Cooling bags for ammunition?

walkabout

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Minuteman
Feb 21, 2012
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Devon, England
I will be attending the world .22 championships in Italy next month with a load of you guys from across the pond.
Looking how Europe's temps are at the moment, even when it settles down be bit warmer than the UK!
I'm thinking of maybe keeping my rounds in a cool bag of some sort.
No idea if the hotel will have ice spare or If I will have a fridge in my room?
I was thinking a 12v electric Insulated soft bag cooler to keep the rounds cool over night and the insulated bag in the shade might keep them from being over heated?
What do you guys think?
Or am I being a bit Paranoid about it?
 
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I live in NW AZ and when I go to shoots in the summer I keep my ammo in a cooler. I remove the round for that stage just prior to shooting and have had no issues with SD or ES discrepancies, Never noticed and condensation either. I stared doing this after have some round that sat in the shade in temps 90 to 100+ and I did get some speed spikes ans pressure signs on the primers. Now for rimfire not sur if that matters as much.
 
If you keep them cooler than the environment they will have condensation on them when you remove them from that container. You'd also face varying powder temps as they cooled at different intervals between removal and shots. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

This. The condensation will cause more issues than hotter than normal ammo.

Local ammo will be designed to run in those conditions.. unless yoh bring your own ammo, you are wasting brain cells and chasing unicorns.

You should refrain from posting advice on the internet.
 
Any container that can be sealed airtite will be good, just that a cooler is not as durable as an ammo can, in case it falls off of your tank or something. But I don't expect much combat in your basement. So I would say as long as the container seals airtite. Some places sell plastic containers with a seal similiar to an ammo can too. YOu might want to put some bags of dessicant in there before you seal it up if you do live in a very humid area. Humidity is not a great issue here, especially in winter. If your basement floods, maybe the ice chest will float to the top!
 
I could see using a dry cooler or something similar to keep ammo temps from spiking up when outdoors in the sun, but don't think ice is a good idea, or see any need to keep it extra cool indoors. Imagine what the ammo will do if you've kept it cold, then pull out some rounds to shoot (I don't know if you're filling a magazine, or setting rounds on a bench, or what): your first shot will be with the coldest round, and the rest will gradually heat up as you take time to shoot - temp changes like that are most likely not going to do you any favors.

You could be thinking more about stabilizing the temp for consistency, if you did anything, like in a dry cooler or even just in your range bag. But trying to keep it cooler than room temp - not much reason for that and there are potential downsides as pointed out above.
 
I have shot in very hot places many times

What I do is keep the ammo covered and out of direct sunlight. That way it’s as close to same temp round to round. You can use a soft side flat lunch type bag and just reach in for rounds. No ice

I see more problems with leaving in hot chamber and cooking the round between firings than outside air temps
 
Keep ammo in the shade. I just keep my ammo in a mtm case and set it in my backpack with the flap closed over it at matches.
Out of curiosity one day when checking speed. Fresh reloaded ammo from the house was 2820. The 2 rounds in my match saver that had been sitting in the sun(90°) for 2 hours were 2922. Just something to be considerate of.
 
No way I’d use ice or refrigerate the ammo. Think of a cold drink outside on a hot day… all that condensation.

Keep them out if the sun and you’ll be fine
 
Keep ammo in the shade. I just keep my ammo in a mtm case and set it in my backpack with the flap closed over it at matches.
Out of curiosity one day when checking speed. Fresh reloaded ammo from the house was 2820. The 2 rounds in my match saver that had been sitting in the sun(90°) for 2 hours were 2922. Just something to be considerate of.
What powder and chambering and bullet weight? just for curiosities sake
 
What powder and chambering and bullet weight? just for curiosities sake
Varget, 30 grains. Alpha brass, 108 eldm.
Rifle was sitting in the sun on the porch. The 2 rounds were directly in the sun. I set it out there and thought about the rounds in the sun. I figured I'd give it a try and see what the velocity jumped to. Think it was 66° in my reloading room. Went straight out and shot the new ammo. I was surprised it jumped that much.
 
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