Canmunition Update: Opening the Cans

As you all may recall, I posted an article on May 22nd about Canmunition and its potential as a long term storage solution for ammunition. To refresh your memories, let me quote that article:

According to the “About” section on the website, Canmunition provides a completely sealed, waterproof, lightproof, oxygen-free environment to keep the moisture out and your ammo in tip-top shape until you’re ready to use it, even if that is decades from now”. The can is approximately 3 inches in diameter and 6 inches high

There are two different calibers currently offered – approximately 90 rounds of Fiocchi 9mm (124 grain FMJ) or approximately 40 rounds of Fiocchi .223 (55 grain FMJ Boat Tail).

I went ahead and ordered four cans of the 9mm ammo to test at $24.95 a pop (yes, I did not receive these for free – I bought them out of pocket to ensure no bias). I decided I would test it in three different ways:

      1. Submerged in water for 6 months
      2. Sitting in a hot shed for 6 months, and
      3. Using NC Scout’s recent article on Caching with PVC as a guide, inside a PVC cache for 6 months and 12 months (meaning I will have to dig up and reseal it in 6 months). This would also allow me to get some practical experience with building a cache using my new knowledge.

There were a few tweaks after the article was written. For starters, the shed outside was not getting as mhot as I wanted for the test. As a result, the shed can was moved to the attic. Also, as mentioned at the bottom of the article, another can was purchased and placed into the freezer. Now that it has been six months, let’s review each one! This first part is only going to be on the status of the can and the ammo. The next article will be about testing firing all of the rounds from the cans to test for failures.

Can Submerged in Water

Can was submerged in water in a dark cabinet for six months. You can see some type of growth on the bottom of the can.

Taking the can out of the water was interested because there were a lot of particles in the tub that were not there before. Additionally, you could see the growth on the bottom of the can as well as some discoloration. The rest of the can was perfect, however – no bulges or breaks.

The can opened with a healthy pop, indicating that the seal was not broken. Inside, the ammunition was in tip top shape, as seen below, and it was dry.

Can in Freezer

The second can lived in a chest freezer for six months.  As you can see, it had some ice attached to it upon removal. The can itself seemed to be fine.

The can had some ice and and an unknown wrapper attached to it when I removed it.

Again, there was some slight discoloration on the bottom of the can but it was otherwise in great shape. It opened with a pop, indicating the seal was intact.

The ammunition did come out with some frost on it as you can see below. I do not know whether or not that affects it’s ability to go BANG, but I don’t think it would. When I test fire it, it will have no frost on it  so the test will be more useful to determine whether you could grab it from a frozen cache, throw it in a bag, and then shoot it later without the frost melting and affect the primers.

Can in Hot Attic

The third can was moved from the shed to the attic in order to attain an adequate temperature. I can report that the temperature I personally observed on the thermometer was 144.6°F.

The bottom of the can was fine. However, a bulge did develop on the top of the can as seen below.

Unfortunately, the can did not open with a “HISS” of any kind, meaning that the bulge observed definitely create a micro-leak in the seal. This means that the vacuum sealed property of the can was gone. The ammunition inside was fine, but it remains to be seen whether or not the humidity of the attic, given the seal breach, has affected the primers.

Can Cached in PVC

The last can to test is the one that was buried in PVC following NC Scout’s instructions. The pipe was dug up (admittedly, it took me longer than it should have to actually find it despite having a picture of the place I buried it – lessons were learned) and opened. The seal on the PVC seemed to be fine.

Using a wrench, I opened the sealed clean-out plug and extracted the 6 month can (a 12 month was reburied in the resealed PVC pipe). the inside of the pipe seemed dry, which is good because I was purposed dumping my fire pit (filled with water and ash from when I extinguished it) over the PVC area all summer (in addition to the rains).

The can itself was fine. The bulge on the bottom of the can was already there from when I received it.

The can opened with a “HISS”, indicating the seal was still good. The ammunition inside seemed to be fine.

Next Steps

The next step in this testing process is test firing the ammunition. I intend on testing it for function and feed in order to determine whether or not the primers or powder of the ammunition was affected in any way. In particular, I am interested in the Freezer Can and the Temperature Can given the frost and broken seal, respectively. From a storage standpoint, the winners right now are the Water and the Cache because they had both good seals and no visual effect on the ammunition. Let’s see what the function test will say!

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18 Comments

  1. Matt in Oklahoma December 2, 2019 at 07:06

    This is awesome information and I appreciate it.

