now let's get over here and i'll show you what my bulk ammo storage looks like
how's it going guys welcome back to the pilot patriot channel today we're going to be talking
about ammo storage specifically long-term ammo storage we're going to talk about some things
you need to consider if you are storing ammo long term some right ways and wrong ways to do it and
then we're going to take a look at the way that i store my ammo but if you haven't done it yet guys
make sure you hit that subscribe button down below hit that notification bell and give us a thumbs up
we really appreciate that all right now first off let's talk about the way most of you guys probably
store your ammo and that's going to be in the box that it came in now there's nothing necessarily
wrong with this for example this freedom munitions ammo comes in a cardboard box with a plastic
insert that your ammo sits in and there's really nothing wrong with that i do store some of my ammo
this way most of the time it's stuff like this this is 380 hollow points i also have some federal
gold metal 308 ammo that's usually stuff that i don't stack up a lot of and i'm usually only
buying one or two boxes at a time of that ammo so i do just keep it in its original box stacked up
on a shelf and organized the best way i can but if most of you guys are like me you like to stock up
a lot of ammo for long-term storage either just for shooting in the future or if you're like me
and you just like to keep a nice stock of ammo just in case for emergencies or anything like that
most of the time we're talking about bulk ammo storage so usually if you're going to bulk mo
storage you're looking at something like these examples i have here probably one of your most
popular is just going to be your standard steel military style ammo can whether it be 50 cal ammo
cans or 30 cal ammo cans i usually don't go any bigger than the 50 cal cans just because they get
heavy and cumbersome and it's hard to move around it kind of defeats the purpose of having this nice
portable package that you can transport bulk ammo in if you need to uh these are great obviously
they are built to military spec for the specific purpose of long-term ammo storage and they're
definitely going to be your toughest most rugged options if you're concerned about being able to
just toss this in the back of the truck if you're concerned about harsh conditions and things like
that this is definitely the option you want to go with but they lock up nice and tight as you
can see it usually takes some effort to get into those these are usually going to be watertight
they have a nice rubber gasket around that lid that locks in tight when you close that lid down
and something like this 50 cal kent is going to hold a lot of ammo whether you decide to
just throw it in there loose or actually stack it with boxes right now i just have a bunch of
loose boxes in here these are some other calibers that i don't shoot often something that i don't
stock up a large quantity of so you'll find stuff like that in here this 357 magnum
and that's just what i happen to have in this can so these steel ammo cans are a great option
possibly the best option they're certainly going to be the most rugged the next thing
we're going to talk about is actually keeping your ammo in magazines so something like 556
most likely you're gonna be shooting that out of an ar-15 and you're gonna have to load magazines
eventually so why not go ahead and store your ammo in the magazines fully loaded magazines now
i know there's some controversy about loading your magazines all the way up in my opinion
there is absolutely nothing wrong with storing your magazines fully loaded you're not going to
damage the magazine you're not going to weaken that spring but i do tend to load my magazines
with just 29 rounds instead of 30 because i find that it seats easier into the mag wheel
but in my opinion there is no reason to have a ton of magazines sitting around unloaded if you're
going to have magazines you might as well load them up and store them that way just in case you
ever need to grab them quickly and use them you are ready to go you don't have to fumble around
worrying about loading your magazines up now along those same lines i like to go with something like
this mtm ammo crate it's roughly the same size as a 50 cal ammo can obviously this is plastic but it
is a nice rugged plastic you can see it's got two latches on the lid so it locks up nice and tight
it is also going to have that rubber gasket the same way that military can does this is exactly
how i'm going to store that i can fit 15 fully loaded mags into this box so if ever needed to
grab something and just bug out and go i got 450 rounds preloaded into magazines just sitting here
in an easily portable ammo can now let me show you how i store most of my ammo and that's going to be
in these plano ammo cans i like these things a lot they're nice and portable but i've been storing my
ammo in these cans for years and primarily the reason i started out storing it in these cans is
because of cost you can usually pick these up for around four to seven dollars whereas your metal
ammo cans are going to be somewhere between 10 and 15 dollars and the metal ones can be a little bit
harder to find but i also really like the features of these things i love the size of it i love that
it's stackable i like that it has a spot where you can put a padlock on here if you wanted to
and it has a nice latch that really cinches down that lid you're also still going to have
your rubber gasket in the lid that seals out moisture and things like that now most of the
time the way i'm going to store my ammo in these is just loose like that right there whenever i
pick up some new ammo i just dump the boxes into the can just like this now you're going to be
able to store a lot more ammo like this than you would if you were trying to stack boxes in there
for example you can fit roughly a thousand rounds a nine millimeter in a can like this
and somewhere around 500 to 600 rounds of 5.56 and that's going to be the two calibers i stock
up most of is nine millimeter and five five six i do have some other calibers in these these types
of ammo cans but the majority of my bulk storage is going to be in those two calibers regardless
of which type of can you put it in i do like to add one or two descent packets into the can
before i seal it up now you want to make sure you store your desk in packets in an airtight
container so they don't go bad you just open it up grab a couple and then close it right back up
and that's going to help keep any moisture from damaging your cartridges in your ammo can let's
get over here and i'll show you what my bulk ammo storage looks like all right guys now this is what
my bulk ammo storage looks like and the way i have this organized everything on the top here
is cans that aren't quite full yet so these are the cans i would grab to take with me
to the range the cans on the bottom down here are different these are specifically long-term storage
all right guys this is what you can expect from a can that i have stored for long term you can see
that i do label these on the front here i'm just going to label it with the caliber and the grain
i do the same thing here on the side and up on top i'll also put the caliber and since this is a full
can that i don't plan on opening it up often i do put the quantity of ammo that i have in the
can right here on the top you can also see that once i fill up a can i do put a zip tie on there
that's just a little reminder to help me remember that this is for long term storage i don't need to
be dipping into this just to go to the range or something like that this is ammo that i plan on
storing up for emergencies and things like that you can see that these are easily stackable and
i do have a variety i have some metal ammo cans i also have some stored in just its original box
but as you can see the bulk of my storage is going to be in those plano ammo cans
so let's talk a little bit about how to and not to store your ammo we've talked a little bit about
the types of cases you can put it in but we need to also think about the conditions ammo is best
stored in a cool dry place you don't want to sit it out in extreme temperatures you also want to
make sure it's not exposed to excessive moisture or anything like that that can corrode that ammo
that's one problem with keeping it in just its original box because there's no seal that locks
out air and moisture and things like that let me just give you an example of what happens if you
don't store your ammo properly these are some shotgun shells from my last duck hunting trip
a few months ago and i actually left these sitting out still in the ammo holder on my waders so
this is definitely an extreme example guys these are actually directly exposed to water
these were probably fully submerged in the water as i was walking through the swamps and stuff and
you can see that that brass is very corroded a lot of corrosion there around the primer which
is going to be your main issue now because i do a lot of duck hunting and i'm used to this
most likely these are going to shoot again i can probably clean them up with a wire brush
and they'll be fine but this is not something you want to see guys this is definitely the wrong way
to store your ammo all right guys now i'm going to put links in the description below to all of
these different types of cans that i use and just remember guys the main thing is to keep that ammo
stored in a cool dry place ideally in some type of sealed container that's going to protect it
i hope you like this video guys if you did don't forget to hit that subscribe button down below
hit that notification bell and give us a thumbs up if you have any questions or if you want to
talk about the way you store your ammo or what i'm doing wrong or anything like that
that's fine just leave it in the comment section below we'd love to hear from you
thanks for watching guys please like share and subscribe and stay prepared
you