Anyone store their guns/ammo in an unconditioned space?

[Boltz]

So I'm trying to figure out some practical spaces to store my ammo in my house.

The garage and possibly attic are two areas where I have plenty of room to do that, but they are uninsulated and unconditioned, so they get pretty hot in the summer and chilly in the winter. Does anyone do this without any issues?

I'm thinking that as long as you have some dessicant you should be ok, but I'm still kinda uncomfortable with my ammo going through those extremes. But then again when I was downrange all of our spare ammo was sitting in a conex in the blazing sun

[badfish71]

i do. just put the ammo in ammo cans. the seals work really well..

[SScott]

edit

[CaliforniaLiberal]

There's been speculation here and on other forums that storing ammo where it will be subject to heat and cold will reduce it's long term shelf life. Instead of lasting for a hundred years it might only be good for 10 or 20 years before starting to deteriorate.

If you're under 30 maybe you can set up a long term study with different conditions of storage for identical ammo and share your findings after 50 or 70 years.

[DannyInSoCal]

You're in San Diego - Relax....

[Q619]

Just store them in ammo cans in a place that doesn't get too hot or too cold. Leaves you a lot of options. At the back of a closet is always a good choice. Back of the garage. Attic. Basement (if you have one). You're usually safe if you put them somewhere low and away from direct contact from contact with the elements. Use common sense. The fact that there's still surplus ammo in rusty ammo cans that still works just fine shows ammo isn't TOO terribly tempermental. That stuff obviously wasn't stored in ideal conditions. The one thing I'd say is you might find your match grade .308 ammo won't be as accurate when you reach out with iti if you store it in the heat or cold for a number of years but as far as pistol ammo and iron sight shooting goes it should all be fine as long as it doesn't get wet wherever you have it. If it stays dry I doubt you'll see it go bad in your lifetime. Hell, in your CHILDREN'S lifetime!

I shot some .45 ball from WWII that was stored in a tool chest in the mid west (in a garage) for the majority of its life. All 100 rounds I shot went bang but 2. I'm sure there were some varying muzzle velocities but that isn't too bad. I also shot about 200 reloaded 38's that had to be 40 years old and were stored in a basement. All worked but one or two as well. I had a longer firing pin in my gun so that might have helped if some of the primers were out of spec but hey, again: not too bad.

Don't worry too much about it. Try to cycle through your ammo every 10 years if you can and replace it as you go if you ARE worried. Problem solved

[Full Clip]

My dad was LEO for about 25 years.
He had monthly range training and always brought home a couple leftover .38 Special rounds he had in his pockets. Wad cutters, HPs, lead RNs. A mix. He'd just drop them in a large pickle jar, 8-12 at a time maybe.
Couple years ago he gave me his 4-5 full jars for plinking.
Every single one went bang.

[NoJoke]

Do the cabela's plastic ammo cases qualify as "ammo cans"?

Got my stuff in these w/ some desiccant.

[rips31]

i keep mine in what could pass as a basement. it can have both temperature and humidity swings. i found some clear storage boxes at target with a rubber seal on the locking lid (think they're made by sterlite, or something). cost me maybe $7 each. toss in some dessicant and it's good to hold around at least 3k rounds (50rd boxes), probably more if i actually counted. easy to see the calibre through the box and they're pretty sturdy. problem is i can't lift the damn box if it's full of 45acp.

[Army]

Unless it stays above 120F or under 20F for weeks at a time, don't worry about it. Keeping it dry matters more. Closet, under bed, back corner of garage, all good.

[oddjob]

My ammo is stacked on industrial type shelves I got from Lowes. Some are in ammo cans, plastic coffee cans and most are not. This includes factory and my reloads. No problems at all.

I found some large pistol primers in the garage that had to be 20 yrs old. They were just in the original box of 100. I took a few out and hit them with a hammer (eye & ears on). They went bang. Loaded them up and they all went off.

My guns are in my safe indoors though. I have friends that have safes in the garage and they have no problems with guns getting rusty. They do have problems with the safe itself getting rusty on the bottom outside. Moisture seeps from the cement.

[Super Spy]

It's all in the garage in an RSC with desiccant. No issues yet.

[Boltz]

Cool, thanks for the ideas guys. I have most of my ammo in ammo cans already (plastic and metal ones with rubber seals). I know the weather in SD isn't anything extreme, but my garage gets about 10-20 degrees hotter than the outside temp on a sunny day, so I just wanted to play it safe. I just have to figure out how to best hide it now