Powder Magazine

[Cattywompuss]

How do you folks store your powder? I have seen the red steel magazines in shops and so forth. I have watched Bob's video where he advocates for a wooden chest. Over the last few months I acquired enough powder to move it out of the house into the shed. Not worried about moisture or preservation. My only concern is that the shed puts the powder closer to my next-door neighbors house than to my own. It is in the original containers in a cardboard box, and locked in the shed.

If I go with Bob's idea I will either be looking for a cedar chest to put out there in the shed, or moving my great-grandmothers hope chest out of the hall and into said shed. If I go with the commercially available power magazines, I will be shelling out about 300 dollars for a metal box. What say you?

Not really needing a rambling supposition about how powder was kept 200 years ago. Just looking to avoid a lightning strike taking out half my neighbors house. Also not really looking for a treatise on the legality of owning excessive(read: sufficient) amounts of BP. Just tell me what you recommend for a modern shooter with a pile of powder.

 

[Woody Morgan]

Repurposed a pantry cabinet from the remodel and installed it in a large ventilated metal shed that was a full horse shelter 100' away from the house. Ammo boxes (multiple) with desiccant packs for all caps and primers, open storage on shelves with locks on the doors for all powder.
Just get it out of the house and secure it from nosy fingers and you should be good.

wm

 

[FishDFly]

There is your answer.

 

[Cattywompuss]

Repurposed a pantry cabinet from the remodel and installed it in a large ventilated metal shed that was a full horse shelter 100' away from the house. Ammo boxes (multiple) with desiccant packs for all caps and primers, open storage on shelves with locks on the doors for all powder.
Just get it out of the house and secure it from nosy fingers and you should be good.

wm

Thank you for your experience! Reckon I am on the way to a wooden box with maybe a metal box around it!

 

[doubleset]

I never have more than about 8 lbs on hand. It lives in an old steel Craftsman toolbox -- now painted red -- on the concrete floor of my "garage" (actually a workshop) under a workbench. Over the years, I have become a bit more sensitive to people who might enter the garage for various reasons -- in particular firefighters, should that ever be required -- because there are a number of, should we say, "problematic substances" in it. So there's a sign on the main front door that says "Danger: Explosive Gas, No Smoking".

 

[dave951]

DO NOT store black powder or any other gun powder for that matter in a STEEL container. That is a pipe bomb in the event of a fire. Use a wood chest or locker. I store mine in a simple kitchen type cabinet high enough off the floor that the grandkids can't get into it.

 

[Tumbledown]

Check your state and local laws. For example, NY says 5 lbs max, in horns or original containers, in a wood box with 1/2" thick walls. Said box is to be painted red and marked Low Ex in 4" high white or yellow letters. Box must be kept within 10 feet of an exterior entry, on ground floor or in basement.

 

[Rifleman1776]

This thread is a familiar repeat. Bottom line, IMHO, most are overthinking this non-issue. As long as it is kept in a dry area on a shelf you are fine. Mine is in an under-house garage on a shelf. FWIW I have about 15 lbs. on hand.

 

[doubleset]

DO NOT store black powder or any other gun powder for that matter in a STEEL container. That is a pipe bomb in the event of a fire. Use a wood chest or locker.

That makes a certain degree of intuitive sense, and I understand your safety point, but you might want to check on the description of BATF magazine types.

A Type 3 magazine (portable magazine) is REQUIRED to be of "no less than 12-gauge steel ...", Type 4 magazines (if not masonry) MUST be "metal-covered" or "fabricated metal" (and I'm thinking that exploding masonry is no less problematic than exploding steel), and Type 5 Indoor Magazines must be of "solid wood or metal" but the hinges and hasps must be "attached by welding" (presumably to metal) or by riveting or bolting. I guess you could argue that the BATF magazine requirements ignore a certain level/type of safety, but the differences involved in flying metal from hasps/hinges vs. thin-walled steel (and so not exactly a pipe bomb) may be largely academic as a matter of practicality.

In any event, I think there are practical arguments to be made on either side of this issue, and neither seems to entirely carry the day against the other. In my own case, I feel a little more comfortable with the tool box than with a wooden container (and partly because it does satisfy the Type 3 requrement for portability). Whatever the powder is in, it will provide no more threat than the acetylene B tank on the other side of the garage, the several small propane or mapp gas canisters on some shelves, or the 100 gal. propane tank sitting right outside the front corner of the building.

