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Ammo storage location question.

oldcars

Silver $$ Contributor
So, I recently moved to a new house and I need to figure out my Ammo storage situation. In my last place I had an office in my shop, and I my ammo occupied some wooden shelves in my office, insulated room, concrete floor, occasionally heated but always above freezing, no windows.

My plan was to use the same wooden shelves in the attached garage of the new house. It's insulated but not heated, this is our first winter here and so far the coldest the garage has gotten is about 38-40 degrees. -BUT- I have been noticing how much moisture comes in with our cars when we drive in out of the rain, or with snow that melts and now I am second guessing that idea. The Concrete floor is slightly sloped so everything drains out the door again eventually, I'm just wondering if the occasional evaporating water off the floor would be bad for the ammo long-term?

My new office is in the house, and I don't have room there, I don't have room for it in my reloading room, and the only other place I have room for it is out in the non-insulated storage side of my shop, which is concrete floored, tight, dark, and dry, but has temperature swings like outside, so 100+ in the summer, down to teens in the winter.

The Ammo is like most peoples, mix of factory in cardboard and handloads in plastic boxes, and bulk in cans.

So, whats best: less temperature swing but more potential humidity, or drier room with hotter hots and colder colds ?

Am I over thinking this? I am in North Central Oregon so we don't get a ton of moisture or humidity, I just haven't ever had an attached garage before, and didn't really think about how much water the cars bring in when it's wet !
 
I use a craftsman roller tool box for most of my ammo. I also use the plastic mtm ammo boxes that have a rubber seal. (place a desiccant pack inside also)
 
Well, Those are all excellent solutions, but won't really work in my specific situation. The amount I have to store and catalog is an amount some would consider "sizable" and even if I had room in the house, weight would be an issue. And I don't really want to use buckets or bags because when I walk up to the shelf looking for something specific, I just want to be able to grab the box I want, not dig for a half hour. I don't really have a bunch of bulk anything, just a bunch of boxes of different variety for lots of calibers. I do use a big rolling tool box for all my rim-fire stuff, and it works great, but would for the rest.
 
Would a dehumidifier work in your ammo/powder/primer storage area. Of course, you’d still have the temp issue. It’s a hard one. I have one whole bedroom set aside for storage, but not everybody can do that.
 
Yeah, I'll chime in. Shelves in my mancave. Ammo cans in the loading room. Back seat of the truck is loaded up as I am old and forget ammo a lot. So I keep a buttload back there of all flavors..
 
USGI ammo cans or the plastic with rubber seals .......AND some desiccant bags in EACH one. Rounds in the ziplocks, desiccant bag on bottom and another on top. Might consider one IN the bag, but place in an OPEN sandwich size ziplock bag that is NOT sealed.

2 gram, 100 pack for less than $7 on that aaaamazprime place.
 
Heres what I just did with my ammo. I went and bought 14 of the 50 cal ammo cans and loaded up all my ammo inside. I put desiccant packs inside each one. I labeled the outside of the cans. Then I bought a heavy duty shelving unit and loaded everything on it. I put it in a closet downstairs. It is in an air condition and humidity controlled area. It has 5 shelves could possibly hold 12 of the 50 caliber cans on each shelf. And each shelf will hold 1500 pounds. Bought it at Home Depot.

What you don’t want is moisture, heat or cold as in temperature swings. Temp swings cause moisture, and will degrade your ammo over time. Primers and powders are sensitive to household cleaning chemicals like products containing ammonia. A metal shelf would only take up the space of the shelf size, the bonus is you will have 5 levels. Try to keep your ammo in a room that you would be comfortable in. If you can find a room that is heated and cooled between 50 deg to 70 degrees and has a dehumidifier you will be good.
 
Ammo cans are what I use. When I built my reloading bench, the bottom shelf is where i keep them. Labels on the cans for easy identification. All of my reloading is in a spare room in the basement, so it is the same conditions as the rest of the house.

Tim
 
Basically, It needs to be on shelves so I can organize it by caliber and actually get to everything. Lets say the shelves are 6 feet tall and 9 feet wide. It's not bulk stuff like a million rounds of 5.56, it's stacks of boxes I need to se the ends of to know if I'm grabbing what i'm looking for without spending a half hour digging through ammo cans or buckets every time I want to shoot some weird old gun.

-Garage with occasionally wet cars 6 feet away but insulated
or
-Shop without wet cars, but non insulated besides a big concrete floor as a heat sink.

Oh, and if it matters, 2300 feet elevation north central Oregon plains, normally not too humid, very dry in summer.

I love ammo cans and use them for reloaded bulk stuff, but they just won't work for the variety and amount I'm dealing with here. The size and weight needs to keep it out of the house and in the garage or shop. I had been planning on the garage until my wife's car kept dripping water and dropping clumps of snow this last week and it got me thinking. Maybe it's a non issue? I mean, people have giant open fish tanks and store their ammo in the same room ?
 
Cool and dry is what you need for long-term ammo storage.

Your garage solution isn't great. But it's better than an uninsulated shed that periodically gets really hot. Heat is your number one enemy.

Dessicant works fine for helping control humidity on a temporary basis - like shipping something. But once its (quite limited) capacity for absorbing and holding that moisture is reached, it doesn't help a bit. You can "refresh" it by drying it out in an oven, but doing that regularly is a pain and no one does it. Dessicant is not a long-term solution for humidity.

Best by far is storing your ammo in your normal, climate-controlled living space. Just tell your wife it's the new up-and-coming decor.
 
Can you find a place in the house to put maybe a dresser and have it in the drawers? If you go through it fast enough the outside options should work ok but I wouldn't want it out there myself. Even under beds is a possibility. Look for dead space in the house. There is usually a lot more than people think. You can put it in caliber specific ammo cans/plastic cans and label and slid under beds. Closets are another place. Look for the dead space.
 
It pretty much needs to be on concrete because of the weight. Even if I could find room in the house, it would be like parking a mid size sedan in my living room, weight-wise.
 
Heavy duty metal rack. Throw clear plastic completely over full rack. Tape back and sides of plastic/rack. Place ammo/powder on shelves and mark as you see fit. Place hanging bags of Damp-Rid inside the tarp. The hanging bags are normally used for closet space. Replace bags as the become full.
 
I have an attached garage, insulated no heat or cooling. Does occasionally get cold enough to freeze water/powerade. I store shotgun rounds, factory boxes, and some bulk 22 rimfire on wood shelves, all above head level. I have a drain in one stall and will wash the wife's car in there. Never have had a problem, some of the shotgun hunting ammo 10+ years old.
 
oldcars said:
It pretty much needs to be on concrete because of the weight. Even if I could find room in the house, it would be like parking a mid size sedan in my living room, weight-wise.
Click to expand...
Doesn’t all have to be in the same place. That much weight spread around house wouldn’t be an issue.
 
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