How I RUINED My Stockpile Ammo Stash

Welcome to BAAM Ranch! In this video, I'm sharing a critical lesson in prepper survival that I recently learned firsthand. Join me as I recount a frustrating encounter with a batch of 9mm due to a seemingly innocuous ammo storage mistake. The journey from SHTF prepping to navigating survival scenarios is a complex one, and this experience highlighted a vital aspect that every prepper should be aware of.

At BAAM Ranch, we're all about preparedness and survival, and this experience resonated deeply with our mission. I'll delve into the repercussions of improper ammo storage, discussing the impact of fluctuating temperatures, exposure to sunlight, and humidity on your ammunition's performance. This story serves as a stark reminder that even the most careful preppers can overlook crucial details. Whether you're an experienced survivalist or just starting your SHTF prepping journey, this cautionary tale is a must-watch. Subscribe for more insights on survival, guns, and SHTF prepping at BAAM Ranch, and don't forget to hit that like button if you found this information valuable. Stay tuned for more content that will keep you prepared and safe.

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Here at the BAAM Ranch channel we are all about prepping as it relates to doomsday and Tuesday as well. We don"t want to wait until SHTF to live a good life. Prepping, survival, TEOFWAWKI, bug out bags, self reliance or any other buzzword you choose to use, our job is to make sure that you can still prepare in a way that allows you to life a good life NOW!

If your are a Canadian prepper, city prepper, off-grid prepper it doesnt matter, the principals are the same. Its not all about your SHTF loadout, food storage and bug out bag, but also making sure you can be successful and provide for your family today.

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[BAAMRanch]

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[Andrew-jmtp]

I would never throw loaded ammo in the trash. You can get a bullet puller for $15. Reuse recycle

[arapahoetactical]

I was an Air Force Weapons Instructor and the military, (All Branches), run the same storage procedures. The stable environment is a big part of that, but there is much more to it. Plastic bags are fine if you're taking your ammo on a canoe trip, but they can cause problems and are a bit redundant if they are going into an ammo can. The can itself being water tight.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is putting those cans on a cement floor. This causes moisture to form under the can and before you know it, the bottom of the can rusts out and the ammo is again ruined. You need to keep the cans off the floor by using pallets or shelves. Keep an air space of a few inches around the cans. Keep them at lest a few inches away from the walls as well.

[dancingdragon]

We once had some .45 ball ammo from 1945 in the original boxes that worked just fine 41 years later. If stored properly, ammo will last quite a while.

[riverman]

I have ammo over 30 years old. Always stored indoors, in Ammo cans. always in original boxes. Never had an issue with a single round.

[deanyoung]

My brother had some 223 ammo stored in my mother's garage for decades. The environment ranged from 28F to 105F with moisture in the winter. The ammo was just sitting in a box and the brass was tarnished. I told him I'll take it if he didn't want it and he said you are a brave soul. Well, all 5 boxes went bang in a good way

[albertlincoln]

Stored federal shotgun shells in an igloo cooler in a shed for 20 years. Bought out kmart when they closed. Still shooting them today. Zero problems. I use ammo cans for metallic case rounds now days. But keeping ammo dry is the most important thing.

[wookiehammer]

Don't throw them away. Pull them apart and reload them. You might only need to replace the powder and primer. The bullet might be salvageable.

[ralphholiman]

I lost my ammo stash in Katrina. It ended up all soaking in salt water for hours, and then sitting on a shelf in that condition for several weeks. It really took the air out of me. I had probably 20, 000 rounds or so. So, I feel your pain.

[michaelblackwell]

When my father passed a few years ago, he had several boxes of 38 sp ball ammo that was reloaded back in the 50's, and every round fired perfectly. He has stored it in an old leather briefcase in his office that stayed indoors the whole time he had it. All you need is a proper environment for storage.

[codyb.]

I kept ammo just in the boxes on a shelf in a cabin in Alaska We have big temperature swings and the cabin is only heated when we are there never had a issue with ammunition not working

[reliablethreat]

My favorite method of storing is in weather proof totes with silica packs inside!

[miniaturefarmer]

A lot depends on the sealing of the primer pockets. If the primer pockets aren't sealed, the moisture can creep in. An ammo can with a good seal should keep ammo indefinitely. I have some ammo stored from 1987 that still shoots fine.

