Cartridges / Shells / Ammo kept in a safe for 20 years

I haven't decided, for sure, that I will return to the US this year, yet. But, if I do, it will be interesting to see what kind of shape the ammunition is in. I will make a point to report on this, if I do.

 

Best to just send all that ''stuff'' my way for safe keeping Uncle.

 

A guy I know had a lot of ammo stored in his house and his wife was giving him grief about it. It really was a lot of ammo! She wanted him to move it to the barn, but he was afraid that the temp. swings would ruin it. Then he had an idea, he would create a heat sink to protect the ammo from temp. swings. First, he sorted and inventoried his ammo and stored it in ammo cans. Next, he purchased some 55 gal. steel drums and sand. Then, he cleaned the drums and dried the sand. Finally, he placed the ammo cans in the drums, filled the drums with sand and sealed them. He and his wife are both happy, and that ammo will be good for generations to come.

 

The drums of sand sound like a miniature version of a traditional earth berm igloo. They're surprisingly temperature stable, and a small one, the size of the one that served Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico could be hidden in the back yard. Grow some grapes vines over the gap between the bunker and the revetment (which was just wide enough to drive a truck through) and the entrance would be nearly invisible. The new bunkers they've built on Camp Lejeune are thick walled warehouses, but there are hundreds of earth igloos still in service.

 

the sand backfill was totally unnecessary - if it was dry enough it didn't do any harm - if he saw an absolute need to backfill - bags of oil dry would have better .... plastic coffee cans with punched holes and silica gel desiccant filled would have been best ....

 

The old powder magazine at the skeet range aboard Camp Lejeune was nothing but an abandoned concrete block skeet tower with a reinforced steel door. The white painted exterior combined with the height and concrete ceiling that got no direct sun kept it quite cool on hot days.

Good ventilation is important in keeping things cool and dry. New building designers think only central air conditioning and have forgotten that the cupola on old barns and warehouses, and the functional transom windows above doors were there for more than decoration. Natural ventilation, in buildings designed to take full advantage of it, is quite impressive. It was a daily ritual in many of the old industrial shops I worked in, to open the bay doors and all the cupola windows every morning as soon as the cool night air had been overcome by the heat of the day, or when we had to open the doors and lost the mornings cooling advantage. It was just something we did automatically, and the natural air flow through the building would keep us reasonably cool throughout the day.

Now we have these because the tiny roof ventilators included in modern building designs can't possibly vent enough volume of hot air: Now we have the hot air from the roof blowing down, and paperwork blown all over the place. It's better than nothing as long as the power is on, but the place becomes an oven without the fans on and all the doors open.

In any new construction from bunkers and barns to homes, it's good to take a step back and look at the designs of older structures, built before even whole house (electric fan) ventilation. Think of natural ventilation as green energy savings.

 

Actually if you go through the early alternative energy magazines as well as Mother earth news there are volumes of better construction practices . the problem is most folk are not interested in building intelligently .
Any time you step out side the comfort zone people get all antsy . they simply do not want to be that involved with the house they live in . The same with business .
Every thing is an investment that is expected to be sold ,obviously to some one else not interested in thoughtful engineering.
I cannot even think of a good reason not to go solar or wind.
In the old days they dug root cellars to preserve food . where are they now ?
There are methods of passive cooling that require almost no or little energy to function but it takes an investment in doing and trying, in place of the naysaying that goes on.
The earth holds the most stable temperatures below it's surface .
If you run a pipe/tubing under ground from your cabinet and back , and use a very small 12 volt computer fan ,the distance under ground will cool the air in the cabinet , depending on it's insulation value, to earth temperature depending on the length of pipe you burry.
On especially hot days , if you notice much of a rise in the cabinet , wet the area the pipe is buried. the evaporative cooling effect with contribute to the operation.
Ideally the best place to do this might be the garden, seeing it needs sun and water any way.
This is exactly how a heat exchanger works.