    • Patriotman December 2, 2019 at 08:11

      Glad you like it! Best to test now while you can still resupply easily…

  2. taminator013 December 2, 2019 at 07:59

    The deposits on the bottom of the can that was immersed in water appear to be corrosion. These will eventually perforate and leak. Unlike the body of the can which has an inked litho and then a varnish applied, the base of the can does not. The end (lid) also has a coating applied before the aluminum sheet is run through a punch press and formed into ends. There is also what is called a post repair coat applied after the pull tab is added. How do I know this? I worked as a chemist for a company that produces can/end coatings for almost 40 years. I’ve visited numerous manufacturing plants over those decades for trial runs of new products and also to troubleshoot application or performance issues when they would arise. I think that it’s a great idea to store ammo this way, but for any environment where moisture is encountered these cans should have the bases better protected. This would probably greatly increase the cost of the cans for Canmunition since this is not a normal process that the can manufacturer performs. These are just commercial beverage cans with a custom deco. What I would suggest is that the end user grab a can of high quality paint like Rustoleum and spray the bottoms of the cans to greatly extend the shelf life in harsh conditions. By the way, you have a great website and I liked this experiment. Just my two cents…………..

    • Patriotman December 2, 2019 at 08:10

      This is awesome insight brother! I say that and thought it looked like corrosion as well but was not sure.

      I love the rustoleum idea. You make me want to get a few more and try it……

      Thanks for visiting and enjoying the site!

  3. Matt in Oklahoma December 2, 2019 at 08:10

    There is an app called “tactical nav” that has a compass symbol I used to use. It’s good to mark “waypoints” you know in case “you get lost” or as I stated in the other post the land terrain gets changed drastically by a tornado or something.
    There are others too.
    It’s also a way to share with your extended family the location of those points.

    • Patriotman December 2, 2019 at 08:15

      Gotcha. Thanks for this! It was pretty funny because I took a picture of the spot and then still could not find it underground. Turns out I just had to widen the hole a little bit.

      Lessons were certainly learned.

  4. Matt in Oklahoma December 2, 2019 at 08:45

    I’m guessing the freezer one did that, with the frost, cause it’s not purged with nitrogen when it’s canned like they do with food so it still has oxygen and moisture in it.

  5. Anonymous December 2, 2019 at 08:56

    5

  6. MisterBandnews December 2, 2019 at 09:23

    … the county usually frowns on connect abs to PCV on sewer line. Just saying…

  7. james December 2, 2019 at 10:51

    Patriot,thanks for the experiment and out of cost expenses,look forward to the actual testing of product(did you get a can from same batch and just test on it’s own?).

    On a side note,do not mistake a beer or two for ammo cans in freezer,the results suck(heard that from a friend!).

    • Patriotman December 2, 2019 at 12:35

      Haha I have put a beer can in the freezer to chill it quickly and forgot about it, so I know the pain of an exploded beer.

      The cans were all shipped together from the same place, so as far as I know they were from the same batch.

      And as for the out of pocket expense, it’s not like I wasn’t going to buy more 9mm anyways. This was just delayed gratification. :) happy to be a guinea pig though!

      Hoping to get to the shooting test this week.

  8. so called caller December 2, 2019 at 13:51

    One thing that might worth checking out is to do a few freeze/thaw/heat cycles. That would probably give the best real world scenario of the cans being exposed to typical conditions of poor storage through four seasons in a temperate climate.

    • Patriotman December 2, 2019 at 19:43

      Not a bad idea! I think I will go that route.

  9. Matt Bracken December 3, 2019 at 08:27

    I like to use cleaned up peanut butter jars. Just apply silicone caulk to the threads before screwing down the caps. Waterproof, corrosion proof, and they can expand and contract with temperature changes. You can toss in a silica gel pack if you like, or just pack them on a dry day and don’t worry about it.

    • Patriotman December 3, 2019 at 13:52

      Great addition! Thanks Matt – will certainly try that out.

  10. Gryphon December 3, 2019 at 20:15

    taminator 013 – Correct, those Cans will Corrode under adverse conditions, they’re really meant for storage on dry shelves indoors. Coat of Paint and maybe Dipped in Paraffin Wax would go a long way to ‘improving’ this good product.

    Matt Bracken- Silicone Caulk?! Noooooo! Most all RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanizing) Sealers contain Citric Acid, which Evaporates as the Sealer Cures. Very Destructive to Copper and Brass. Dow Corning makes some specialized, Aviation-Grade products that are Non-Corrosive, for these types of applications. Can’t remember them off the top of my head here, will post them when I look them up. The ultimate Sealant type is the Mil-Spec Jet Fuel Sealer, a two-part, Polysulfide-based material that is a lot stronger and weather-resistant, safe to use on all Metals. Very expensive, but I’ll post a source.

    Not sure about those Peanut Butter jars, unless you Wash (Boil would be best) them thoroughly, there’s the possibility Mice might gnaw on them…

  11. Friday Links | 357 Magnum December 6, 2019 at 10:15

    […] Partisan – Canmunition Update: Opening the Cans. An experiment involving ammo in a can for long-term storage and […]

  12. […] Part Two – Canmunition Update: Opening the Cans […]

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