Loaded magazines?

[INLAND44]

Its not the ammo on hand that is a storage issue - its the gun powder for reloading. While relative "small" quantities of ammo may be ok for locking in a safe (get back to that in a second), large quantities of gunpowder and primers should not. I try to keep my powder in their original containers and packed in wooden boxes, no more than 8 pounds to a box. Locking that up inside a safe is like making a very large pipe bomb (or worse). If sometime happens in the safe and it catches (house fire burns through, golden rod goes crazy, chemical reaction between solvents on weapons, etc), it will surely harm the first responders plus your next door neighbors. Having it loosely packed in wooden boxes will ensure that it will BURN, not explode.

As far as ammo, I also limit the amount of ammo inside a locked safe for the same reason. While there is less powder in a individual case, having several thousand rounds in a closed, locked container is bad ju-ju. The NEW (Net Explosive Weight) of a .45 cal round is about .0010 units. Thats nothing to worry about itself. However, a thousand rounds on .45 acp becomes a NEW of 1.00 units or equal to a one pound stick of TNT. Its the sealed safe that gives it the explosive power. I just keep a "few" ready service (on the go, or for the unexpected drop-in home invader) magazines in the safe.

Guess the moral of my sermon is this - store it properly and SAFELY. Locking a large volume of ammo or even a small volume of gun powder in a metal safe leaves you sleeping in a bedroom next to a bomb. Pleasant dreams....

A commonly-held notion about a can of ammo being a 'bomb', but it's practically impossible to get all or even most of the rounds to 'pop' at the same time, even if you were trying to. What is most likely to happen in a fire hot enough to cook off ammo in a can, is that one or two would pop, blowing the top open or at least cracked, which takes care of the confined pressure worry. Ammo storage is known to Fire Departments not to be a major issue. A real problem is loaded (round in chamber, locked bolt) guns that might cook off in a fire. In this case the gas is contained and the bullet is expelled with normal velocity, so imagine that going on in your house - or imagine you were a firefighter in there and shooting starts!

[imarangemaster]

Sweet! I could build an M4gery on my stripped M&P15 lower for what you invested in the EOTech! I want a Shaw or Lewis 1/7 M4 barrel though. That upper is $450-500 alone. Since I am selling my AK just to stay afloat, I don't think my M4gery will get built any time soon!

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

That will work.

[Aye KAY]

On the topic of keeping magazines loaded. I dug out my Grandpa's 1911 a few years back. The magazines had been fully loaded since WWII. 43' headstamps on the brass. I stuck one in the pistol, locked and loaded it, and fired every one of those crusty old bullets without a hitch. I don't worry about keeping magazines loaded anymore.
On a side note, I have heard of fully loaded magazines swelling the sides of polymer or aluminum magazines. Especially on the AK based 12 gauges.