Storing ammo in cedar chest?

[.22guy]

Well, the title pretty much says it all. I have a ton of .22LR and shotgun shells that I would like to put in a cedar chest.

My buddy told me this would be bad because cedar will attract moisture. I really have nowhere else to put it that is safe from the kiddies. He told me to buy ammo cans and all that, which I have for most of my other ammo, but it would cost me a fortune in ammo cans for this ammo.

So would it be safe for me to put it in there? Most of it won't be used for quite a while, but it's part of my inexpensive stockpile.

[G17GUY]

I actually prefer to store ammo and powder in wooden cabinets over metal.

Ammo cans are best for humidity control; degradation of the powder and primers from high and low extreme temperature changes is more of a problem.

To add, ammo cook offs from fire are not all that dangerous; especially if the ammo is not in sealed containers.

A wood crate will be fine.

[6079Winston]

I store some of my ammo in a cedar chest. It might even qualify as a powder magazine, I would have to check. I haven't noticed any moisture or moth damage yet.

[Surfdog]

Not sure how cedar would attract moisture? if anything the wood would be the first thing to absorb the water. I buy these moisture absorbing things that they sell at Wal Mart and keep them im my safe. After a few months they trap quite a bit of water, maybe a cup, then discard and replace. They are probably not as effective as an electronic gizmo, but they seem to do the job.

[otalps]

Cedar is the wood of choice for cigar boxes and humidors I believe, so it might retain some moisture.

[scrat]

if thats all you have then use them. If you want some insurance against moisture. then go out and purchase some zip lock storage bags. you can fill up a whole bunch of shells in them. there goes your moisture problem.

Go by you local 7 eleven pick up some beef jerkey. eat it up. Take the little absorb bag and put it in your zip lock back. moisture gone again.

[bohoki]

cedar chests are designed to keep moths away and seal up pretty well i have an old gramma hope chest like that with temp flucuations i would find a way to keep the lid ajar

of course i wouldnt have a problem keeping the lid ajar it would be so overstuffed it wouldn't close

so take about 5 boxes of shotshells on top of each other to keep the lid ajar