So I also tend to agree with the "overthinking" comment, in part because there's just no ideal choice here that fits all the criteria for safety that we'd like. It reminds me of a conversation I heard reported between a collector and an old Russian soldier concerning how dreadfully difficult it is to use the safeties on Mosin-Nagant rifles: "Is not safe. Is gun."

 

[dave951]

That makes a certain degree of intuitive sense, and I understand your safety point, but you might want to check on the description of BATF magazine types.

A Type 3 magazine (portable magazine) is REQUIRED to be of "no less than 12-gauge steel ...", Type 4 magazines (if not masonry) MUST be "metal-covered" or "fabricated metal" (and I'm thinking that exploding masonry is no less problematic than exploding steel), and Type 5 Indoor Magazines must be of "solid wood or metal" but the hinges and hasps must be "attached by welding" (presumably to metal) or by riveting or bolting. I guess you could argue that the BATF magazine requirements ignore a certain level/type of safety, but the differences involved in flying metal from hasps/hinges vs. thin-walled steel (and so not exactly a pipe bomb) may be largely academic as a matter of practicality.

In any event, I think there are practical arguments to be made on either side of this issue, and neither seems to entirely carry the day against the other. In my own case, I feel a little more comfortable with the tool box than with a wooden container (and partly because it does satisfy the Type 3 requrement for portability). Whatever the powder is in, it will provide no more threat than the acetylene B tank on the other side of the garage, the several small propane or mapp gas canisters on some shelves, or the 100 gal. propane tank sitting right outside the front corner of the building.

So I also tend to agree with the "overthinking" comment, in part because there's just no ideal choice here that fits all the criteria for safety that we'd like. It reminds me of a conversation I heard reported between a collector and an old Russian soldier concerning how dreadfully difficult it is to use the safeties on Mosin-Nagant rifles: "Is not safe. Is gun."

There is a difference between a steel transportation container where structural integrity and security in the event of an accident are in play v storage on a shelf. A wood cabinet out of youngsters reach is much safer. It's non sparking and loosely constructed enough to not allow a pressure build up if it does catch fire.

 

[waksupi]

Mine is an old apartment size refrigerator. It will hold a couple cases. Remember, no locks or latches on magazines.
I also put an explosives warning sign on my shop, and informed the local fire department if it ever catches fire, stay da hell back, and wait for the earth shattering boom.

 

[FishDFly]

This thread is a familiar repeat. Bottom line, IMHO, most are overthinking this non-issue. As long as it is kept in a dry area on a shelf you are fine. Mine is in an under-house garage on a shelf. FWIW I have about 15 lbs. on hand.

When all else fails, read the instructions on the back of the can, they are there for a reason.

This is repeated almost as often as "how do I get a stuck ball out of my barrel".

 

[FishDFly]

Mine is an old apartment size refrigerator. It will hold a couple cases. Remember, no locks or latches on magazines.
I also put an explosives warning sign on my shop, and informed the local fire department if it ever catches fire, stay da hell back, and wait for the earth shattering boom.

BP does not explode in a fire, it goes poof.

 

[Woody Morgan]

BP does not explode in a fire, it goes poof.

Be one helluva POOF around here.

wm

 

[sheriff john]

There's a video "out there" done by SAAMI (I think) on the effects of fires, crushing, dropping, etc. of sporting ammunition which applies here. Basic thing - unless enclosed, there's not the level of danger present many perceive. Now that most black powder comes in plastic jugs rather than metal cans, there should be less danger in fires.

Many (myself included) have stored ammo and black powder in milsurp metal ammo cans. I am curious as to what happens when an ammo can full of black powder is in a house fire. Bad ju-ju to store percussion caps/primers in the same can as powder, probably.

 

[andy52]

I just store my powder black and smokeless on shelves in my shop, primers I store in a plastic ammo container, god forbid my shop would ever catch on fire I'd be in competition with Elon Musk..

 

[FishDFly]

Black powder and caps most likely are the least thing to worry about in a shop or garage considering all the other flammables. stored there.

 

[SOLANCO]

My home was built in1950 complete with fallout shelter. Open a door in the basement and go down 6 steps out underneath the lawn. Pretty constant temperature and humidity. Powder sits down there with a case or two of wine.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

What powder?

 

[Tumbledown]

BP does not explode in a fire, it goes poof.

Enough of it in a confined space and it goes BOOM. The key is to keep it in a container that will release the pressure.