Fellow dogs,

How do you store your ammo pile?

I have a tiny hoard, but plan on storing more in the future. Right now it is only a couple of metal ammo cans with those paper dessicant packs in with the ammo. Most of the ammo is not boxed inside the cans.

I live in a fairly humid area (in the summer), but not close to the sea.

Should I be doing it differently? (Like using water tight containers)

How often do those silica packs need to be replaced? (I was going to empty them out into perforated altoids tins so they can be recharged in the oven)

How long can ammo sit in high humidity without degrading? Its been sitting for maybe a year with the same dessicant in the cans.

Sincerely,
monsterdog

I have 6 25mm (each plastic can held 30 rounds) cans that I keep mine in, but I have a box of each caliber handgun ammo stored in a metal 5.56 ammo can inside our closet. The other (Bulk?) plastic cans are in the garage and are water tight I know and possibly air tight as well. It really works nice.

I think those mil ammo cans have an airtight gasket on em. Not sure though.

Not sure they are air tight, but there is a rubber gasket in mil. ammo cans. I use them for all my ammo.

yep old ammo cans here as well 4 of them with ammo for each gun in each of them so if I can only grab one or two I still have some for each wepon that will go with.

I have mine in an old .50cal can, and some other smaller plastic cans, all on top of my gun safe. I need to rework the set-up, but haven't yet.

Those plastic "Cans" I was talking about do have a thick rubber gasket and seal up just like regular ammo cans.

I don't have much of a pile, so I store mine in magazines.

You can only have so many magazines, but I'm glad to see prices coming back down for PMags. I also wonder about the effects on the springs of being loaded for long periods of time.

everything I read and hear says staying compressed doesn't hurt spring steel, it's the compression and relaxation of the spring that wears them out.

With the current price of ammo, I can't afford to "release" the loaded magazines, so I guess I should be OK.

This is current internet wisdom, but I disagree with it.

I have two brand new / never used Glock mags that I stored with one less round than full capacity for a couple of years, and the springs have noticeably less resistance now when compared to two mags I bought at the same time but stored unloaded.

Use does wear out a spring, but compression also causes the spring to "take a set" or weaken.