Ammo storage

[smokingman]

I am sure many here have lots of ammo.Perhaps thousands of rounds.My question is about fire safety.If you do not have enough room in your fire safe for ammo,how can you store it where fire would be less dangerous?
I have seen in the past the halon extingishers with the auto dispensing tip(heat activated)hanging on office ceilings. I think it would be a good idea to have one of these in the room I store ammo in.Any firefighters have an opinion? Does anyone know where I could find one? I am aware of the dangers of Halon.

[Bubbajms]

I wouldn't want to have an automatic halon dispensing solution in my home, unless it was fully monitored for safety..

For what a good halon system would cost, you could get one heck of a fire safe, too.. unless you've got other thoughts, I'd drop the Halon idea and go with a fire safe..

[smokingman]

The halon system I am talking about is just a 20lb halon normal size tank with the automatic tip instead of a hose.I know they exist I have seen them at a few office buildings(Lillys computer lab,a tax office in bargersville ect..). I can not immagine it costing more than 200 dollars or so..finding them is the problem.

[Sailor]

Just stick them in ammo cans. They are not going to shoot bullets everywhere. With no support of the shell casing the lighter casing will pop and go flying. The heavier bullet will not move with much force.

[Bubbajms]

Well sure, Sailor, but Ammo is pretty expensive anymore.. I'm not nearly as worried about the possible injuries of an exploding round as I am with having to replace my stash..

Also, you're probably having problems finding Halon systems because they outlawed actual "Halon" in the late 80s, IIRC.. Inergen is the new hype, as it lowers oxygen levels enough to prevent combustion, but not enough to prevent people from breathing.

I'd call a fire protection company to start out with. Just doing a quick Google search there's a place called Stuart Fire Prevention in Franklin, and I'm sure a dozen places in Indianapolis..

[GhostofWinter]

WELL if you find a Halon system for sale my advice is to steer WELL clear of it. It's my understanding that the sale of Halon has been outlawed by the Goct. I say this because where I work (Mittal Steel) has several halon systems in place to protect sensitive computer system computer rooms. I was told by one of the folks on our internal fire Dept. that IF that system ever activated that it would be A> an EPA nightmare in terms of reporting and such, and B> that they would have to install a brand new system for Cardox to replace the Halon as it is unavailable anymore. Current Halon systems were grandfathered in, but once they activate/deplete you are SOL

Greg
PS I could have been fed a line of sh!t by this person, but I haven't seen Halon for sale in a while personally.

[indyjoe]

There is no way that I would put ammo/powder/primers/etc. in a fire safe. If temperatures do rise long enough to touch any of that off, you have created a very nice big bomb.

All the studies I have read about ammo in a fire, say that the bullets do not have enough force to hurt firemen in their standard jacket, when cooking off. The one exclusion to this is a round cooking off that is inside the pipe of a firearm. This will shoot as you would expect.

[jeremy]

+1 for the guys that have figured out that storing ammo in your fireproof safe is just a bomb waiting to happen. I would stay well clear of halon in a residential setting.

When halon 1301 came on the market in the 1960s it was rightly seen as the most effective gaseous fire fighting agent ever developed. It found widespread application in the protection of data processing rooms, telecommunications switches, art and historical collections, process control rooms, and many others. However, by the late 1980s a great deal of scientific evidence indicated that the agent was an ozone depleting chemical and the Montreal Protocol of 1987 required a phase-out of new production.

If you have halon systems currently installed in your company facilities and they are located in the United States, you need to know the following facts:
You are under no legal obligation to remove systems from service.
There is no federal legal requirement to remove systems from service by any specific date.
You may legally recharge your system in the event of a discharge
Recycled agent is still commonly available for fire system recharge.
No new agent 1301 is being manufactured
You should plan the replacement of your systems with a halon alternative.

[csaws]

I do not concern myself with making sure it is fire proofed. Insurance is going to replace it just like everything else in your house that is destroyed. Now if your house is on fire I as a firefighter would like for you to tell me hey man that house has a lot of ammo, black-powder etc in it, and where would be nice to know. They last two fires I was on with known ammo and arms we retrieved as much as we could prior to doing major overhaul and burying it under 100's of lbs. of wet insulation and drywall.

One of the guys had about 20,000 rds. we pulled out of his house and two safes full of arms.

[Bubbajms]

How's an ammo can (Which is quite sealed, enough to be waterproof) different from a fire safe?? I'm not following you on this one, guys..

Are you saying they'd both explode, but one would just have bigger pieces??

I've been around a bunch of house fires and seen many fire safes that couldn't stand the heat, but I've yet to see one explode.. can someone provide a source??