Storing Powder and Primers

[fabsroman]

Am I right that primers should not be stored in the same cabinet as powder. I was thinking about putting them in the same cabinet right next to one another, but then thought better about it. For some reason I think I read or heard this somewhere.

[Ak_Red]

I keep my powder in an ammo can on one shelf, and my primers in another ammo can on a separate shelf. I believe I could store them side by side like this if I wanted. Loaded ammo (kept in ammo cans in another room) has the powder sitting right on top of a primer with nuthin but a flash hole between them. But it just makes no sense to me to store the stuff that goes boom right beside the stuff that makes it go boom. It's like tempting fate in a Final Destination kind of way.

I'm not worried about the 999,999,999,999 times nothing happens. Its the one time it does.......

[BILLY D.]

when primers detonate they do so sympatetically. one goes, the next goes and so forth untill there are none left. store loosely, in other words not in a closed container because if they do detonate the closed container then is one big bomb.

powder will only explode if in a confined tight space ie :cartridge case. however as you have probably observed it burns very quickly.

and you are right, don't store together.

[skeet]

Amd don't put powder in a Military type ammo can and seal it. Just making a bomb in case of a fire. A low yield one maybe. But it is disconcerting when something like that goes off in the same room with you when fighting a fire. BTDT..makes for brown stuff!! separately Fabs...separately!

[fabsroman]

Okay, I already knew not to store the powder in anything that is tight (i.e., should it ignite it will not do any harm if it is in a low pressure bursting container such as a wood cabinet). I have one of those Mills Pride/Home Depot (a/k/a Home Desperate) white garage cabinets that I am storing the stuff in. The bottom portion of the cabinet is a storage space that is 24" deep by 18" high by 24" wide and it has a shelf in it. I have about 8,000 primers consisting of shotgun, hot shotgun, rifle, and magnum rifle primers. Will I be okay if I store the powder on the bottom shelf and the primers on the top shelf, or should I separate them even more by putting the primers in the top drawer on the cabinet?

Here is a pic of the cabinet.

[Rocky Raab]

I keep mine several feet apart, Fabs. The primers are on a shelf above my loading bench (they don't weigh much) and the powder is in an open-fronted shelving unit all in the original cans.

[fabsroman]

Okay, I will continue to store the primers and powder far away from each other.

Thanks for the advice everybody.

[Catfish]

I got a lightning strike in 95 and it came into my ham shack reloading room. At the time there was over 50 lbs. of powder and over 10,000 rifle and pistol primers, plus over 10,000 rounds of loaded ammo. The primers and some of the powder were stored very close together. There was no big explosion, but the fire got very hot very fast. I had some of the ammo stored in ammo cans. There was only 1 hole clear through a ammo can, but all were blown out of shape and some of the lids pretty well blown open. Modern powder will not blow up unless very tightly confined. I`m just gald the fire did not get to the basemant were I had over 50 lbs. of Black powder stored. There was quite alot of banging and poping though. One of the fire fighters said it was quite unnerveing though for a while.