Thread: Gunpowder Storage - Residential laws

Originally Posted by gundoc

You can legally have 15kg of smokeless propellant powder in your house. It is much safer to store it in a cupboard where the temperature never gets too hot (cool is good) BUT NOT in a tightly enclosed container like a safe. Powder burns briefly in an open space and the factory containers are designed to burst open readily to allow this - they do NOT explode in a fire. If your powder is stored in a strong enclosed container and there is a serious fire then it will act just like it does in a cartridge! Black powder is an explosive and will explode in a fire. Somewhere outside the house (eg: a DRY garden shed) is better for black powder, and in small quantities. Smokeless powder and loaded ammunition are much safer than many normal household products. Hairspray is probably the most dangerous in a fire as it explodes with a massive fireball (20-30 feet in diameter). I did a series of controlled tests of all such things many years ago for a Court case after the Police found some smokeless powder after a search. My test results stunned the Court and showed that powder was the most benign of the flammable substances tested.

I would love to have seen those tests....But only because I would get into trouble if I tried them myself.....