O.K. So I have given up on the "refridgerate my powder" in summer idea, and will be keeping my powder in the good old air conditioned house (This is HOT Alabama).

I was wonder what other people store there powder in. Some at another site ( http://gunsandfun.com )suggested an army ammo can, but I don't think that is a great idea unless it is left unlocked.

SO, does anybody have an idea for what would make a good SAFE homemade magazine to hold two or three pounds of smokeless and a few boxes of primers? Cabela's has one for a couple hundread, but I would rather build one myself. what do you use to store powder inside a home?

Thanks!
Bob

find yourself an old safe if it really bothers you.

What you want is a wood or sheet metal cabinet. The idea is that if there is a fire, and the powder ignites, the cabinet will not let pressure build up to the point of exploding.

I keep my powder in a cheap metal wall cabinet I got from an industrial supply.

I think that the NRA used to have plans for making a wooden one also.

Good luck.

Store the primers in another cabinet.

I know what you mean about HOT Alabama. I am from New Orleans and went to college in Mobile at Spring Hill. There is only one place hotter and that is the Panama Canal. I have been there twice and it's bad. Real bad. You would not think another 5 degrees would be a big deal but with that equator sun you just fry.

Anyway back to the subject at hand. All the safety info lists in great detail the type of cabinet you should store your powder in. Whatever it is it must be able to vent to prevent the "hand grenade effect." A cabinet somewhere in the house that doesn't see a lot of use would be ideal, like your wife's china cabinet... just kidding, but not really.

Any one of those "do-it-yourself" put-together cabinest sold at all the discount stores would be fine. Just drill some 1" holes in the back panel...

HOWEVER...if you are going to store large quantities of powder, then follow the SAAMI and insurance company rules.

In the containers they come it I doubt that enough pressure could build up to cause an explosion persay, they would just burn out or flash..in a steel cabinet they might explode but even then I doubt it....smokeless is not prone to explosion, black powder is...

Bottom line is if you house is on fire the powder probably won't add to or take away from that fire a heck of a lot...I would put them in a closet away from the primers and let it go at that...Primers would concern my more..

Funny, I was pondering the fire aspect the other day. I have a lot of powder. Black and smokeless. It is more than the fire regulations allow for home storage. I was thinking of making a box out of a sheetrock sandwich. Maybee plywood or even sheet metal on the outsides of the walls and a couple layers of sheetrock in the middle. The idea being that sheetrock gives off lots of water when you try to burn it. This would keep the temp inside the box below the ignition point of the powder for a very long time in a fire. Hopefully it would be put out before anything catastrophic happened. I do store it on a concrete floor in a corner of the garage against an outside wall. Hopefully it would be the last place a major fire got to. Does the sheetrock sandwich sound like a good idea to you?

Thanks for everyones input (I was amazed I could not find more info on the net)
I solved the problem with a trip to the army surplus store. I actually found a heavy wood 12x24x18 ammo box (korea era) with wood handles, a pop-up lid designed to pop open under pressure with a steel 3-sided insert open facing the pop up lid.
Seems to be the perfect 2 or 3 bottle powder container. I will keep the primers seperate in my safe.
Gotta love those army surplus stores!

Thanks!

I keep mine on the bottom shelf of my welding bench next to my aceteline tank. kidding.

Old steel cabinets are great, I keep my powder in a n old film cabinet from when they used the very light sensitive film. Heavy SOB. Yes, primers are in the same cabinet, top drawer though, a drawer or two between. But I only keep a few pounds of powder on hand at a time and a few hundred primers.

Red

quote:

Originally posted by Scota4570:
I was thinking of making a box out of a sheetrock sandwich. Maybee plywood or even sheet metal on the outsides of the walls and a couple layers of sheetrock in the middle.

A wooden cabinet is better than a metal cabinet because the wood provides some insulation from heat/flames and is not conducive to buildup of static electricity. The sheetrock sandwich you suggest is an improvement on the wood by itself. Make sure that the "door" or "lid" to your powder cabinet is held shut only by gravity or a friction or magnetic fastener. The main thing to avoid is a container that makes a pressure vessel. For that reason, a gun safe is a very poor place to store powder or primers.

Here's a link to the SAAMI and National Fire Protection Association "recommendations". http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1221/saami_pw.htm The NFPA recommendations are written as if they are code, but to my knowledge they have not been adopted on any widespread basis as jurisdictional code. Like code everywhere, they are more than a little anal-retentive. Following them to the letter would be both expensive and impractical, but they give you an idea of what direction to go.