That is very reassuring. And my father gave me a big ammo can recently. Great excuse to get it out of the wife's mudroom and use it for primer storage down in the shop! Free up some fridge space for the 8lbs of HS6 arriving tomorrow too. But the more comments I get on here the less I feel any need to store my powder in the fridge either.
As far as drying powder or primers in fridge, a modern refrigerator that is frost free, which most are, will dehydrate any thing. The moisture will accumulate on the evaporator coils and when the defrost timer cycles to do the defrost the moisture will be drained away.
I was gifted some old 2200 pulled powder that was at least 30 yo. It had clumps of powder in it. Stored in a heavy plastic bag, and heavy card board Bbl. He had bought 30# of it. Stored in non conditioned space. I placed the clumped powder in open pan, in the freezer of my barn Rx refrigerator, for several days. The clumps collapsed when touched. Loaded into .223 at max of 24.5 gn and chronometer showed 3250 fps.
Used all the powder up about 10# worth. For a few years that powder was discontinued, flash forward till 2 years ago. They’re now making that powder again. Bought some new 2200 and same gn load still gives 3250 fps.
You can dry things out in a freezer or refrigerator, just remember when you pull it out it will probably be at a temperature below dew point of the surrounding air so it will sweat. You must put it into an air proof container with or with out desiccant pack. And store properly.
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government..... When the people fear their government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson
After Sandy Hook and the component hoarding I found that I was short on small pistol primers. i found a guy at the gun show that had 2 boxes of Remington SPP on his table. I asked "how much'" he says "$50" for both boxes? he replies for all of them. I give him $50 and he bags up 17 boxes of primers. I get home and notice the boxes are beat up and worn looking so I open a few and see moisture. I go to the internet and ask about primers getting wet. Many places say that 20 -25 years ago the compound changed and water doesn't damage primers anymore. I eventually get to benchrest central and some BR shooter tells of priming 20 cases and loading 10 and putting 10 primed empty cases in a water bucket for a month. At the end of the month he shakes the water out of the cases and sets them on the window sill for a few days in the sun. After a few days they are good and dry he loads the other 10 and goes to the range. he shoots over the chronograph and notices that the wet ones were with in the same ES as the other 10. So i loaded up two food dehydrators with 17000 primers and have not had one show any signs of being less than perfect. gave away a few thousand and have not heard anything back about them, and if they were bad I would have had the phone ringing off the wall.
Last edited by ebb; 09-08-2021 at 09:12 AM.
I've been refrigerating my powders and primers for years, powders in their jugs and primers in their original packaging, inside a ziplock bag (so they can warm up on my bench without drawing moisture). It isn't necessary but it doesn't hurt anything and it meets every recommendation: Cool, Dry, Dark, Stable.
Warning: I know Judo. If you force me to prove it I'll shoot you.
I just use a non working fridge with desiccant bags in it. The seal provides an excellent barrier to moisture even here in very humid SW Florida.
There was a guy here, Junior I think, that lived in Louisiana. He stored his powder in a refrigerator because of the humidity. When he took out a can it was rolled up in a towel to let it warm up slowly. I tried it with a partial can of Blue Dot, I left it the refrigerator for a year or so with no ill affects. I know a year is not that long but it does seem an option for extreme conditions. I keep most of my things in a nonworking refrigerator.
A friend of mine’s father passed on and he got a bunch of his fathers ammo. Some of the ammo was in a plastic bag that looked like it was soaking in oil. He doesn’t reload so he gave them to me to recycle. There wasn’t very many cartridges so I wiped off the oil and put one in my revolver. Dang it went off ok so I tried the rest and they fired ok. So they seem to b hard to kill.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |