I know a lot of you are like me in the fact that you keep huge amounts of ammo, reloading supplies, etc. at your house. Where do you keep yours? Years ago a house a block away from mine caught fire and the fireman evacuated the area due to the fact that rounds were cooking off. They would not even approach the house, it just burned. So now I keep mine in the barn locked up in an aluminum chest type tool box and ammo cans. Anyone else paranoid about this?

It was pointed out that stored gasoline and ammo is a patently BAD THING when you are in California during fire season.

I have thought of storing ammo in my garage, but Id have to pack everything in cans, and I never have enough.

40 mm and 50 cal. ammo cans, in a flammable storage cabinet I bought from the Ft Hood DRMO, in the garage.  Sturdier and more room than the wall locker I used to have.

The big propane bottles I store in the lawn mower shed.  

They told us in fire school to not worry about ammo, it just cooks off and the cases pop, but thats it. Threre is no set path for the bullet to travel in and no container for which the burning powder builds up pressure.

Quoted: They told us in fire school to not worry about ammo, it just cooks off and the cases pop, but thats it. Threre is no set path for the bullet to travel in and no container for which the burning powder builds up pressure.

I expect that is probaly true.  Whats the temp for it to start cooking?  Would the bullets or case already have melted or softened by then?

I dont think there is a big danger, its more of the firedepartment not getting near it becuase someone thinks it might blow up, even though there isnt a chance in hell of it happening.

To back up what Phat said, unless the ammo is loaded in a firearm of some sort, the rounds will just "POP" and that's
about it. Granted, a lot at one time is going to get real noisy, but the projectiles won't go very far, or very fast.

Powder, on the other hand, is an entirely different critter, especially if stored in metal cans! BOOM!!

I will say, though, that the idea of storing ammo by itself, and away from anything else that might instigate things isn't
necessarily a bad idea. Ammo cooking off is one thing, but get enough together in a good fire, and you could get a pretty
decent explosion, via sympathetic detonation. THEN you'll see me sitting behind the pumper, chugging some GatorAde,
waiting for the fireworks to end before I go wet down the remains.

I 3rd the motion from experience.  While fighting a fire in a hardware store, I was positioned near the sporting goods ammunition department.  The noise was barely louder than popcorn.  The projectiles bounced off my face shield and turnout gear with little force.  I was never concerned about it.

I was always led to beleive that in a typical house fire canned food and aerosol cans were the worst things.

EVERYBODY knows a cartridge in a fire is DEADLY!

Havent you guys watched any movies? The good guy throws a handfull in the fire and escapes while the bad guys are ducking the FULL VELOCITY rounds that are whinging off of rocks and breaking lanterns and windows and shit!