Primers Quanity

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This has probably been discussed before but how many primers are considered safe to have on hand? Right now I have about 8000 that are not sitting in cases, but was thinking about stocking up a little.
 
Depending on your area local codes might restrict the amount of primers and powder you can have in your home not in a powder magazine.
 
The issue is generally a limit imposed by the fire code in your area, likely based on the type of structure and the storage container, and the limits imposed by your property insurance policy.

I doubt that you’re approaching any limits at 8k.
 
The best I can tell is 10,000 primers is what is legal and this would be under NC Fire Code. As mentioned above, it might be less (or more) depending on the city/county you live in and where you actually store them.

See code 3306.4.2 in this document:


https://policies.ncsu.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/NC_FIRE3704.pdf

The document above is "hot-linked" so you can click on a chapter or verse and go directly to what you want to know.

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10,ooo primers
Holy smokes, really? Of course I have far less than that myself, but always expected the limit to be above 20k.
 
Yeah, I have far less than that as well. It also looks like the limit on powder is 20-50 pounds but that is dependent on what kind of storage container it is stored in.

I would imagine we have to have some members here that are firemen that would know for sure.

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I think the national fire code is 10k as well. The way I remember it worded, though, was "residence". My outbuilding is not my residence. Oh well, if they want to sift through the ashes and count the spent primer cups, let them. :D
 
I wonder if they can prove whether the primers were all live or inert at the time of the fire? And what would the result be? No coverage for loss in that room? Seems like denying a whole house claim due to one condition would land in court, but I don't know, or worry about it. Outbuilding would seem to solve most potential issues.

To determine how many to hoard you need to evaluate your shooting. 1000 rounds a year? 10k will set you for a while. Bracing for post apocalypse? probably about the same. Avid competition shooter? 10k might get you a year or two if you don't live fire practice much.
 
I wonder if they can prove whether the primers were all live or inert at the time of the fire? And what would the result be? No coverage for loss in that room? Seems like denying a whole house claim due to one condition would land in court, but I don't know, or worry about it. Outbuilding would seem to solve most potential issues.

To determine how many to hoard you need to evaluate your shooting. 1000 rounds a year? 10k will set you for a while. Bracing for post apocalypse? probably about the same. Avid competition shooter? 10k might get you a year or two if you don't live fire practice much.

You see that is the problem. I did not realize until today how much I had shot last year. It was over 8000 rounds of hand loads. Which surprised the heck out of me. I always log all of my hand loading stuff but never even thought about how much I had shot until I put my last order in for primers. So now I am thinking about the politics of late what I need to have on hand. If things got tight I would shoot just as often, but not as many rounds.

Something like 22lr I have plenty of, for my plinking that will last for a couple of years. The Eley stuff I try to keep six months on hand at a time. Even during the Bama years I was always able to get that at about its normal price. I average about 1/2 brick a month of Eley.
 
I thought there was a limit for in-house, and then one for using a firesafe cabinets.
 
Hmmm. So this has me thinking.

What I need to do is get our insurance agent to tell the wife that there are limits on residential storage of reloading components that can void our insurance policy, if exceeded. He can and then suggest that a disconnected workshop, shed or garage is how most people get around it.

With a little effort, I can construct it so that its a good Faraday cage - lightning strikes being a natural concern; interruption of cell phone signals a convenient benefit - and it could be an ideal set up.

Another plus for the project.

I can just hear the HOA when I present plans to build a "powder magazine" in the back yard!!!!!!
 
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