Battle Packs - the Poor Man's Version

[Emptymag]

My freezer bags are pretty thick and I think they even make heavier duty ones. Once sealed they should not move at all. But point taken and EM should try some & report back with pistol ammo that should be a non issue.

It probably would make sense to pack and unpack them for quality control purposes NOW rather than later when I'm tossing a rifle and a pack of ammo to my neighbor during a zombie uprising only to find that they are all effed up and he gets eaten alive.

[stainless]

I have two bags of 120 rounds each that were completed sealed tight, both of them developed leaks, but the bags of 12G and 9mm didn't.

Any idea why? Pointed ammo or something else? I have never tried this but might at some point in life, so just trying to learn. Thanks.

[streaker69]

Did the bags break from the ammo?

That's the only thing I can think of is that a point of the bullet made a small leak when the 9mm and 12g doesn't didn't get leaks.

[ungawa]

The fact that nobody does this bothers me for a few reasons. The most I have seen from a military is a nitrogen purge. Never seen a vacuum seal. Another thing that bothers me is that both double and triple powders (modern smokeless) contain volatiles (such as GTN) and semivolatiles as main ingredients. And a lot of that stuff is stabilized by the substrate and not very stable as a vapor (dynamite thusly). Although I've never heard evidence of it, I am concerned vacuum sealing can degrade the powder (or even primer/seal components). Since the only people that ever do this are backyard ammo packers there is no long term storage and testing data. If the ammo from the 1990s was funky tomorrow I doubt the guys that packed it would blame the vacuum sealing.

Could be complete paranoia on my part, as I have no data. But anticipating failure modes is in my nature and my profession, and nobody ever got fired for using Microsoft. I don't like untested and potentially suspect measures.

[762xIan]

The fact that nobody does this bothers me for a few reasons. The most I have seen from a military is a nitrogen purge. Never seen a vacuum seal. Another thing that bothers me is that both double and triple powders (modern smokeless) contain volatiles (such as GTN) and semivolatiles as main ingredients. And a lot of that stuff is stabilized by the substrate and not very stable as a vapor (dynamite thusly). Although I've never heard evidence of it, I am concerned vacuum sealing can degrade the powder (or even primer/seal components). Since the only people that ever do this are backyard ammo packers there is no long term storage and testing data. If the ammo from the 1990s was funky tomorrow I doubt the guys that packed it would blame the vacuum sealing.

Could be complete paranoia on my part, as I have no data. But anticipating failure modes is in my nature and my profession, and nobody ever got fired for using Microsoft. I don't like untested and potentially suspect measures.

Sucking the air out of a plastic bag under a slight negative pressure is not the same as vacuum packing like the vacuum created in canning. I have opened many "spam" cans of ammo over the years and heard the lids pop when opening. They are under a vacuum and the ammo has always been pristine.

As for sealing away any ammo, I would ensure the environment you are sealing in is low humidity to begin with. Do it in the winter (low humidity) or in the house with AC on and let your boxes and ammo have time to acclimate to the lower humidity environment for a while prior to packing.

[P89]

I've had ammo vacuum packed for about a decade...zero issues.
A food saver doesn't have enough suck to create the kind of negative pressures to dislodge bullets or primers.
Pointy bullets do wear holes though.

I also use this for my steel shot for waterfowl, only I leave air in them so they float.

[Emptymag]

I'm not too concerned with being fanatical about preventing "humidity" from being trapped inside.
Can't be worse than daily exposure ammo would get otherwise.

In 1977 our basement flooded and a large quantity of 22LR was submerged for 2 days.
It was unboxed, laid out in the sun to dry, then dumped in a paper lunch bag where it sat on a shelf - again in the basement which was always damp.
A few years later I took it and shot it with only a few rounds that wouldn't fire.
I've never been overly obsessed with ammo storage since then.

[eyecanshoot]

I've never been overly obsessed with ammo storage since then.

Yeah! OK

[Emptymag]

Yeah! OK

HA! I nearly choked on a crunch berry!!!

[Rik Bitter]

HA! I nearly choked on a crunch berry!!!

Try taking it out of the vacuum bag first.