Where do you store your ammo?

[gen3flygirl]

This is a chic?!?!? Awsome!!

I keep "extra" in ammo cans... Buckeye outdoors $8 bucks a piece!

Some would still debate that. My birth certificate says female and last time i checked I still like the penis so no sex changes for me any time soon.

[Gump]

This could be taken in two different ways.

[buildit]

Loading a magazine while being shot at sucks.

I've heard both, that leaving them compressed hurts them. Or it's the loading, unloading and reloading of the springs that wears them out. I don't care to much. Like I said, an empty magazine does no good.

I guess that's why I still like revolvers. You can leave them loaded. As for having to load in the event of Zombie attack, keep the ammo in a stripper clip.

[BiggO]

I use ammo cans too. They work great. In fact I need to pick up another one.

Brother in law came over the other day, and I was showing him a few items out of my gun safe. He immediately got on my case about the guns and my extra mags, being loaded. First it was about my kids,,,,,but they are in a locked safe!! Then it was,,,,,I am ruining my mags, keeping them loaded all the time like that.

He owns one gun, no safe, and he keeps his ammo in another room from the gun. Oh, and he keeps the lock in the gun too! A lot of good that will do, if he gets robbed!

[John]

i just pile it up on the ground.

[C-bus]

Doesn't that affect the springs after a while?

Never been my experience. I do load one short of capacity in case this urban legend has some truth.

[dugan n rita]

In the cylinders where they belong, but not in mags.

[speedytriple]

Its spring steel if it wore out from being compressed your shocks/struts on you bike, and car should be unloaded also... better keep your bike on a lift that keeps the weight off the rear shock and the front forks or it will ruin them faster!

[chevysoldier]

Its spring steel if it wore out from being compressed your shocks/struts on you bike, and car should be unloaded also... better keep your bike on a lift that keeps the weight off the rear shock and the front forks or it will ruin them faster!

Lulz

[Steve Butters]

read that mag springs dont get hurt from leaving ammo in them but that you need to unload the ammo every 6 months and put it back in in a different order or the bullets could get flat spots

[Gump]

And change your muffler bearings.

[Steve Butters]

And change your muffler bearings.

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-225856.html

this is where i read it - dont know if its true or not, but that concern is just as stupid as a spring wearing out, brass is soft metal. not like my point was any worse than the question of springs wearing out from being loaded

[vf1000ride]

Springs in any gun will get weak with age. The amount of time that is required depends on design and how poorly it was made. I have had mag springs fail within two years of buying a gun (ramline 10-22 mags). I also currently own guns that are close to 100 years old and the springs could very well be the same age and they work perfectly (Enfield No1mk3, 1911 dated).

For me personally all of my defensive handguns are kept loaded. All the mags for those handguns are also loaded. Like others have said there is no use for owning a defensive gun and leaving all of them unloaded and locked up. The rifles I leave unloaded but I have hundreds of rounds on stripper clips or in mags that would take less than a few seconds to be put in the guns while I covered myself with the handguns.

If you use yours guns to practice regularly you will recognize problems with your firearms caused by weak springs and it will be a simple, cheap repair. If you leave them locked up in your safe for 5-6 years at a time loaded with ammo you may have a problem when you need the gun but it may truly come down to unfamiliarity with your weapon. Get out and shoot them and be proficient, ammo still costs less than yours or a loved ones life.

[Steve Butters]

If you leave them locked up in your safe for 5-6 years at a time loaded with ammo you may have a problem when you need the gun

i disagree....everything else i see on the net says otherwise....people are talking about loaded guns from WWII still firing perfectly after sitting loaded since then.

One guy on THR had a Sig that was loaded for 15 years and he went out and fired it no problem.

The springs are not at max tension when loaded. Sitting loaded or unloaded is no difference for them - the only thing that wears them out is compressing and decompressing....a magazine that is loaded and unloaded daily is going to wear out substantially quicker than one that sits loaded 24/7

[vf1000ride]

Sorry, maybe the sarcasm didn't come across strong enough. I meant to say that if you leave your gun in the safe untouched for 5-6 years, when it doesn't work it is probably operator error.

Edit, I currently have 10 guns that are all over 60 years old. Only one of them is known to have springs installed recently and it is my Garand that is tuned for match shooting. I can gladly attest to the fact that 60-100 year old springs work darn good.

Edited April 10, 2011 by vf1000ride

[Steve Butters]

Sorry, maybe the sarcasm didn't come across strong enough. I meant to say that if you leave your gun in the safe untouched for 5-6 years, when it doesn't work it is probably operator error.

oh my bad, guess i misunderstood

[crf69]

under my bed

[ShawnR]

I looked at the stack of boxes of match grade .308 ($29 / box) and realized there there is a LOT of money just sitting there on the shelf.

So, I bought myself a "jobsite box". Box heavy metal box with recessed padlocks. $250 new at Lowes & Home Depot. Ammo is a lot of money in a small little package and probably easy to resell.

[Beegreenstrings]

In the box it comes in... Sorry had to...

Reloads go in special plano boxes desinged to hold them.

Bulk reloads for matches go in a .50 mil can

Normal purchase stays in its box, unless it is styrofoam, then they get dumped in another ammo can.

Hate styrofoam. Ruins the brass over time.

[chevysoldier]

Hate styrofoam. Ruins the brass over time.

Seriously? I have never heard that before. What kind of time frame are you talking? A year? 10 years?

[redkow97]

a cheap fire-proof box is all I use, and really only when we're not home. If the house is on fire when we're in it, I'll chuck my "ammo box" (my old tool box) through the bedroom window and follow it onto the roof anyway. That's the most direct route of escape from my house to begin with.

[Beegreenstrings]

Seriously? I have never heard that before. What kind of time frame are you talking? A year? 10 years?

If you leave brass in a styrofoam tray for a year you can already see the issues.

I had some nice winchester 44 mag HP's that I had when I sold my two Super redhawks 3 years back (fresh purchased that year - not to say how long they were on the shelf before I got them). (I will get some pics) brass toward the base away from the styro looked to be good, but when you pulled them out they were heavily tarnished. Fired five off with no issues until I tried to knock them out of the rotor. 4 fell out. One cracked and swelled in the rotor, had a hell of a time getting them out.

I have not shot anymore of them...

[Beegreenstrings]

Pics of the ammo, nice and shiny brass, from sitting in the styrofoam and then pics of it randomly pulled from what is left.

[Gump]

Ooooo...I have seen that happen before...I thought you were just keeping the boxes in a Styrofoam container for some odd reason not the shell in foam..Brass and foam have some kind of bad reaction.

[Beegreenstrings]

Yeah unfortunately, after the last incident. All of this brass is being pitched once fired. I am almost afraid to fire it, after the one split. definitely no reloading going on with this stuff.