ammo storage

[badtothebone]

Hi,

I'm going to put up some ammo for long term storage.

Your thoughts about vacuum packing the boxes?

Thanks,

Rudy

 

[Stu Farish]

can't hurt

 

[Tbone-AZ]

I typically put some paper towels in the bottom of a medal military ammo can, and a decent size packet of that mosture wicking stuff. CLose the can and after a few years everything is still shinny and clean inside.
I am not sure that i would Vacum seal a can on second thought..

Depending on the pressure you can create, the air from the packaging you use can be sucked out, but as soon as you do that, remember that some of the air in each round is going to leak out. Maybe not enough to reballance, but not sure that i would want that effect. It could have some kind of negative affect.
Kind of like how if you vacum seal meat in a bag it pulls the moisture from the meat.

I do know that the military ammo that is stored for longer than any of us probubley would doesn't vacum seal, and if it helped, you know they would do it.

Just my thoughts, but an interesting idea.

 

[badtothebone]

Thanks guys!

 

[Az dogslayer]

Wrap the individual boxes in saran wrap/cling wrap. If no "fresh air" can get in after the oxygen has been depleted from what was in the box to begin with, the oxidation of the brass and copper stops.

 

[HunterHawk]

Have lots of loose rounds thought about buying an old or cheap food saver to vaccum seal the bags... Don't want to use my good one

 

[The Famous Grouse]

Personally, I would look at who's already solved this problem and then if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Shrink wrapping, vac-packing, etc all might seem like a good idea in theory, but has anybody actually tested this over a long-haul duration to find out about real world issues?

The US military has been storing ammo the same way for almost 100 years. In ammo cans, in bulk, not plastic wrapped, etc. Just kept in a warehouse in controlled conditions.

Not sure how many guys remember this, but WW1 and WW2 surplus ammo was routinely showing up on the sporting market well into the 1970s. While some of this ammo didn't look pretty, it was very reliable given that a lot of it was 50+ years old.

I know there were guys down in New Zealand who were fighting those 1960s and 70s rabbit plagues by pulling bullets out of WW1 and WW2 surplus ammo and then recycling the powder and the brass because ammo was in such short supply down there during these years. Setting aside the wisdom of re-using un-known powder, my understanding is there were no significant issues with the age of the ammo.

Bottom line is that brass case ammo, kept in reasonably controlled conditions, the lifespan is already very long. I'd be wary of introducing more problems.

Grouse