I’ll go ahead and say it, 2020 was a rough year. However I tend to be a silver-lining kind of person. This year has provided some extremely valuable information in the form of a stress test to our supply system, and a good look at the human psyche in times of crisis. As part of that peek behind the curtain in the human brain we noticed something; when things get scary, people buy guns and ammo.
I know that probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anybody reading this. It’s just human nature to want to protect yourself and your loved ones. But it’s just as unnerving sitting outside a sporting goods store with 10 other people at 6 a.m. because you heard from a guy that knows a guy that works there that said they would get a truck with X caliber at Y time. The fear that comes from a changing and uncomfortable world is mitigated greatly if you know that you are sitting on a stockpile of well stored cartridges in every caliber that you need back at home.
Luckily we made it through to the other side and the world is still spinning. If you have not been prepping for a long time and found yourself here reading this site, I imagine that you have made the decision not to get caught with your pants down again. You have probably made the same decision that many of us did at one time or another to break our dependency from supply lines and start to keep more than one range day or hunting trip worth around at a time.
The first thing that you are bound to notice is that, especially now, ammo is not cheap! That doesn’t mean that you should wait until prices come down from the stratosphere to stock up. I tend to look at it the same way that I do investing. If I ended up buying in at a high price, then I just need to average down. Purchase small amounts as time goes by and the prices start to fall. Eventually the average price that you spend per round will decline. While you may spend overall more than you would if you had waited until everything bottomed out, you have the peace of mind knowing that you got in before another spike happened.
However, even in the best of times, the prices are high. It’s extremely important that you protect your investment by storing it properly. Not only will you sleep better at night knowing you have it, but that you haven’t wasted your money and it will still be working when you need it. To that note, let’s get started by looking at what you need for long term ammo storage. Don’t worry, the list is relatively short:
Heat
Theft
Moisture
Heat
While ammunition is fairly stable at most temperatures and won’t suffer from mild variation. You should keep your stash somewhere that it won’t be affected by large swings in temperature. Generally the powder and priming compound will start to degrade if exposed to temps of over 150 degrees fahrenheit. The best practice is to keep it in a temperature controlled area of your home. If you live in a hotter climate the garage likely won’t be a good storage area.
Theft
This may seem like it goes without saying, but obviously theft is always something to keep in mind when you are stockpiling anything. As a general rule, you shouldn’t tell anybody outside of the family what you have stocked up or where. However this could go right along with protecting it from heat. Keep your ammunition stored in a temperature controlled room inside your home, and preferably in a locked or inconspicuous room or inside of a good sized gun safe. If you have frequent visitors or small children in your home, this is something you should do anyways.
Moisture
This is the most important, yet also the one factor that I see being ignored the most. Moisture will eventually degrade both the powder and the priming compound, as well as build a layer of corrosion on the outside of the case. Most people bring back a few boxes of rounds, and throw them on a shelf somewhere still in the factory cardboard box. While this is fine if you plan on using them within a few months, long term storage requires a bit more protection from the humidity. Simply storing them in an airtight container like a plastic or surplus metal ammo can is a good first step. Really any container that has an airtight seal will do. However, purpose made ammo cans make it easy to identify what’s inside as well as limit the amount of rounds you put in each one so they do not become unwieldy to carry.
After you have your investment protected from outside moisture, Most people will stop short without realizing that humid air is trapped inside. And since I tend to add to my stockpile with small purchases overtime, I may be opening my ammo cans periodically to add or remove rounds. Each time you open that container you are exposing your ammunition to more moisture. To solve this just toss in a few desiccant packs of silica gel. You can get these at a lot of different places, you can even reuse them if you bought shoes or electronics that had them in their packaging by placing them in the oven for a few minutes. I prefer to use these, they are reusable and change colors when they are filled with moisture to let you know they are no longer doing their job. You don’t have to second guess whether or not it’s time to recharge your silica packs, just pop them in the oven when they turn dark green.
That’s all there is to it. Just a few simple and cheap adjustments to how you probably already store your ammunition can keep it safe for over a decade, if not much longer. I personally believe in cutting costs where possible and that if it doesn’t save dollars, it doesn’t make sense. But you need to treat all of your preps like an investment, spending just a few dollars on ammo cans and desiccant packs are like an insurance policy for your ammunition storage, ensuring that it’s safe and ready to be used if and when you need it.
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