Heat vs. Ammo

[sterno]

I live way down south (Louisiana) and it gets pretty hot here in the summer. I was thinking about keeping an extra magazine in my car (just in case). I know that in the summer here it's not odd for the interior of a car to reach over 120 degrees in the sun. Do you think that the summer heat would damage the ammo in the clip or cause them to discharge?

 

[Hkmp5sd]

That's not hot enough to damage or cause ammunition to combust. Think of all of the shotguns stuck in LEO vehicles and trunks. I keep spare ammo in my vehicle and live in central Florida. It may not be the best idea to leave it in there for a decade or so. I put new ammo in the car annually and just shoot the old stuff at the range.

 

[JohnKSa]

The heat will absolutely NOT set them off in the car.

It will cause the components to degrade faster than usual. You should definitely rotate the ammo out regularly, shoot the old stuff and put in new. Annually is probably the minimum rotation period.

 

[mete]

Even in NY the temperature in the trunk of a white car can reach 150+ with an air temperature of 70 F. [the 150F wax was melted !] no it won't set off the ammo but ammo life will be shorter. Pressures and velocites will be higher too. You could keep the ammo in an insulated container. Use that ammo for practice since long term with vibration also deteriorates ammo since it removes powder coatings.

 

[seb5]

Just rotate it every 6 months or so and you'll be fine. I've done this for ammo in my patrol unit for years and never had a problem.

 

[sterno]

So you think that the velocities and pressures would be higher? I guess what I'll do is just empty the magazines when I go to the range and reload them when I leave. That seems the safest (and most fun) way to solve that problem.

 

[JohnKSa]

Velocities and pressures will be higher if you shoot them while they're still hot. If you shoot them after they've cooled down the degradation will probably actually result in lower pressures and velocities.

 

[USP45usp]

That will not set ammo off. Heck, if you seen where they stored ammo in the past you would think that it would have gone off (supply huts made of tin (steel) that could get way up in temps and only the office and the special equipment (electronics mostly) are A/C'd)).

And the heat didn't seem to affect the performance of said ammo (look at the middle east). When I was at Prince Saltun AB, the ammo, uniforms, stuff like that was sitting in a tent or steel building that was not a/c'ed (and to hear the supply folks, they were just "dying from the heat" (I did feel sorry for them since I worked in an a/c'ed trailer because of the electronics).

Wayne