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Post by willyhuntsdeer on Dec 26, 2007 17:37:34 GMT -4
i often think abut wether its safe to have powder stored in the home, i kept mine in my gun cabinet for years but i hate thinking about...what if there were a fire? so now its kept in a firesafe box like the ones used for important documents and things, anyone else share my feelings as far as safety and keeping powder somewhere in the house? i have several lbs. of powder and its always a concern as i think it could make one hell of an explosion if a fire ever happened, hopefully my way of storing it will atthe very least help make it safer for my family' though i still worry at times
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Post by btexpress on Dec 26, 2007 18:15:53 GMT -4
I store mine at my brother's house.
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Post by rs on Dec 26, 2007 21:57:04 GMT -4
I believe the can the powder is sold in are designed to split under stress , so in a fire they will only burn , not explode , as a afterthought most powder now comes in plastic containers and they also will burn and not explode.
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Post by willyhuntsdeer on Dec 26, 2007 23:04:19 GMT -4
i never really gave thought to being in plastic that it would melt before exploding, but still i think its unsafe to have setting around because of its flamability. hopefully the fire safe i have it in is sufficient for keeping fire from getting to it
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Post by loggy on Dec 27, 2007 10:52:26 GMT -4
I store mine in factory containers for reasons mentioned above. I have some in my fireproof safe & some on storage racks in my base,emt. Cool dry place away from any potential sparks (water heaters, elec boxes, firplaces, furnaces etc)is the best enviornment.
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Post by cmreed on Dec 27, 2007 11:56:52 GMT -4
Yes fellows it can happen! A fews years back my parents lost there home to a chimney fire and all his reloading stuff was in the basement. Like rs said the powder just made some big flashes as it burned but the bullets were the problem. They went off like missles and the firmen had to get out of the house for a while till it all stopped. Your bullets are the thing to be more conserned about because believe me they will go off.
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Post by skwirl on Dec 27, 2007 17:03:56 GMT -4
I think BTE has the right idea.Just approach a neighbor you dislike and ask him if you can store your high explosives at his place you know just in case there is a fire its his arse that blows up not yours ;D ;D ;D
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Post by loggy on Dec 27, 2007 20:07:18 GMT -4
LOL!!
I asked my MIL if I could store at her place....but she is on to ole Loggy by now!!!!!! ;D
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Post by xtrememxrider on Dec 27, 2007 20:28:33 GMT -4
LOL!! I asked my MIL if I could store at her place....but she is on to ole Loggy by now!!!!!! ;D Thats just too funny! ;D
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Post by mrlongbeard on Dec 28, 2007 0:03:35 GMT -4
be careful how you store it and where some people we know had problems with this. he was big into loading and hunting. seems he had stored his powder in the garage and his wife didn't know about it. when she was in the garage looking for something she knocked something off the work bench. it landed on a car battery. well you guessed it the powder went off badly burning his wife. so you never know what stupid thing can happen when you have this stuff stored around the house
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Post by dougell on Jan 16, 2008 10:48:47 GMT -4
I'm an insurance agent and about 7 years ago,I had a client lose a rental property due to a fire.I was at the scene when the state police fire marshal finished his investigation.he concluded the fire started in the bottom drawer of a gun cabinet,located in an upstairs bedroom.The next day,a sub-contracted cause and origin investigator showed up to do another investigation.He concluded that a can of black powder spontaneously combusted in the bottom of that gun cabinet.There were no wires near that part of the room or anything elsethat could have made a spark.We ended up paying the claim and then sugrogated against the renters on the basis that they didn't store the powder according to the directions on the can(cool,dry place).Apparently the court saw the evidence as factual because we ended up getting 100K back from the renter's insurance company.
The way I understood it,black powder can somehow break down after a long time in storage and become very volatile in a sudden change of temperature. the day this fire happened,it was a hot day in late spring/early summer and the powder was in an upstairs bedroom that got pretty hot.
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Post by greybearjr on Jan 16, 2008 22:43:37 GMT -4
Actually, it does not breakdown. It is called "dusting" by explosives experts. The granuals over years of rubbing together create a fine powder that settles to the bottom of the can. This fine powder, exposed to heat or pressure, can combust and explode. In my capacity as a safety trainer for the state I have run several demonstrations over the years with a partially full powder horn with powder residue or dust and a full horn of powder. Both explode, but the effect on the horn with a teaspoon of dust is far more devastating with a lot of fragments and a longer range. The full horn is actually harder to ignite and it burns more than explodes.
I have stated this on other threads. CHECK YOUR HOME OWNERS INSURANCE REGARDING POWDER STORAGE! Many insurance companies do not recognize the storage of powders under a standard policy. Dougell can probably lend a lot more to this than I can but I had to pick up a rider on my policy if I was going to store more than 10 pds in my residence, even though the law allows 25 pds for sporting use before a license is required.
I never keep powder for more than 3 years. I always store my powder in the original cans as they are designed to unravel upon combustion. I keep those in a special white epoxy painted cardboard box with all non sprking furniture and I keep that locked in my shed outside my house. When I was storing powder for artillery demo's I always stored in BATF rated magazine.
Do not store in modern ammo cans. I have run many tests with blackpowder explosions in ammo cans. They almost always frag and the lids, which are suppose to unlatch and allow the force up in a smokless explosion stay latched during the blackpowder explosion.
If I get a chance this weekend i'll post some picture of my storage box.
GBJ
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Post by dougell on Jan 17, 2008 10:50:01 GMT -4
I honestly never understood the reason or theory behind what happened.I just know it went to arbitration and it was ruled in our favor.All I know is,the can of black powder ignited and there were no sparks to set if off.
As far homeowner's insurance goes,I've never seen any provision that limited how much black powder you can store at home.I'm not saying some don't do it.I just know that we don't do it .
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