Is it safe to vacuum bag ammo? I'm thinking if things need to be stashed in the future, ammo in mags or stripper clips might survive a bit better in a vacuum.
Probably not a TOTAL vacuum though...wouldn't want to crush anything from atmospheric pressure!

I believe it's an excellent way to store ammo. I would want a small desiccant bag in each package.

I don't understand why so many people want to vacuum seal, pack with desiccant, and otherwise over-package ammunition.  I'd just store it in quality GI ammo cans, which are close enough to air-tight to protect your ammo from the atmosphere.

Vacuum packaging won't do anything to protect the ammo that an ammo can won't.  Desiccant isn't necessary to protect the ammo itself, but if your locale is humid you can use something to protect the cardboard and other non-metallic components from the humidity in the air when you close up the ammo can.  And rice is absolutely fine for any ammo storage need, whether you're worried about the Houston-level humidity's effect on your rounds while they're canned or because you are putting lots of cardboard and fabric (bandoleers) in with it.

In my opinion, people under-estimate the durability of ammunition.

I have seen some bad ammo.... all kinds of it, stored in horrible conditions..... the majority of it works flawlessly, even when it looks bad.

I had some 8mm Turkish surplus from around 1951..... that stuff was absolute CRAP. It was all corroded really nasty. The crimps were really loose, the bullet could spin around and I even managed to wiggle one out with my fingers. TOTAL JUNK. It was loose packed... 300 round can. It honestly looked like they stuffed it into the carcass of a dead dog, and dragged it down a dirt road behind a car. Dented like you wouldn't believe. The copper was worn off some of the bullets, rusting.
I spent about 1.5 hours with steel wool cleaning some of the corrosion off of the primers.

However..... most of it would fire. About 1/15 wouldn't fire. 10/15 worked normally. And 4/15 would hang fire, slightly.

The ones that weren't firing, and most of the delay fires, were of the same lot.... same head stamp. Same year, same factory, etc.

Most of that ammo survived horrible conditions, for half a century, and worked pretty well.

Just putting it in an ammo can and not storing it in the sewer will probably give you 100 years, minimum.

People exaggerate how sensitive ammo is.... it is tough stuff.


PS.... Got that ammo from www.ammunitiontogo.com...... We let John know about it, he voluntarily made it more than right. (Wasn't his fault anyway... surplus is "as is" in my opinion, as a consumer) We were just letting him know, just a FYI... he really fixed us up, though. You couldn't ask for better service... very pleased.

When I say stash...I mean as in hide. From government eyes. That means some nasty conditions.

There was a thread about this very topic I saw like 2-3 weeks ago...  What I remember from it was, that when a couple people went back to check their vacuum sealed ammo after some time (can't remember how long), the bag had partially inflated again.  They were thinking that the air within the ammo rounds themselves had been sucked out because of the vacuum state inside the bag.  They were thinking the difference in air pressure inside the cartridge was trying to equalize to the air pressure outside the cartridge in the bag.  However, I'm not sure how much of an impact that would have on the round when fired, if any.  

If anything I'd agree with what the OP of that thread decided to do.  He decided to just use the seal function of his vacuum packer instead of removing the air as well (thus just getting it completely sealed).  So, if it was me, I'd just throw a couple of those desiccant packs in there and then hit it with the sealer tool.

ETA: You could always do this and then get a big PVC pipe, place these packs in the PVC pipe.  Then cap it (making sure to seal the ends really well) and bury it in your backyard.  I think that'd keep it hidden really well...  I'm not sure how any tempeture changes would affect it though.

An ammo can will protect it from practically anything. It keeps it safe from impact damage. Keeps excessive moisture out.

Ammo doesn't need to be sealed off in positively pressurized tube filled with Argon to be safe... it just isn't necessary. (I know you aren't suggesting doing this.... but you don't have to go much farther to be there.)

if you dont like being called stupid dont be stupid and no one wll call you stupid. why waste your money on a vacum sealer spend on american made ammo DUH

The vacuume seal bags are not moisture proof.

Humidity WILL seep in slowly, even if you include a desiccant.

Ammo stored in an ammo can in any conditions that wont kill you will last forever, or close enough.  Ammo for burying purposes would need to be in sort sort of water-proof overpack, as the ammo can itself will eventually corrode.

Sealed section of PVC pipe, dessicant, shovel, shut up.

my weapon of choice for SHTF is my trusty red rider lever action .177 caliber BB slinger

its not worth the effort.  I recently shot up some 7x57 Mauser made before WW I, and every round fired just fine.  This stuff was stored for probably 90 years in a garage attic.

I have vacuum sealed some I reloaded before.   I noticed it didn't tarnish after time like that packed in ammo cans.    But that was about the only difference.   If you keep it dry and lower humidity conditions, it holds up fine either way.  If kept in a damp or humid area, I would do something to protect it a bit.  Even a plastic tub would work.

 I shot up some  Korean War era 30.06 ammo given to me by a relative in an old sporterized 1917 Enfield rifle and it ran 100%.    It was in an ammo can in a barn for years- probably since he got out of the Army in 1955.   It was tarnished and brown looking but went bang every time and was quite accurate.

One thing about the vacuum seal bag is you have to seal it and leave it alone.   If handled much or banged around, eventually they spring a leak.  I pack mine in an ammo can after sealing to keep the bags intact.

I like where you're going with this...  I think we should also store it on the moon, to reduce certain humidity effects.

You were right I wasn't suggesting this, or even the bury it part (that was internet sarcasm, the type you can't even tell is sarcasm).  I just keep my ammo stored in ammo cans in my house.  Some people like to go the extra mile on things and I'll help suggest the most elabrate setups possible.  Mostly because I would like to see pics.  Then I can point to the pictures and say, At least I'm not that crazy!

