Purchasing of weapons/ammo

[Batman]

Hey everyone,

There are some good buys on .223 weapons at Cabelas. Keep in mind when buying ammo, I pay cash for mine as credit cards and such can be tracked. My own personal reason is I like to keep myself private and less tracking the better.

Has anyone found best way to preserve ammo long term from moisture? I have some air proof bags with ammo sprayed with oil. Seems to work well but always looking for new idea's.

Hope everyone had a good holidays.

[Big_Saw]

Dessicant, dessicant, dessicant.......go to the shoe stores and ask 'em for all they pull out of the shoe boxes......they'll usually cough 'em up w/ no prob, 'cause they just go in the garbage anyways.....

[Rocking_H_Ranch1886]

as for a good place to get ammo, look at AIM Surplus. They will beat the socks off of Cabelas, any day of the week. And as for storing ammunition long term, I have to agree with Big_Saw, Dessicant works really well to keep moisture at bay.

[Skyowl]

I keep mine in a surplus ammo can. Fill the can with your ammo, throw in the dessicant packs, and close. As long as the seal is intact and you don't put it out in the rain, you should have no issues. I can get 900 rounds of 223 (on stripper clips) into an ammo can, throw in 4-5 dessicants packs and close. Then I leave it alone. To date, I have had no problems. I have also vacuum sealed 6 stripper clips together into one vacuum bag and them placed that in an ammo can.

I have done this with my pistol ammo also. This past fall I finally opened the box to go shoot some .40 S&W and some 45ACP. Not one problem. The ammo has been stored in this manner for about 10 years. I would say that classifies as long term storage.

[Rocking_H_Ranch1886]

Nice, Skyowl.
I agree, the ammo can and dessicant packs is about your best option for storing a quantity of ammo for any period of time. I really like vaccum sealing bags of ammo for storage, say 100rds to a bag. This gives you a small enough amount to be useful without opening a large quantity of ammo to be exposed to the elements. And Vaccum bags can be used for all ammo types, or other important survival items (ie, fire starter, first aid items, etc)

[jmk]

I'd worry about soaking them in oil and having the oil leak (maybe even through the laquer) into the cartridge cases.

Try to purge ammo cans with argon (for mig and tig welding aluminum and stainless). I'm sure it helps some, but it might be an infinitesimally small amount. Vac sealing makes good sense too.

Also you can use old gallon lacquer thinner or acetone cans, but you have to drop the rounds in loose, and use a can opener to get them out, but they are free, which helps. (just make sure they get a week or two to air out from the solvent. never tried but i suppose you could solder a one way valve and vac out the air, or most of it.


One idea that is WAY out there is to pile them in a can and fill it with some kind of really really low melting point wax for ultra long term storage, irritating to clean later but damnd if that wont keep it air tight. Crisco comes to mind actually, just barely solid at 100f and not super clingy/hard to clean off. I'll have to experiment with that and see how it cleans off.

[RossA]

Actually, most modern ammo stores quite well for decades without any exceptional measures being taken. I know that I have shot milsurp ammo that is 50 years old and which was not stored in any special way, except kept indoors and out of the weather. No age/deterioration problems.

[monet861]

I throw a mag or 2 into the ammo cans also. Never know when you might need an extra.

[Queequeg]

For those getting dessicant or such from the shoe store or other places, be aware they could already be saturated. Many of the packs (those saying silica gel) can be tossed in the oven at 275-300 for an hour or two to reactivate them. Those made from clay can't be, as far as I know.