How Safe Is Stored Ammunition When Exposed to Fire?
Ever wonder if the sporting ammunition of cartridges (up to .50 caliber) and shot shells (up to 8 gauge) you store poses an extreme danger to you, your family, or neighbors if a fire should ever occur? Wonder no more: it doesn’t.
Rifle and handgun cartridges consist of a metal case with a primer, gunpowder, and bullet; shotgun shells typically consist of a plastic or paper tube often with a metallic covering at the base which retains a primer, and the shot charge is typically contained by a wadding inside the case.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Learn the Basics of Ammunition with Winchester® Educational Infographics ]
In the following video by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute with input by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, over 400,000 rounds of bulk packaged and unpackaged small arms ammunition were burned and crushed in a variety of scenarios to determine the ammo’s lethality in stored configurations outside of firearms. The tests involved were single cartridge impact, 65-foot drop, bullet impact, blasting cap attacks, forklift and bulldozer friction and compression, bonfire with and without packaging, and retail store and semi-trailer fire simulations.