My thinking is that there may be situations where an ammo can may be too big. Hiding in walls, under rocks, etc.

.....How are you going to get ammo inside the wall? Most are capped from the top... and it is going to be obvious that you ripped your wall open unless you have practice doing dry wall.

Under a rock? Where? If it is near your home... they will probably lift the rock to see.

If it is not near your home... you have lost any "quick access" ability, so you might as well go ahead and bury it.



You could get creative and stick it into a piece of PVC pipe and sink it to the bottom of a lake... better keep the SCUBA gear handy, though.

You have no imagination, do ya?

Lets say you do a remodelling project...replacing/repairing drywall. Replace a whole sheet, but in the studs, you put a small cross member that your stashed item can rest on. I've heard of loaded (magazine, no round in chamber) guns being put in walls this way. You score the back of the wall where the nook is. In case of emergency, punch wall, grab your weapon. Or maybe a decorative, dry laid rock wall in the garden. Under the dirt but behind the wall. Pull wall down, maybe dig a little bit horizontally, get your item.
Doing concrete work? Build a box with thin wood, put your item in it, cover it with concrete. Obviously, you don't want to do this where a heavy weight or repeated use will be used on it, such as in a garage where a car runs over it, or the bottom of a basement steps. A sledge hammer will give you access.

Likewise, you bury something under a rock, not just under the rock. Still a fairly obvious place if you are being searched.

Sinking something in your garden pond, under the rocks. A ammo can would be good for this, but need to put it in plastic, as mentioned, if you are going long term.

Yes, condensation is going to be a problem in any storage situation with lots of moisure present. Mulitiple layers (not next to each other) can help, as can a coat of oil or grease, depending on the object.
Note that most of these are long term storage.

I know the perfect stuff if you wanted to hide it under ground or under water.  I work for a big telco and deal with a lot of under ground copper phone cables.  When they get cut I have to resplice it.  We use a re-enterable encapsalent that looks a lot like balistic gel except its harder and it is dry when it sets.  As long as you make sure the ammo is  suspended in the encapsalent inside some other strong container  I am sure it would hold up for a long time.

'I don't understand why so many people want to vacuum seal, pack with desiccant, and otherwise over-package ammunition. I'd just store it in quality GI ammo cans, which are close enough to air-tight to protect your ammo from the atmosphere.'

Exactly the point - the ammo can is sealed, along with any moisture in the air inside it or the packaging materials . You would be asking for long-term degradation of your ammo by not using desiccant in your ammo cans and changing it at least yearly. You cannot 'over-package' or over-protect ammunition that you want to last indefinitely. For ammo that may be used inside a year, simply keeping it in an occupied building is adequate. I use the blue desiccant that changes to neutral when it has absorbed all the moisture it can. Every time I open an ammo can the desiccant has changed - that's all I need to know - it's absorbing moisture from inside the sealed can. I have some ammo put up in baggies with a small desiccant pack in each. After about fifteen years the desiccant still shows as good, so I don't repack those. I have experienced the 'vacuum pack expansion' referred-to above with Georgia Arms vacuum-packed ammo - it took several years, but the pack did 'blow up' a little. This has to be from within the ammunition and is most likely the result of some process going on in the propellant. A leak in the vacuum pack could only equalize pressure inside and outside the pack - it could never cause the pack to inflate and have more pressure inside than outside.

P   V   C   pipe.  Seals with a chemical weld.  Has gasketed plugs/caps available.  NOBODY notices someone buying plumbing products.  Somebody opens up a wall to do some work and finds plastic pipe, are they going to think "stash" or "drain and waste pipe?"

Back in the very bad old days when half the shooters in the country figured the Reds would drop in us like in a certain movie, tons of people stashed all sorts of stuff in all sorts of places.  I'll bet a bunch of them forgot where they stuck everything.  And it's ALL still fine if they bothered to put the pipe together properly.

Oh, and by mentioning this online, you've sort of blown your cover for wanting to do it surreptitiously.

My point is this.... look at the surplus ammo, and how poorly a lot of it has been stored. It has not been vacuum sealed with desiccant packs and stuffed into a sealed pipe.

If the ammo was lucky, it was kept in an ammo can on a shelf for decades with no attention.



With just a standard ammo can, that is "dry" when you put the ammo in it... your great grandchildren might need to test it to see if it works. The ammo will live longer than we will.

It just isn't that fragile.... if it is decent ammo, each individual cartridge should be sealed anyway. So, the extremely small amount of moisture that was in the air when it was put in the can should never contact the sensitive parts of the cartridges.

It is tough stuff.

Here is an example.... I took some mud from my backyard after a rain storm. I stuck a 7.62x39mm BrownBear cartridge in the mud.... I took it out of there 2 weeks later... I wouldn't shoot it in a rifle, since it looked pretty nasty and I didn't want to scratch a gun up with normal operation. But I pulled the bullet.... the powder was dry. I hand fed it into the rifle next time we went shooting, and the primer ignited. If I had not been concerned about possible cosmetic damage to the rifle, I don't doubt it would have worked.

That wasn't even good ammo. Just cheapo Russian stuff. I would certainly hope our American ammunition we pay twice the price for can last better than that stuff can.

I have shot a lot of old shotgun shells that my grandpa had from way back.  he kept them in  a crate in the garage.  They all shot fine,  even the old paper shells.  the only problem was that some of them had split at the end of the shell,  the powder and primer was still fine,  they did seem a lot hotter though then todays traditional loads.

I aint gonna worry about that. I'm only, like, y'know, asking for informational purposes!