[Rusty_ok]

I have ammo that was stored in ammo cans in a hot garage in south Texas humidity for over ten years. Everything 9mm, 40S&W, 38/357, 223, 7mm mag, Even the 22lr works great zero issues. The stuff you have that failed must have been wet for a long time.

[VB-bklh]

About 10 years back a family friend asked me to help clean out her garage which had been flooded in a storm. Her husband had passed away and at that time she had moved his still locked gun lockers to the garage, which had subsequently been submerged in the flood.
All three cabinets were locked and had to be cut open. One faired better than the others, but not by much, all three had taken on water. All his rifles were or had been wet, and the ammo was nearly all soaked. He had the top shelf of each cabinet full of boxed ammo, and in the bottom of each cabinet were several canvass bags of loose shotgun shells. All the black powder and supplies were stored in a 50cal can.
All the rifles were damaged to some degree, other than one barrel, all were able to be cleaned up and made functional again minus one shotgun barrel. The shot shells were rusty and sitting in a soaking wet canvas sack, there were dozens of boxes of larger rifle rounds in boxes that had melted away from them, and the ammo on the top shelve had begun to corrode from the humidity in the cabinet.
I sorted through all the ammo, anything that was pitted or showing any rust that wouldn't wipe off, got broken down. Nearly all the brass rifle ammo was fine, even some ancient looking 30/30 rounds that had turned completely green from the moisture. Once simply wiped down, they fired just fine.
We broke down over 400 12ga shells, all had serious rust, some were actually rusted through already. We dumped out the shot in jars for reuse, and dumped the powder into an old powder can. Surprisingly the powder was dry, not a single shell had wet or clumped powder.
Many of the shells were rusted to the point they wouldn't even fit into the chamber.
They were left sit on a shelf for nearly a year before I finally decided they had to go.
Out of curiosity, and since it was the fourth of July at the time, I figured i'd try and fire off each of the primers out back in an old junk single shot H&R. To my surprise, every last one of them fired. I even reloaded a couple lightly with the reclaimed powder with some bird shot to see what would happen and it fired just fine.
After some research I found that smokeless powder is not ruined by water, it works just fine once it dries out again.
The casings however are what got ruined.
The worst of the rifle ammo was a box of 308 Winchester, which had turned green and looked pretty bad, but all it took to clean them up was a quick wipe down with some steel wool.
I broke the lot of them down, cleaned the brass, and reassembled them. All were just fine when fired several years later.
Everyone of the shotgun shells, which looked like brass, were in fact just brass plate over steel.
I'd venture to guess that if they were brass, they too would have been just fine.

[georgewashington]

I had some ammo that was stored in my car trunk, then an attic in Florida then in Georgia. It was packaged in the retail cardboard packaging. After 20 years it worked perfectly. Plastic bags will block the movement of moisture and cause condensation while the cardboard breathes.

[andrewgee]

Putting the ammo in plastic bags likely caused the problem. If you left it in the original cardboard packaging it wouldn't have trapped condensation.

[helidude]

Same goes for guns.

Drastic temperature fluctuations in a humid environment destroyed a few guns my mother had stored in a small “safe”.

Think of the condensation that appears when a soda can is removed from the refrigerator.

Multiply that by 4 years of air conditioning on and off, heaters on and off.

The moisture with dissimilar metal corrosion destroyed the aluminum frames.

[chrismurphy]

I rotate range ammo, If I shoot 50 rounds, I buy 50 rounds! However I found putting ammo in bags (at least in my climate up here in Northern MA) is a bad thing! I remove my ammo from the boxes (boxes hold moisture) and put them into the ammo cans and before I close the can I put a couple silica packs in the can to absorb any moisture. I learned that from my uncle and I have some of his ammo from the 80s that still shoots fine. I buy the 50 gram desiccant packs off amazon, they are cheaper than others and they work awesome and if they do absorb moisture you just pop them in a microwave for a few minutes to dry them out and re use them. The ones I buy change color when they absorb moisture.

[DuhYaThink]

I use ammo cans, make sure the seal is greased and my .223/5.56 is usually loose in the containers. 9mm I leave in the box and put in a can and also use desiccant packs. So far so good for the last 3-4 years. My 2 cents 👍🏻