Ammo Storage Is Actually More Important Than You Think, Here's Why

Reason #1

There are misconceptions about the shelf life of ammunition. Some people think that ammo lasts forever, while others think ammo is like bread and goes bad right away. The truth is somewhere in the middle.  Ammo doesn’t last forever, nor does it have some expiration date after which it doesn’t work.

Ammunition works something like medicine. As it ages it loses its potency. If you use an aspirin that is 5 years old, it didn’t go bad, however it might not be as effective as when it was new, same with ammo. Go get grandpas old shotgun shells from the basement and shoot them, they should work, they just lost some of their punch.

So what can we do to protect against this? Well, you can’t beat father time; it is inevitable that the ammo will age.  However, what you can do is store the ammunition in a more controlled environment that slows down the aging process.

Reason #2

Another good reason to use a safe is to not create a fire hazard with loose piles of ammunition. Loose ammo that goes up will probably not create some amazing epic explosion like you see in the movies, rather what it will likely do is create an extremely hot fire. The ammo will pop and explode and create a fire that even hotter than a normal fire. In fact, it would be too dangerous for firefighters to engage.

Fire-rated safes are valuable because they don’t allow ammo to get hot enough to combust.  A good fire safe will not exceed 300 degrees, which is not hot enough to ignite your ammo. The takeaway message is that you and your family are much safer if you have proper ammunition storage in your home.