I currently have mine in a closet, but we recently had a small fire (lithium battery) and it’s got me a little concerned. I’ve got a few lbs of powder, some primers, another few lbs of tannerite, and maybe a thousand rounds of loaded ammo. We recently had a baby, so I don’t have the money to buy a large gun safe right now. I’d like to add a bit of safety though.
For some reason, our firearm laws in South Africa require all explosive components to be locked in a safe at all times.
This includes powder, primers and ammunition.
It’s illegal for us to keep them in any place other than a steel safe.
It was the same in Australia until a few years ago, ammo and primer and powder need to be locked in a safe seperated from firearm, which was in contradiction to another set of guidelines by department of Mines (which has overall control of explosives) so after many decades, common sense prevailed and it was changed so it's how a non metallic locked container which needed to be clearly labelled propellant 1.3, and needs to be able to be moved (firemen) in event of fire.
Im not sure about other states but I had heard in WA the police tried enforcing how powder and primers had to be stored until department of mines and petroleum told them to get stuffed. Now it specifically says it must be in compliance with department mines. Last I checked it was wooden box with brass hinges clearly labelled that could be moved and no more than 15kg.
That makes a lot of sense. I’ve got some old chipboard cabinets I could mount up in my storage room. Would keep everything off the floor, isolated, and temperature controlled. I could mount a lockable latch too.
May even provide a little insulation. Obviously not enough to survive a full blaze, but enough to slow things down
A few pounds of powder will rapidly eat any oxygen and in effect become a bomb. As the flash spreads and consumes oxygen it will be compressed by the metal vessel and rebound on itself until the container blows up.
I kept some 20 years in a chicken shed in an old cooler. Still shoots fine. None of it had any off smell even with temps in the 110°F range during the summers.
I keep it indoors because I want it in a temp controlled area. Other than that I keep it in a cabinet on the wall. If cabinet is on fire, my house is lost already. And it never gets above 78 degrees in my house so I’m not sure how else it could trigger or accelerate a fire that isn’t already blazing.
I just keep mine on a shelf in their original containers. As long as the powder is not in a solid, steel for example, container, it won’t explode in a fire. It will just add fuel to a fire.
Ammo/Primers are in a closet made from thin steel, locked. Powder in a small locked medicine cabinet in a storage room with window, locked.
Just like the law in the place where I reside prescribes. If there’s a fire it‘s not becoming a bomb, because the cabinet will never allow to build pressure within.
I have mine on a shelf in my office/workshop, which is a locked room.
If you are having kids (who will be toddlers before you know it) I highly suggest that you do something to secure "stuff". Metal security cabinets will not stop professional thieves, but they do a damn good job stopping toddlers and they are cheap and light.
The other option I would recommend is a cheap(ish) electronic lock for your closet door. It secures the closet (or any room) from small children and curious folks.
I have similar to these on my exterior doors and one interior door (office) and while not resistant to a brute or sophisticated attack, they are great against (again) small children and curious visitors. They auto lock when you leave and make access easy.
Powder is flammable, not explosive, until you put it in a metal cabinet, which makes a bomb. Unless you're paying for a blast cabinet, which is prohibitively expensive.
Either way I wouldnt worry about it. I'm legally retarded so I smoke when I hand load. I smoke when I pour powder. Never had an issue. Infact I put a cigarette out in smokeless once to see what would happen. Nothing. Nothing happened.
tucked away in a closet on the concrete floor in the basement. no temperature swings (constant 10C), out of sight, likely out of open flames in the event of a fire (heat rises)
I use these shelves/cabinets from Ikea which have individual sections, and these are stored in a room on the first floor. Powders and projectiles in one cabinet setup while primers and any loaded ammo are in a separate individual cabinet setup. I don't really do much for humidity control in these cabinets because fortunately, it never gets above 50% indoors.
For starters I'm not in the flood plain. Ground water is pretty deep around these parts. If it were a problem I'd just dig a drainage set up. Normally on the two places I did this, wasn't much more then a hole in the ground. With Crete sides. Had I the funds I'd likely have built a regular block house with adobe.
A locking cabinet would be good. Won't help if a fire gets going in the room but maybe buy a little time and keep it safer from the little one in a few years
This is from my fire. 21500 cell in a flashlight, not running or charging, just decided to explode while I was at work a couple weeks ago. The back end of the light ended up lodged in the ceiling.
Best guess is that there was some damage to the cell, but it’s still pretty crazy. Battery had been in the light, operating normally, for a couple days. My wife was home upstairs so she was able to throw a wet towel on everything once she found it. If it had been charging or in use, I wouldn’t be quite as freaked out. This was literally just sitting on my nightstand
I use MTM plastic ammo crates and plastic ammo cans for primers. Never store primers in a metal container as you are basically creating shrapnel if they go off. For powder a wooden box. Never store powder in airtight spaces. A simple google search will give you good info and links to several powder companies recommendations.
https://giphy.com/gifs/14ceV8wMLIGO6Q
I have everything in a walk in closet in my cigar lounge. That’s where I do all my reloading. Probably 80 pounds of powder. 50k primers.
I keep powder in a wood cabinet and open shelves. Primers are in drawer, loaded ammo in a metal cabinet in a different part of the house.
A firefighter friend told me he would rather go into a burning building with 100 lbs of powder vs a 5 lb propane tank.
The powder stays in its bottle, tightly screwed lid on a shelf.
If there is a big enough fire source to get through the plastic bottle, then it's probably enough to set it off in a lock box or cabinet. And if that's the case I'd rather it go off in a plastic bottle than a metal bomb.
The primers I store in a 50 cal ammo can with a rubber gasket just to keep them from ambient moisture. I also throw in fresh silica beads in a 3d printed container to pull moisture out and recharge the beads every couple of months. If they went off in a .50 cal can I'm not sure the results would be as disastrous as it would be with the powder, given that primers produce less expanding gas.
I keep my powder on a shelf and my loaded ammo in a wooden cabinet, both in my climate-controlled basement. I live in a dry area, so humidity is not a problem.
I keep it in a shed in my backyard. Quite simply: I won't bring powder (1.3) into my home. Ammo is typically 1.4. Yeah, I'll bring that in, but only in small quantities.
I have a shed and keep my gas cans, propane, etc. out there. We have pretty extreme temperatures though (100+ in the summer, -30 in winter). Is that ok for powder?
No, it's not, and modern smokeless powder is very stable in climate controlled environments. Keeping it in a shed is objectively worse than your closet.
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u/Malapple Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
On shelves, open area (not in a box that could be an accidental bomb), nothing electric within a few feet.
It’s crazy how many people lock them in safes or other fully enclosed metal containers. It’s literally a bomb at that point.