How hot is too hot for ammo storage?

[IronMonster]

So at my new place I have a room off the back of my garage that I have designated for ammo storage. I put a thermometer in there that records the high and low temps of the day and was surprised to see its getting into the low 90's in there. I know cool, dry is better but my choice is to move my ammo into the basement of the house. I have enough ammo that it does concern me a bit to shuffle the stuff under my bedroom, in the case of a house fire it might be a real ugly deal (I would guess I have an easy 1000 pounds of ammo)

So how hard is it on the stuff to sit in a 90 deg room during the summer?

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[Mark W.]

9(0 degrees should make no difference unless it is combined with high humidity. A dry heat will not effect the powder or primers.

 

[Kruel J]

There's LOTS of ammo and ordnance stored around the world in very hot places with lots of sand. 90 is not all that hot. My garage gets above that and I have plenty of rounds in airtight ammo boxes and have never thought anything of it.

 

[No_Regerts]

You'll know when it gets too hot.....

 

[nammac]

If you think about ammo depots and warehouses, I'm sure they reach into the 90's as well...

I've got stuff I reloaded 25 years ago, stored in my garage, and it gets toasty out there, facing north and all... I've never noticed any degradation in performance...

YMMV...

 

[Stomper]

Only a mere THOUSAND rounds? I call BS

 

[nammac]

Only a mere THOUSAND rounds? I call BS

No, he said a thousand pounds...

Still sounds kinda lite though

 

[Stomper]

No, he said a thousand pounds...

Still sounds kinda lite though

Oh..... POUNDS, not "ROUNDS".... now THAT I'd believe coming from IM!

 

[IronMonster]

Oh..... POUNDS, not "ROUNDS".... now THAT I'd believe coming from IM!


View attachment 377789

Yeah, Its probably considerably more than a thousand but I figured that was a big enough number to get the point across it was a lot of powder to put under my bedroom

 

[Stomper]

Yeah, Its probably considerably more than a thousand but I figured that was a big enough number to get the point across it was a lot of powder to put under my bedroom

It'd definately make for some "poppers" if there was an "event"! I keep my "bulk" in an out building from the main house.

 

[DizzyJ]

I'm going to buck the trend here. Heat will degrade powder and primers. How fast and to what degree I don't know. I keep the loaded ammo, primers and poweder inside the house where it's climate controlled.

It may be overkill, but when your that much time into working up a precision load, I don't want to take any chances.

This is just my personal feelings on the matter. I would think inside the house is also more humidity controlled.

 

[IronMonster]

I'm going to buck the trend here. Heat will degrade powder and primers. How fast and to what degree I don't know. I keep the loaded ammo, primers and poweder inside the house where it's climate controlled.

It may be overkill, but when your that much time into working up a precision load, I don't want to take any chances.

This is just my personal feelings on the matter. I would think inside the house is also more humidity controlled.

Humidity is not a problem here, I am high desert and its rare for the humidity to pass 50%

But it does get hot

 

[Jamie6.5]

Check the temp close(r) to the floor. Especially if the floor is concrete. You may find the floor is 10-20* cooler than the air 6' up off the floor.

 

[ob1]

I'm going to buck the trend here. Heat will degrade powder and primers. How fast and to what degree I don't know. I keep the loaded ammo, primers and poweder inside the house where it's climate controlled.

Heat doesn't have an effect on things at all. I've been out in the heat a lot and it hasn't changed things for me....

 

[Stomper]

Heat doesn't have an effect on things at all. I've been out in the heat a lot and it hasn't changed things for me....
View attachment 377846

That's just the middle of the process.

He started out like this:




And finished like this:

 

[Ura-Ki]

Over in the sand box of Azz-Stan, the supply guys had dug down 6 feet or more and stockpiled many hundreds of crates of ammo covered with two layers of tarps a few feet apart. there were times of sub freezing, and times of 120 deg days. We did notice on ammo of 7.62 and bigger that the higher the temps the more the rifles kicked, and were told the speeds could be up to 200 fps faster. Have no way of proving that theory, but my shoulder told me it was true! I would say moisture would be of bigger concern then heat, I doubt you could get ammo hot enough to have any issues just sitting in a structure!

 

[P7M13]

451°F, but you should be all right as long as it isn't stored near any books.