We’re currently facing record high prices for most ammunition across the board. Everything from rare rifle cartridges like .500 Jeffery to run-of-the-mill .22LR costs more and is harder to find.
Some gun shops and online retailers are even imposing buying limits to prevent individual buyers from scooping up their entire supply in one transaction.
Where you can find it, it’s a good idea to buy it in bulk. If you invest in 9mm or .223 bulk ammo (or some other, harder-to-find caliber) you can often save on the transaction.
Here’s why it makes sense and how you should store your ammo to make sure it goes off when you drop the hammer - literally.
Why Buying Ammo in Bulk Makes Sense
If you’ve ever turned down a .223 bulk ammo deal you might want to rethink that going forward.
First off, we’re in the midst of the worst ammo crisis in recent memory, perhaps the worst one of all time. It’s hard to get ammo and when you can get it, it costs a lot more than it has any right to.
Buying in bulk will help you keep those costs down, overall. Usually, you can engineer per-round costs down substantially when you get a good bulk deal, helping you save overall on your shooting pursuits.
Bulk deals also ensure consistency, which is the key to performance whether you carry for self defense, shoot competitively, need bulk for high-volume target shooting, or you hunt. Feeding your gun different ammo at different times will produce variable and therefore undesirable results.
Buying in bulk is also more economical, especially if you buy online. Shipping fees on ammo are usually pretty high and getting one (or a few) bulk purchase will usually drive down costs for you. Plus, buying larger volumes also requires less packaging materials which can sometimes also result in savings for you.
It’s also more convenient. Why make a bunch of small purchases through visits to different gun shops when you can more or less get what you want through one bulk order online?
Buying in bulk also offers another benefit: it helps ensure that you’ll have ammo there when you need it. The time to buy ammo is not right before you visit the range, and certainly not on the way. Half of gun shops around the country are strapped for ammo right now anyway.
There is one small catch to buying bulk ammo. It is a larger expense, overall, even if the per-round cost is lower. You don’t want to spend a whole lot on bulk ammo just to discover that half of it won’t fire when you bring it to the range.
So, if you do buy in bulk, make sure you learn how to store your ammo stockpiles wisely. Here are some of our top tips.
Storing Bulk Ammo: What to Avoid
If you buy a whole lot of ammo in bulk, here are the main things you want to avoid meticulously.
- High heat: High heat is a killer of stored ammunition. As soon as temperatures reach about 150℉, the propellant and primer in your ammunition will start to deteriorate. They will be outright damaged by temperatures this high, but damage will start to occur at lower temperatures, just north of 100℉. High temperatures are bad, but temperature swings are even worse, and high heat cycles can accelerate the decay of ammo. The bottom line: store your ammo somewhere cool with a low potential for thermal cycling.
- High humidity: As bad as heat is for ammo, humidity is even worse. First, humidity will attack the bullet’s jacket as well as the brass casing. Damage to the bullet jacket will result in inconsistencies which become apparent as variations in accuracy. Also, high heat and humidity together can damage the primer and propellant contained in the cartridge. Worst of all, if you store your ammo in the original boxes and expose them to high humidity, the box will absorb moisture which will compound the potential for damage.
- Handling the cartridges: One last thing you don’t want to do is handle your cartridges. Get a watertight, airtight container, and place the whole unopened package of ammo in it. Don’t dump them into the container loose or handle them. Keeping them in their original packaging will ensure you know what you’re working with, and not handling them will prevent them from being exposed to the oils on your skin that can accelerate corrosion.
So, Where’s a Good Place to Store .223 Bulk Ammo?
Here are some places you should not store ammo: uninsulated attics, garages, crawl spaces, and basements, as well as in the trunk of your car.
You should store it anywhere that remains cool, dry, and preferably dark throughout the year. Anywhere that stays below 70℉ and has humidity between 30% to 50% (or lower) is suitable, but colder and drier are even better.
Now all you need to do is get yourself some 9mm or .223 bulk ammo and stock up.