storage of stuff

rockwind1

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Feb 16, 2017
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so i got into reloading a while back but seem to be drifting away due to family and other interests becoming more time consuming. the boxes of bullets and empty brass can be rather heavy but i would assume to be impervious to temperature as far as storage goes. i had been storing some brass and bullets in a shed which gets pretty hot during summer for a while, hopefully this was not a bad idea? any cool ideas out there for minimizing footprint or maximizing storage space for brass and bullets? i hate selling stuff but when i get a bit older and can't do as much athletic stuff i will restart. i want to be as efficient as possible. any thoughts out there. continuing to do some online research of course but just asking.

has anyone found a good freezer that can be used as just a dehumidifier/room temp thing?
 
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Ok...first, everything except powder and primers are PROBABLY ok in the shed as long as they are dry.

That being said, if you are talking decades, you may want to think differently. At the very least, get the projectiles fairly warm in an oven to drive out moisture and then vacuum seal them with a desiccant thing, to prevent oxidation. I tend to go overboard and would probably seal them in motor oil...just use a gallon motor oil jug (CHEAP AS POSSIBLE) about 1/2 full and start filling it with bullets, making sure that the bullets on top are still covered in oil. Cases, same thing. It would not be difficult to remove the oil at some point in the future with any number of solvents, detergents, degreasers or good old elbow grease. I'd be sure to paint and mark and identify those jugs for posterity.

That oil doesn't have to be tossed, in fact, it would work just fine in the motor of your bugout/survival/getaway vehicle. Not everyone around the world has access to $50/ounce super dooper extra cool kid lube endorsed by every special operator in US SOCOM. Millions of AK-47's and other weapons are routinely and successfully cleaned with diesel fuel or gasoline siphoned from a trucks tank and lubricated with oil dripped off the dipstick and greased with stuff scavenged from the ball joints.

Powder and primers are slightly more difficult but before I tell you what I currently do, let me tell you about finding some primers in 1979 my dad had left in a box about 1969. They had not been stored in any sort of special way, just a box of 100 in with a bunch of other stuff. My dad was KIA Vietnam in 1969 so these may have been just tossed in that box by my mother. I was a senior in HS and didn't think much about any sort of degradation or oxidation or whatever and used them to make cartridges. No problems. A few years later, gaining some knowledge, I wondered how lucky I might have been but really, the primer by itself doesn't add greatly to the explosion.

I currently use the CHEAP white styrofoam coolers to store powder and primers in. I place the powder in the coolers while still in the unopened can. I fill the cooler as much as possible and place an oxygen absorber or 2. Then I use packing tape to seal the lid and tape it down, too. I use a Sharpie to label the cooler with what's inside. Then I place the cooler in a closet that does not have an exterior wall...the closet is 100% interior. The reasoning....temperature changes are the most detrimental to powder. especially rapid changes. Being in a closet, the HVAC system has little impact on the closet temperatures and with no exterior wall, that closet has a very uniform temperature though out the year.

Ammunition, treated much the same, temperatures held steady and humidity controlled, will last decades and decades.
 
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Ok...first, everything except powder and primers are PROBABLY ok in the shed as long as they are dry.

That being said, if you are talking decades, you may want to think differently. At the very least, get the projectiles fairly warm in an oven to drive out moisture and then vacuum seal them with a desiccant thing, to prevent oxidation. I tend to go overboard and would probably seal them in motor oil...just use a gallon motor oil jug (CHEAP AS POSSIBLE) about 1/2 full and start filling it with bullets, making sure that the bullets on top are still covered in oil. Cases, same thing. It would not be difficult to remove the oil at some point in the future with any number of solvents, detergents, degreasers or good old elbow grease. I'd be sure to paint and mark and identify those jugs for posterity.

That oil doesn't have to be tossed, in fact, it would work just fine in the motor of your bugout/survival/getaway vehicle. Not everyone around the world has access to $50/ounce super dooper extra cool kid lube endorsed by every special operator in US SOCOM. Millions of AK-47's and other weapons are routinely and successfully cleaned with diesel fuel or gasoline siphoned from a trucks tank and lubricated with oil dripped off the dipstick and greased with stuff scavenged from the ball joints.

Powder and primers are slightly more difficult but before I tell you what I currently do, let me tell you about finding some primers in 1979 my dad had left in a box about 1969. They had not been stored in any sort of special way, just a box of 100 in with a bunch of other stuff. My dad was KIA Vietnam in 1969 so these may have been just tossed in that box by my mother. I was a senior in HS and didn't think much about any sort of degradation or oxidation or whatever and used them to make cartridges. No problems. A few years later, gaining some knowledge, I wondered how lucky I might have been but really, the primer by itself doesn't add greatly to the explosion.

I currently use the CHEAP white styrofoam coolers to store powder and primers in. I place the powder in the coolers while still in the unopened can. I fill the cooler as much as possible and place an oxygen absorber or 2. Then I use packing tape to seal the lid and tape it down, too. I use a Sharpie to label the cooler with what's inside. Then I place the cooler in a closet that does not have an exterior wall...the closet is 100% interior. The reasoning....temperature changes are the most detrimental to powder. especially rapid changes. Being in a closet, the HVAC system has little impact on the closet temperatures and with no exterior wall, that closet has a very uniform temperature though out the year.

Ammunition, treated much the same, temperatures held steady and humidity controlled, will last decades and decades.
thanks! good info! it's really not a prepper type of thing right now. just an efficient way to store for a while. i was wondering on those styrofoam containers,,seems like an excellent idea, if oxygen is the enemy here, to the oxygen absorbers turn color when they stop working? any thoughts on oxygen going thru the foam walls? i was just wondering how long the absorber lasts in those conditions.

in food storage, they sometimes will take a tube and push to bottom of a container and fill it up with co2 or nitrogen to push out oxygen and keep it out. not sure how that would work on a syrofoam cooler, i think it has to be airtite.
 
what happens at 900 degree's? it was just empty brass and the typical plastic boxes of bullets, in case you thought i meant powder
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thanks! good info! it's really not a prepper type of thing right now. just an efficient way to store for a while. i was wondering on those styrofoam containers,,seems like an excellent idea, if oxygen is the enemy here, to the oxygen absorbers turn color when they stop working? any thoughts on oxygen going thru the foam walls? i was just wondering how long the absorber lasts in those conditions.

in food storage, they sometimes will take a tube and push to bottom of a container and fill it up with co2 or nitrogen to push out oxygen and keep it out. not sure how that would work on a syrofoam cooler, i think it has to be airtite.
Oxygen is not the problem.
The reasoning....temperature changes are the most detrimental to powder. especially rapid changes. Being in a closet, the HVAC system has little impact on the closet temperatures and with no exterior wall, that closet has a very uniform temperature though out the year.