Ammo storage in safe?

[AreWeFree]

Here's a very interesting and informative video on ammo. It covers many areas and is worth your time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SlOXowwC4c

For people who have zero time/interest, here's one part of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3SlOXowwC4c#t=740

I do not worry about ammo in a fire, being impacted, chain reactions, etc. In a house fire, ammo cooking off will not harm firefighters and your primary hazard is... the FIRE!

(Ammo loaded in a gun is still dangerous of course since the pressure of the round would be contained.)

[Paperchasin]

But what if I store my ammo in a safe IN ammo cans?

Thats alot of space to waste inside of a safe for ammo IMO. Ammo does not need to be locked up, so why waste valuable safe space? If you've got nothing better to do with the space inside the safe, then sure why not!

[as_rocketman]

(Ammo loaded in a gun is still dangerous of course since the pressure of the round would be contained.)

... or, the pressure of a few thousand rounds contained in a safe. Loose ammo in a fire is one thing, but all contained in a steel box is something else.

Any decent safe will have fire seals, and we may assume they've activated.

No gun safe is airtight, but they're close enough. Once whole boxes of ammo start each other on fire you're going to see a rapid rise in temperature and a lot of gas generated, and there is a chance for serious overpressure. Even if you get lucky, surely no good will come of it.

Just don't do it.

[sonofeugene]

If you're concerned about the temp inside your safe to "cook off" rounds to damage the contents, then:
1. You're watching too many movies (search you tube for the tests)
2. At that temp, everything else inside your safe has already been destroyed or extensively damaged by the heat.

This.

[AreWeFree]

... or, the pressure of a few thousand rounds contained in a safe. Loose ammo in a fire is one thing, but all contained in a steel box is something else.

Any decent safe will have fire seals, and we may assume they've activated.

No gun safe is airtight, but they're close enough. Once whole boxes of ammo start each other on fire you're going to see a rapid rise in temperature and a lot of gas generated, and there is a chance for serious overpressure. Even if you get lucky, surely no good will come of it.

Just don't do it.

You are a reputable person here and I do respect your opinion/advice.

I can't argue merits here, however when you have time I highly suggest watching the video I linked in my post above. It was made as an instructional video for fire fighters and has a lot of good information, as well as dispels some myths and misconceptions.

[StuckInTheP.R.O.Ca]

If you're concerned about the temp inside your safe to "cook off" rounds to damage the contents, then:
1. You're watching too many movies (search you tube for the tests)
2. At that temp, everything else inside your safe has already been destroyed or extensively damaged by the heat.

Thats what I was thinking. I don't store all my ammo in my safe but not for this reason but because I believe in not keeping all my eggs in one basket. The safe may fail to open in an emergency, SHTF or EMP.

[as_rocketman]

You are a reputable person here and I do respect your opinion/advice.

I can't argue merits here, however when you have time I highly suggest watching the video I linked in my post above. It was made as an instructional video for fire fighters and has a lot of good information, as well as dispels some myths and misconceptions.

I've seen it. It's been around for a while.

Nothing in that video describes ammunition igniting in a confined space. Whole different ballgame for several reasons.

[MrSam]

I used to store it in the safe. There's plenty of room in there. Only problem is, it is difficult to move things around when there are ammo cans and boxes all around the safe. Now my ammo sits in a nightstand drawer that I rigged to hold a lock.
A once "Victoria's Secret" occupied night stand is now occupied with Federal, Winchester, etc. No one tell the Ms...

[RobertMW]

I keep my ammo outside the safe in a couple o-ringed ammo boxes with dessicant pouches in any that will be sitting around for longer periods. I see no reason to keep ammo in the safe.

[aeromech]

I know a guy who lost his house in a wild fire a few years ago. He had a very large and expensive safe full of expensive guns plus his ammo. The ammo cooked off and destoyed all the guns inside. Don't store your ammo inside the safe.

[mr2ndamendment]

At my last work we had a wildfire burn down and destroy some of our buildings, one of which housed many thousands of rounds of ammo. You'd be surprised how many rounds DIDN'T cook off, even when exposed to flames. We found a lot of brass/bullets from cook-offs that got the serious heat, but some rounds were found loose as the boxes had burned around the cartridges. The large quantity of stuff that didn't cook off was discolored. Against all conventional advice, we shot quite a bit of it and some of it didn't go off because the primers were junked, while some of it hang-fired. Most of the ammo was Winchester 5.56 for the ARs we were running.

In any case, storing ammo in a well-made fire-resistant safe shouldn't be an issue and if it is, it'll go off in a contained metal box. I can't imagine it'd pose a threat to firefighters locked up in a safe but of course your guns and documents are at risk.

Of course the real solution is to buy a big safe(s) for your guns and get a safe(s) for your ammo.

[Bansh88]

I just have a handful of loaded mags in my safe. Most of my ammo is in a 4'x4'x2' steel storage locker. I just happened to score it from work

[Mayor McRifle]

also, if you have enough room in your safe for ammo, you don't have enough guns or ammo

Exactly!

[JDay]

I have separate storage for ammo and accessories.



Sent from my LG G3

[cdodge0817]

If a safe seals air tight, won't that disallow most combustion reactions inside the safe due to a lack of oxygen? I would imagine after a few rounds cook off, that would deplete whatever oxygen was in the safe to start even more to where no combustion could happen.