A thought on ammo buying/hoarding

[GW]

What do you mean by having an "actual magazine" in ones house?

Bullets cooking off in a fire aren't that dangerous. The bullet usually has much more mass than the casing so the casing just shoots off with a less than deadly amount of force. Bullets are dangerous in barrels because the casing is held in place and all the energy in the explosion is used to push the bullet down the barrel at a velocity that increases as a length of the barrel.

No barrel = no concentrated energy = very little velocity

Per Webster's: A magazine-- a room in which powder and other explosives are kept in a fort or a ship.

Or home for our purposes here. So I'm not talking 7, 15, 30 or even 100 rounds, I'm talking thousands
I'm concerned with heat, intensity, flying projectiles, noxious gases and yes, explosive force. Are ammo cans good storage or dangerous?

What would happen to a 50 cal can, filled with 22LR, 44 mag or whatever, latched shut and exposed to the heat of a burning house?

[Spearo]

Maybe if you are a serious collector setup a room just for ammo and firearms.

Rig it with an automated halon extinguisher system. So if the room gets above a certain temperature it will release the halon and kill all of the oxygen in the room. Will definitely stop the fire, but may kill you too if you are in the room.

[sorensen440]

Just don't store your ammo in a safe and you will cut down on the risk drastically.

[sorensen440]

Two safes one for guns the other for ammo. The water sprinklers are over both safes. My stash will be OK.

Storing any large amount of ammo in a safe is a ticking time bomb for firefighters if there is a fire
much better to let it cook off outside of a safe

[SB643]

A little off-topic.. but
More worrisome than fire, IMO, is the possible (likely?) banning of lead or un-serialized projectiles in CA.
And we 'hoarders' mandated to voluntarily turn in our legally purchased ammunition & components, with little or no compensation.

Damn the Man. Molōn labe.

[Capt. Speirs]

Will probably need to post this on the outside of your house to warn the FD.

[pullnshoot25]

Ammo cans are designed to take the force of exploding ammunition, right?

[nick]

Ammo cans are designed to take the force of exploding ammunition, right?

Ahem, right

[eccvets]

i just think its stupid cuz i cant get any friggen 9mm ammo to go out plinking!

[nick]

BTW, there's a thread on Sniper's Hide on this:

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=476769

[nick]

i just think its stupid cuz i cant get any friggen 9mm ammo to go out plinking!

A little foresight could've solved that problem

That being said, I see plenty of 9mm ammo for sale in stores and online. I guess, you're referring to 9mm ammo at very low prices, right?

[Bruce3]

as anyone ever seen a 1lb bottle of powder actually explode? i think that would be a good educational film if done safely. say what would happen if a sealed bottle were to be engulfed in flames and what would happen if a lit match were to fall into an open bottle.

[nick]

as anyone ever seen a 1lb bottle of powder actually explode? i think that would be a good educational film if done safely. say what would happen if a sealed bottle were to be engulfed in flames and what would happen if a lit match were to fall into an open bottle.

It's not the same as a house fire. As some here already stated, the powder bottles are made out of plstic that starts melting before the powder's flash point, so flash is all it's supposed to do.

[Bruce3]

It's not the same as a house fire. As some here already stated, the powder bottles are made out of plstic that starts melting before the powder's flash point, so flash is all it's supposed to do.

theoretically thats whats suppose to happen, the plastic melts and the powder burns not explodes but does that really happen?

[nick]

theoretically thats whats suppose to happen, the plastic melts and the powder burns not explodes but does that really happen?

I wouldn't know, I have no experience with it.