Do we all keep ammo in gun safes??

[Rembrandt]

Too much in inventory to store it all in safes.....but I do keep a small sampling in the safe for quick accessibility.

[PeterGreg]

This allows internal pressure to build up to extremely dangerous levels. The term commonly used for a strong and sealed container that contains gunpowder is a BOMB

so my ammo in a 50cal can stored in a gunsafe must be close to a nuke

I can fit 1k plus in that wasted space below the bottom shelf of my gunsafe

[medalguy]

No ankle biters running around our place and all ammo is in my gun room which is locked. Of course we have ammo for SD scattered around the house.

[thedudeabides]

Keep it in waterproof ammo buckets. Put it in a metal locker, but not the gun safe.

No room and no point.

[drail]

I keep the guns in the safe and ALL of the ammo in GI cans in the garage. I do not want mass quantities of ammunition stored in my house.

[gaseousclay]

I keep mine in an ammo can purchased from mills fleet farm, separate from my guns

[SPEMack618]

I'm neglectful of my ammo storage. Most of it resides in the factory containers in empty shotgun shell cases under my desk or in the closet behind my rubbermaid tub that masquerades as a footlocker in ammo cans. I barely have enough room in the gun safe for my guns, much less my ammo

[RamItOne]

[wayneinFL]

I used to keep mine locked up in a cabinet, not the safe. The powder has always gone in a cabinet. The ammo won't fit in the cabinet anymore, so it's on shelves.

My kids are older now anyway. They know better than to do something stupid like chock a round up in a vise and hit the primer with a nail. Which brings me to this:

I don't see why ammo would need to be locked up. It is not going to do anything by itself. We never had an issue with our kids, or when I was a kid, by having ammo stacked on shelves or in unlocked cabinets.

Nothing happened in our house either, because Dad told us what happens when you chock a shotgun shell up in a vise in the basement and hit the primer with a hammer and nail- he learned from experience when he was 7 years old.

If you want to know happens, apparently, it's a ringing in your ears, a torn pant leg, and a whoopin'. Didn't sound like fun to me, so I never tried it for myself.

[FLChinook]

Didn't sound like fun to me, so I never tried it for myself.

You clearly have never met my three Houston grandsons, any two of whom are easily capable of goading the third into doing almost anything

[Ben Towe]

No, I have an old amplifier cabinet that used to belong to Bocephus that holds my ammo.

[Rifleman1776]

On open shelves in my shop.

[SerenityNetworks]

I was asked above why a separate locked container in another area of the house. There are a few reasons...
1) Habit. It is what my dad and Boy Scouts taught me. I've done it since childhood.
2) Foster Care. Even fostering in a rural area where the Social Workers (both men and women) hunted, they wanted the ammo locked and separate. I didn't need guns in a safe, but I did need to use trigger locks. I totally agree with the policy for a number of reasons; but mainly because it is such a simple and effective accident prevention measure. I also think it is appropriate for any home, anytime. It may not be "needed", but it might help prevent accidents.
3) My wife. For the accident prevention reasons stated above. (We still "borrow" children all the time, we have ankle biter aged grandkids and great-grandkids, and we commonly care for the handicapped that have limited understanding.)
4) Organization. I have a 4'W x 2'D x 5'H four drawer heavy steel office filing cabinet. Top drawer has camping and outdoor stuff. Next drawer has shooting stuff (including ammo). Next has computing and office parts. Bottom has fishing supplies. I won't say the drawers are organized, but at least the equipment is grouped.
5. I don't want guns and ammo immediately visible - to anyone, especially BGs. If a BG does get in then at least they will be slowed down in needing to find it and then getting access.

Andrew

NRA Life Member
------------------------
"There are some ideas so preposterous that only an intellectual will believe them." - Malcolm Muggeridge

[vito]

I think it is essential to keep ammo locked up, just like the guns themselves. Everyone knows that guns and ammo can get up, usually in the middle of the night when no one is watching, and run out into the street and start killing people. If this wasn't the case why would there be so many laws restricting guns and ammo? I actually have a small safe that I won at a trade show, the kind that you sometimes see installed in a hotel room. Its secure enough to keep the grandkids out but my guess is that with a crowbar it could be popped open easy enough. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to keep more than a box or two of each caliber, then I end up going out and buying more.

[Sparks1957]

Before I bought a gun safe, I used a Stack-On cabinet for storing guns. Now it serves a a place to store ammo.

Safe space is too valuable to use for ammo storage, in my opinion.

[45Gunner]

Don't have room to store ammo in my safe. The guns in my safe are all stored with loaded magazines.

All my other ammo remains in original factory boxes and is stacked by caliber in the bottom of a three unit wall cabinet that I have in the upstairs loft in my house. The house is temperature and humidity controlled which will prevent any deterioration or corroding of the ammo.

The ammo is out of view as those three bottom shelves have solid doors as opposed to the glass doors on the rest of the unit.

Recently have begun to run out of storage space in those units and have been storing ammo I buy by the case in the bottom of closet in an upstairs den near my range equipment.

With the price of ammo becoming increasing more expensive, my shooting buddies and I are doing bulk buys in quantity. Doing it this way, pardon the pun, we get more bang for our bucks.

[beex215]

its around my reloading area, out and about.

[PeterGreg]

With the price of ammo becoming increasing more expensive

To me this is the biggest reason to secure ammo, I've got as many $$ in ammo as in two mid-priced pistols.

[TailGator]

My handguns are secured. My ammo is in cardboard boxes on open shelves. Ammo without a gun to put it in is pretty harmless.

[ltc444]

good discussion Carguychris.

Ammo should not be stored in uninsulated unvented metal cabinets. Radiant heat will rapidly increase the temperature inside the cabinets to the auto ignition temperature of the powder/primer. When that occurs the ammo ignites. If the cabinet in not vented the burning propellants will generate pressure, accelerate the burn until until it reaches detonation velocity. Once detonation velocity is achieved the cabinet turns in to an excellent IED.

I store my ammo in wooden foot lockers. These lockers are locked and located in numerous locations throughout my property. I maintain a basic load with each weapon. 5 mags with my 1911 nest to my bed. 4 30 rd mags and one 10 rd mag with my ar.

Storage boxes are located were I may need them at strategic locations on the property.

By separating the storage I minimize the fire risk and improve my defense plan.

[Doublea A]

I keep them in the safe with all the firearms. I have enough room in safe because I only have 1900 rounds between three calibers. ( 9mm, 45 ACP and .223). I have rechargeable humidifier to keep moisture out.

[Apom]

Isn't locking up ammo the smart thing to do considering you can have thousands of dollars sitting on a shelf? I guess a thief can only carry so much.. but can you even insure ammo??

[BlueTrain]

Naw, I keep mine in cardboard boxes out in the garage next to the extra propane tanks. Of course, virtually all of it is for guns I don't own anymore. I've never actually known another gun owner who had a safe anyway.

[Woody55]

Mine are in a locked closet that also contains the gun safe.

If I'm not carrying a fire arm, it's locked in that safe.

This is the ONLY closet I've ever had that my wife hasn't moved into. It's the smell of the gun oil and solvent. It's a wife repellant.

And I don't have to keep my clothes in there either. She doesn't like the way my clothes smell when they are around gun oil etc. So, I actually get about an eighth of the big closet in the master bedroom for my clothes.

[FLChinook]

You get an EIGHTH of the big closet??? Wow, I can't even imagine getting so much