The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Thanks for the answers guys. It looks like a may have to raid the club bin when I see someone throwing away ammo boxes. Charger Clips would be a tidy solution for the 303, but would cost a fortune for my ammo holding. Bags, I hadn't thought of.

I guess like gun safes, you just have to keep adding ammo safes or getting bigger ones.

You can never have too much ammo unless you're drowning or on fire...

meles meles wrote:You can never have too much ammo unless you're drowning or on fire...

That would make a good T-shirt

Although in the Reserve Forces, we used to say "if you can still run, you're not carrying enough ammo..." (we were all old and unfit anyway.. )

The idea of large quantities of ammo in a locked fairly well sealed gun safe / ammo safe that gives a good level of 'confinement' isn't one you would want to experience in a fire ................ :-)
pop
poppop
popopopopop KABOOM!

Love the t shirt slogan though :-)

hitchphil wrote:The idea of large quantities of ammo in a locked fairly well sealed gun safe / ammo safe that gives a good level of 'confinement' isn't one you would want to experience in a fire ................ :-)
pop
poppop
popopopopop KABOOM!

Love the t shirt slogan though :-)

You got the pop poppop popopopopop bit right but not the Kaboom.Ammunition in a safe doesn't catastrophically explode in the event of a fire......

http://www.libertysafe.com/what-happens ... -2734.html

If your house is on fire I would say the possibility of a gas explosion is a much greater risk........

snayperskaya wrote:

hitchphil wrote:The idea of large quantities of ammo in a locked fairly well sealed gun safe / ammo safe that gives a good level of 'confinement' isn't one you would want to experience in a fire ................ :-)
pop
poppop
popopopopop KABOOM!

Love the t shirt slogan though :-)

You got the pop poppop popopopopop bit right but not the Kaboom.Ammunition in a safe doesn't catastrophically explode in the event of a fire......

http://www.libertysafe.com/what-happens ... -2734.html

If your house is on fire I would say the possibility of a gas explosion is a much greater risk........

The key term I used is 'Confinement'. an explosives phenomena where gas pressures change exponentially & thus velocities of shockwaves / reaction waves / detonation rates go up. Its why a bomb has a steel casing, the effect of that casings confinement on the initial reaction multiplies the blast or detonation velocity thus greatly enhancing the blast effects (as well as fragmentation). A blast is nothing more than a very fast exothermic reaction say~5000m/s generating a large volume of expanding gas. Those reaction rates go up with temperature & pressure (PV=nRT).

An ammo safe rammed full of ammo in a fire will behave in a similar way, external heating will cook off ammo at the edges & a runaway reaction will generate more & more gas increasing pressure that accelerates the shockwaves of primers & cartridges detonating. Eventually the safe will rupture (that could in itself be a significant explosion) & the resulting hot unburnt propellant air mix can detonate too (that could be even bigger!). The video link displays unconfined propellants in open fire conditions (as well as pointless running over with caterpillar tracks?). Not the same scenario.

Take the video at 15mins replace the mesh box with a closed locked steel safe / gunsafe & see what happens ...but trust me stand a heck of a lot further back!

Ever seen how far a simple detonating cap will blow the lid off an empty 450rnds NATO ammo can? ...out of the football ground is the answer.

Gas mains are not a 'big problem' in a house fire, they contribute ~40Kw energy. Their danger is a gas leak mixing with air pre ignition. that's the conditions for a gas explosion, in many house fires gas appliances connections rupture & the uncontained gas ignites adding significantly to the heat of combustion, they dont tend to explode. All those aerosols under the kitchen sink however ...............

An ammo safe will however give you a few extra minutes to get out before it 'goes off'. A small amount of ammo isn't a problem but with the levels of FAC ammo holding increasing (because people want more firearm types, shoot more, or do disciplines that use more) we approach the condition of ammo less its primary packaging in a rammed full safe which is what this thread was exploring.

So my view is Do Not over pack an ammo safe, if needs -get another & keep the primary packaging (but yes GGG boxes are better than RWS) because they are designed to not only protect / display the product but to help prevent flash over & cook off of a relatively insensitive munition. In the UK the pack of any propellant or ammunition is approved by DOSG as part of its import licensing...not just marketing ............... & certainly not by the importers logistics, stores & shipping!

Of course, you could get a chitty from us and bury ikkle caches of ammo in the back garden. We'll look after it...

I use a break down shotgun safe (which holds quite a lot) and an internal ammo safe. The break down safe is quite large, in fact just over half the length of a 6 gun safe and nearly the same width.