I like to store my 5.56 rounds loose in containers. My question is that would loose rounds create scratches/nicks on the bullets, causing reduced accuracy/fliers?
Especially in the case of match-grade boolits?
Questions about ammo storage
I like to store my 5.56 rounds loose in containers. My question is that would loose rounds create scratches/nicks on the bullets, causing reduced accuracy/fliers?
Especially in the case of match-grade boolits?
Yeah deep scratches and dings technically affect accuracy but you'd probably never notice outside of precision shooting.
>especially in the case of match-grade
Only in that case. Storing match ammo loose is silly.
I don’t store my ammo loose because I’m scared one of the primers will accidentally be struck and set off a chain reaction. It blows my mind that rimfire especially would be sold like that, and I’m shocked that there haven’t been more accidents over the years. Anyone that stores their ammo loose is just asking for their house to get blown up.
Ammo is a lot more durable than you might think it is, it's very hard to set it off unintentionally. And if a round does go off, without a chamber and barrel to contain the pressure nothing much happens.
Read picrel if you want to learn more, it describes various experiments like shooting boxes of loaded cartridges with rifles, shooting containers of gunpowder, etc, and nothing of significance happens. The author also describes testing various pistol and rifle rounds by placing them on ballistic soap, putting a cardboard box on top, and then detonating the cartridges with electricity to observe the severity of the explosion. In none of his tests did a projectile, or anything else, exit the cardboard box. The ballistic soap showed a small dent but no cuts. In two of the tests a piece of brass from the cartridge case stuck into the inside layer of cardboard but didn't penetrate the box. So cartridges detonating on their own are more scary than anything else. They make a bang but they have no power.
Taufledermaus on YT has a video of them setting off an unsupported .50 BMG right in front of a teddy bear. The bullet bounced off the bear, there was no damage to it, just a flash and a bunch of unburned gunpowder lying around.
It would help if I didn't forget my pic like a tard...
thats a great read
>And if a round does go off, without a chamber and barrel to contain the pressure nothing much happens.
This.
So here's a 12ga shell going off unsupported. The pellets don't even have enough energy to penetrate styrofoam.
Here's the .50 BMG bouncing off a teddy bear in one test and failing to penetrate ballistic gel to any depth at all in another.
Until you use it as a hammer.
NTA and I agree with a lot of what you guys are saying but the way 5.56 rounds are shaped seems like it's begging for one to get poked in the primer by another one's pointy bit
Unless you're striking an individual bullet with another bullet held steady, you're not going to get the necessary deformation.
>seems like it's begging for one to get poked in the primer by another one's pointy bit
The book anon linked was written by the head of the US Ordinance department and it contains statistics for accidents involving ammo, guns blowing up, etc. The data is right fricking there, the situation you're describing is so rare that it just doesn't happen. And when that book was written the ammo in use was .30-06 and .308, just as pointy but but bigger, heavier, rounds that would be even more likely to poke a primer.
If you have the chance, read the book. It's honestly a must for anyone interested in guns at all. As far as safety goes, it makes it clear that many things we might think are dangerous (like storing ammo in loose bulk) is not dangerous, while other things we might think is no big deal, like a cleaning patch being left behind in a barrel, are in fact extremely dangerous. That book cuts through an awful lot of fuddlore.
The amount of times that actually happens should indicate to you how big of a concern it is. You can only use round nosed boolits in lever actions for that exact reason but those are under spring tension and a drop could potentially set it off under the right circumstances. When you have an ammo can or whatever with a lot of loose rounds its a different ball game because the rounds are unlikely to be truly end to end. They are not under any tension from a spring. Im having a hard time imagining a scenario where bumbing an ammo box would set off the ammo inside.
this.
the military literally drops crates of ammo out of aircraft and it doesn't go kaboomie when it hits the ground. Truckloads of ammo loose in crates get driven around the world every day, often in 3rd world shitholes with terrible roads. Bouncy bouncy all the time and yet it doesn't go off either.
The only way even match grade ammo would be affected is if you were dropping it into the can from 20 feet. The ammo will be fine
No it wont
You sucking at shooting is why you lose accuracy
My autism is too severe to look at a bucket of loose ammo. That should tell you my answer.
How are you supposed to do inventory and log rounds fired if you can't easily count your ammunition?
A counting scale.
That's more cost, more work, and more risk of discrepancies than just leaving your ammunition pre-counted in boxes.
if you can accurately count all of your ammunition, you don't have enough ammunition.
Underrated
You just count them when you put them in then make a log. Anytime you add/subtract ammo, change the log.
>Buy ammo
>Note the addition in your log
>count usage by the magazine
I have an absolute frickton of 12 gauge loose in a big container and nothing has happened to those, considering they're also made of plastic.
Bullets and cases are probably bumping into each other at the manufacturing plant, it's probably no big deal.
Besides, loose ammo doesn't really jiggle that much. Lead/brass/steel are relatively heavy, so the cartridges tend to stay put.
Considering how many 1000 round bulk boxes of 5.56 get shipped thru fedex/ups and aren't blowing up, I'm simply not worried about it.
I leave match/hunting ammo in their boxes though, mostly for organization's sake.