sitting snugly in a cramped safe do?

We know that powder needs to vent to keep it in a slow burn and high pressure makes it nearly explosive. The caution in reloading is don't put powder in a safe because it will make the safe a bomb is it burns. The only difference with a can of powder is loaded is that it is separated but the brass. Is that enough to prevent explosion?

Now I'm wondering what is a good location for loaded ammo. It would take a fire to heat it up to set it off, so away from flammables is good. It may explode if too confined, so unconfined is good. Seasonal temperature extremes aren't very good for it so moderate fluctuations is good. Hmmm, it's a chin scratched.

[garyb]

Good points and I've given thought about the same issues. If there is a fire, I don't plan on sticking around to figure it out. I'll bring it up to my brother and sister in laws and my son in law....all firemen...and see what they say about this issue. I'll get back on that.

[Scoundrel]

Now I'm wondering what is a good location for loaded ammo. It would take a fire to heat it up to set it off, so away from flammables is good. It may explode if too confined, so unconfined is good. Seasonal temperature extremes aren't very good for it so moderate fluctuations is good. Hmmm, it's a chin scratched.

Some shelving units sound like a good place to store them, or if you want to lock them up, a standard metal filing cabinet. You'd need to drill a bunch of small holes in the sides. That would be enough to ventilate so it cannot build up enough pressure to explode, and still stop the brass from exiting the cabinet when the rounds cook off. You can use some sort of tray to allow you to double-stack the ammo but still have access to the bottom row without having to dig for them. You can usually get those filing cabinets cheap at thrift stores, or often at garage sales or surplus shops.

Where to store the filing cabinet? If you have a basement or garage, that seems ideal. If not, then in an unoccupied room away from flammable things as well as you can. Not that it matters much - if the house goes up, the stuff is going to cook off. But I guess the further it is from stuff that burns, the more likely the fire dept guys will stop it before the ammo goes off.

[garyb]

I checked with several of my relatives who are firefighters. All agree that storing ammo and gun powder in a 30min rated fireproof gun vault is probably the best option. This gives firefighters a focus point and the vault rating creates a little more time for the firefighters to focus on that area. It is very unlikely that the vault will explode as a result of ammo and gun powder. If it is that cheap a vault, they suggest upgrading to a new one. It was suggested to consolidate ammo and powder in one location like vault, which is better than spreading it out in multiple locations around the home, as this creates a better focus area for the fighters and results in less surprise to them. They also stated that there are far worse things to worry about than ammo and powder, during a fire. Explosive tanks, fuels, etc... are worse things. Ammo and powder are not the worst things nor are they uncommon things that they must deal with in a house fire. Suggested to store other more flamable or explosive items away from the home.

[gundawg]

As GaryB said, i have several fire fighters tell me, safe (90 min rating) is a good spot and I keep about 1,000 9mm, 500 .40, 250 buck+Slug rounds there, but fact is i do have it spread around my house some. I have three staging areas in my home, that i keep 100 rounds of 9mm, and 30 rounds of 00 Buck, but they are kept in a firebox now after speaking with firefighters. I rotate my practice ammo pretty regularly, and store mainly SD rounds.

[TominCA]

Smokeles powder is a propellant, not an explosive - it only burns fast under pressure. It can make spectacular smoke and sparks - but not an explosion unless it is confined very tightly - like in a gun's chamber. Black powder is an explosive and must be stored carefully in small quantities.

Cartridges in a fire will pop the bullet - probably from the primer and partial powder ignition but it just pops out and has little power. Its not like the cowboy movies where they kill people with bullets exploding in the campfire.

Take some pistol powder out on a rock and lay a 2 or 3" trail about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Then light it. It may be hard to light and it will just go "fizz".

I keep my guns in the safe but powder, cartridges and bullets anyhwere.