When Gandalf discovered the Ring of Power in the Shire, he instructed Frodo, “Keep it secret, keep it safe!”
Although your ammo storage isn’t the same as The One Ring, storing your ammunition discreetly is a great way to avoid unwanted attention. Not only is it important to keep away from little hands, but keeping your ammo storage hidden is a great way to protect it from thieves and family members who aren’t so keen on your love for the Second Amendment.
In this post, we’ll outline the top three locations in your home to secure your ammo storage and three areas you should typically avoid.
Hide your Ammo Here: Discrete Wall Safe
One of the best places to keep your ammo safe and secure is in (relative) plain sight. A solid wall safe behind an inconspicuous family photo is a location that most people with ill-intent will overlook.
Now we do need to caveat this and make sure that it is a discreet photo and not something that screams 2A.
Here at AmmoSquared, we love a good tactical concealment shelf or one of those wooden American flags you can pick up at a gun show that has a hidden compartment. These are great for keeping a firearm in for quick access in case of a home invasion.
However, the problem with these is that everyone and their brother knows about them. It virtually has “steal me” written all over it, which is the opposite of what you want in this situation.
If we are trying to keep your ammo storage safe and out of sight, then a solid wall safe is a great option that can’t be easily pried out of a wall with a little force or a crowbar.
Hidden behind an innocuous family photo or picture of your favorite pet makes a wall safe virtually invisible. Furthermore, your ammo is nearby, easily accessible, and in a relatively temperature stable environment.
Considering all these factors, this makes a discreet wall safe our #1 choice for securing your ammo storage in the home.
Don’t Hide Your Ammo Here: Bedroom Closet
When it comes to being the most obvious location to store ammo, it should come as no surprise that a bedroom closet is on the top of our list.
Although this may be a good option for temperature stability, it’s one of the first places a thief is going to look for your valuables. And then they will stumble on your ammo storage and all they’re going to see is dollar signs.
Not to mention that hiding in a closet is the #1 hiding place for any 3-year-old who likes to play hide and seek!
Overall, a bedroom closet is an extremely poor choice for your ammo stockpile in terms of security and should be avoided if possible.
Hide your Ammo Here: Inside Your Clothes
Although keeping a healthy storage of 9mm in your sock drawer might not be too discreet, how often do you think a thief is going to be rifling through your clothes for valuables?
Many of us have clothes folded away in our dresser that we are never going to wear. Sure, you might fit into them again someday, but as Aragorn said at the Black Gates of Mordor, “It is not this day!”
Slipping a box or two of 5.56 NATO or 45 ACP into the folds of your old High School jeans or lucky T-shirt is a great way to hide some ammo in a place no one will rightly check.
Don’t Hide Your Ammo Here: Under the Bed
When it comes to the most obvious place people like to hide things, it’s hard to not include under the bed as one of the most common.
Sure, it might be a good place to hide some Christmas gifts for the little ones who haven’t wizened up to your tricks, but a thief is going to look there immediately. This alone makes it a poor choice as a location to hide your ammo storage.
And once your kids do discover this classic hiding place, it will no longer be suitable for ammo or gifts, so you might as well write this location off as a complete “no-go” for ammo storage.
Hide your Ammo Here: Underground Cache
For the ultimate in ammo storage, you simply cannot beat a properly built and sealed cache.
First off, a thief is never going to go digging holes in your yard. Not only does it take forever, but it’s hard work and unless they know where it is, a complete shot in the dark.
Now you don’t have to dig as deep as the Dwarves of Moria, but hiding your ammo in your backyard is a great way to keep it completely out of sight and mind. However, proper storage techniques are required to ensure your ammo is safe from moisture while resting 6-feet under.
A sealed PVC tube is a great option or there are multiple companies who make pre-made cache containers to store your valuables in. As an added layer of protection, we also recommend vacuum sealing your ammo stockpile using something like a FoodSaver to reduce oxygen and add an additional layer of plastic to fend off pests and water.
An underground cache is also a great way to ensure that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Should a disaster strike and you have to leave your home, or worse, it is destroyed by a natural disaster, at least you still have some of your ammo storage safe and secure in your cache location.
The only downside to this method is that it is not accessible at all. So, we don’t recommend storing all your ammo here, since it can take hours to recover, and a home invader is unlikely to take a nap on your Lazy Boy recliner while you dig a hole in the back yard to retrieve your self-defense ammo.
However, for the ultimate in discreet ammo storage, it’s hard to beat a hidden cache.
Don’t Hide Your Ammo Here: Garage
Perhaps one of the least secure locations in your home would be the garage. Easily accessible due to the emergency release, a seasoned criminal will have no problem busting into your garage when the neighbors aren’t watching.
Not only is a garage easily accessible, but it also can get extremely hot in the summer and cold during the winter. This means your ammo won’t be in a temperature stable environment, which is not a good choice for ammo storage.
Furthermore, if you live in a humid climate, your ammo could be exposed to moisture that will slowly reduce its efficacy to the point of being inert or dangerous to fire.
Most homeowners also store hazardous or volatile chemicals in the garage like gasoline or harsh cleaning solvents. Making the garage one of the worst locations for ammo storage in your entire home.
Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe!
Keeping your ammo safe and secure in your home is an extremely important thing to do. Not only does it protect your children (if you have any) from unintentional harm, but it also helps insulate you from any potential criminal who might have a mind to loot your home for valuables.
And the last thing you want is for some criminal to make off with your hard-earned ammo stockpile to sell on the black market.
However, if you want to keep your ammo safe and secure in a temperature-controlled warehouse, then AmmoSquared has you covered.
We ensure that your ammo is always under lock and key, secure from would-be thieves (and Nazghul). Furthermore, we ensure that your ammo storage is always rotated, making sure that when we send you a shipment, the ammunition you receive is fresh and ready for use.
Make sure to check out our competitive pricing plans and always have enough ammo on hand for any trip to the range, match, or disaster scenario you might find yourself in.