Posted: 11/28/2014 4:50:10 PM EDT
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I have a few thousand rounds each of 9mm, 45acp, .223, .308, 7.62x39...some have more "thousands" than others, but no more than 6k for any one. I also keep a respectable amount of 22lr, 12ga, 38spl, .40, etc. Anyway...just to give you an idea...
Basically, I keep the guns in a safe which is full, and most of the ammo is kept in a metal storage locker (Kobalt from Lowes). It's overloaded, but holding its own. The bottom has ammo cans / prepacked cases, and the remainder of the cabinet looks like Wal-Mart Shelves so to speak. Just boxes and boxes of ammo. For the last couple of years, I've bought most my ammo from Walmart. Every time I do, I add some to the stash and put some on top of the cabinet for shooting. So, If I buy 300 rounds of 9mm, I'll store 1 box in the cabinet and put two on top for shooting. This has worked out well from the standpoints of actually helping me shoot more and not depleting my stash (growing it in fact). As time has gone by, I see the downsides of having more and more boxes of ammo stacked in the cabinet that are not in ammo cans (though the house is temperature controlled), and I'm shooting the fresh stuff and further burying the older stuff (though the older stuff is only a few years old at most). Do I need to get serious about ammo stock rotation or is the shelf life so long that it really shouldn't matter much? Do I need to get more serious about using ammo cans or is temperature, and thus humidity control, enough? Any pointers from those with true "ammo forts" for how to manage what I'm doing here? What a great growing problem to have... 
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With the exception of some of the lead free primer ammo now being made, the shelf life of ammo is very good.
The lead free primer ammo is only used in target/practice ammo, and it is described as such on the labeling. If purchased, yes it should be shot fairly soon. I just looked at a box of WWB .38 Super, which is probably 25 years old. No special precautions taken in its storage, though it has been inside the house most of that time. Looks just fine, and I bet it shoots as well as the day it was made. I say your system will work just fine. |
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Ammo a couple years old is new ammo for all practical purposes (except for the lead-free primed stuff, as noted above).
Until you expose it to decades of high heat and humidity, it will still work fine. What you're doing now is perfectly adequate until you get serious about building your ammo fort. At that point, you'll need to lay in a stock of USGI ammo cans, a dehumidifier, etc., and start date-labeling each can. It's easier if you buy ammo by the case. However, with the amount of ammo buying you're doing, reloading makes more sense from a financial standpoint. Yes, you have enough room; everyone does, no matter what they think. No, it isn't hard, but it does require attention to detail. Dip your toe in with a LEE single-stage kit to learn the basics and see if you like reloading. You can then add a Dillon Square Deal B, and then a Dillon 550. The good part is that each of those presses will remain useful for specific tasks, so you have never "wasted" money. When contemplating your nascent ammo fort, IMO it is best to decide up front to use only USGI .30 cal and .50 cal cans, with the great preponderance being the .50s: they stack better. When you have a few dozen oddball cans (fat .50s, tall .50s, foreign cans, etc.) it becomes a PITA to build a neat wall. I ended up giving away all my non-standard cans. Don't forget to get enough cans to store all your magazines, too. For the same reason, standardization of crates should be considered from the outset. I like the Russian crates: they are cheap, strong, readily available, have no moving parts to bend/break/wear out, and dimensions have not changed in literally a century, so they stack great. |
The only problem I have had with stored ammo was shipped from the US to W.Germany sat 4 years and shipped back. Sat for another 20 and finally shot. FTF, FTE. ETC... But that was sitting on ships for over a month at a time and then in a storage facilitys on both ends. I think with a normal storage situation the ammo will be fine.
ETA... YES, West Germany. Tell ya how long ago that was? |