It’s been about a year now, that ammunition has been scarce here in California, and, indeed, the entire nation. In particular, handgun calibers are not only difficult to find, but when you do find them, they’re expensive.
We have tried to stockpile enough ammo to be able to take any of our guns to the range. We’re not hoarding the ammo, but keep enough on hand that when a particular caliber is unavailable, we can still shoot some, and restock the pile when the caliber again becomes a available.
The last few months, there has been a greater availability, mostly at our shooting range, but not so much at retail outdoor and sporting stores in the area. Again, the range has some but you pay about 50% more than over a year ago.
In the image (click to enlarge), top left shelf, we have handgun calibers .45 ACP, .357 magnum, .38 special and 9mm. Below that, we store magazines and holsters. The bottom two shelves are where we keep the shotgun ammo, 12 and 20 gauge.
Even though I also keep ammo in mine, I wonder about what might happen in case of fire. Is the cook-off point for ammunition low enough that it would go off before the guns would have been damaged otherwise?
I’d feel pretty bad if my guns would have survived just fine if only they hadn’t been ruined by the exploding rounds.
I found a reference to the cookoff temperature in an on-line forum:
According to the Sentry manual, the safe can withstand temperatures of up to 1400°F. The spec was silent on the temperature gradient inside the safe, but claimed the contents would be protected while the safe is exposed to the rated temperature for 30 minutes.
I might be interested enough to look at the thermodynamics of this. Meanwhile, I intuitively believe the ammo will be safe enough.
Interesting comment, Geek – thanks.