Wasn't sure where to ask this. So how many have their reloading room in an outbuilding?
I have one friend who does because he can go out to the basement of his garage and smoke his cigars,
do woodwork, reload, whatever he wants without the wife complaining.
We should be moving into a place where if I want a Den I will have to build a room in the basement. Not a problem however.
Out in the garage there is also a very nice woodshop that my wife suggests I make my Den. Problem is keeping it heated in the winter.
Right now it is just heated with a heater when being used. I don't want to heat it all winter to keep a stable temp.
My question is will it hurt the powder and digital dispensing equipment to be cold except when I fire the heater up when I plan to be out there for the day?

Powder fares better in a stable temp environment with moderate humidity.

I had my stuff in a garage while I lived in Houston for a while. Big mistake.
Now I’m in a drier environment with no problems. I do keep powders, primers and bullets inside when they aren’t being used.

I think you’d have to control the temp and humidity year round. That could get pretty expensive in an outbuilding. I’ve considered the same thing but still use the basement. The temp is no issue that way, but I do run a dehumidifier from May until Nov here.

When our kids came along my reloading setup was banished to a small, 2 story barn I had built. I keep everything in an insulated 12x16 room out there and use an electric heater to make sure that the temp never drops below around 45F.

I may be looking at this soon myself. I think humidity is a greater factor than temp but that’s just a theory. If I can’t have a full room in our new house like I’ve always had them I intend to have a climate controlled outbuilding. If I’m fortunate enough to have the shop I want I will build a separate room in one of the corners roughly 14x14 and have it well insulated and wired for 110/220. I intend to install a window unit with heat and air that will run continuously. At that size I can have all my reloading supplies with my big bench, my big tool box with the better tools, plus a couch, pub table and chairs, fridge, and an attached bathroom. Shop I want built out $50k. Big Portable building built out $10-12k

Way more info than you ask for but I’ve put a good bit of thought in this lately. I think more than anything I’m used to having “my space”.

I run a window unit all summer in my building. It's small and insulated well, the costs are not bad. Electric and a propane wall heater for the cold.

Don't think cold is too much of a problem but heat and humidity long term may be.

I keep my powder in my clothes closet in the house. The powders in use stay in my shop....Just one pound of my most used powders out there and that’s it. No 8# kegs & such out there.

Keep all my powder and primers in an old refrigerator I wired a single 60 watt regular bulb in to that stays on 24/7. Never had a problem. Bullets are up in the freezer area.

An outbuilding wouldn't be bad. I've pondered it. Maybe one of them little fake barns from Home Depot. If I wanted to smoke ceegars whilst reloading, I'd certainly do it, so when I blew myself up, my family didn't go with me.

It should not cost that much to keep it stable year round.

I have an air conditioner and a heater and try to keep it around 70-75.

Humidity ain't your friend.

How much do you think it costs you to heat and cool...stand alone?

The problem will be humidity on the equipment. Things will rust and mildew. Wipe metal down. Keep primers in the house.

Good Lord, man....Where do you keep your beer?

🦫

This is good advice for poor people who can't build.

Had mine in a concrete floor, block wall 30x30 building.

Humidity, condensation, mouse turds, mildew, mold on boxes. Stray cat got in there knocked stuff off shelves and tables.

Tried running dehumidifier, non stop problems.



Spare bedroom now, climate controlled.

Woman don’t give me no back talk, I’ll cut her off.

I loaded out of a non heated...or cooled shop for 5 years. Our temps were -20* to 105*......never rusted a gun nor had issues. No nothing but ambient air.

I built my reloading room in a corner of my 30x36 pole barn. It measures 6x12, which sounds awfully small, but it easily accommodates a Dillon XL-650, an RCBS Rockchucker, lots of shelves and a cabinet, and all of the accessories I need. It's well insulated and I built an air conditioner into the wall and have an electric space heater inside. I am very satisfied with this setup.I live in a small cabin in the woods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where the weather and humidity vary enormously.

I keep my powder, primers, ammo and other stuff in another outbuilding on the property. Most of it is stored in airtight containers. Despite the wide range of conditions, I am still using WWII surplus H-4831 and H-4895. The stuff is still fresh and crisp, and I have never had a primer go bad, even though some of my stash is 30 years old. I think a good container is more important than climate control. After all, the powder and primers in military ammo stored in the desert seems to last an awfully long time.

I don't have a basement or a large home, so my options were limited. This setup works wonderfully for me.

I had a lot of opened jugs of powder and primers stored in the open in my unheated and uncooled garage for at least 15 years. No degradation that I can tell.

I just store and use it all in a bedroom closet. Handy access.

The refrigerator idea is a great one.

For a few years when my kids were young and money was very tight, I did no shooting and no reloading. For those few years, because space for five in a 10x50 mobile home was tighter than the money, all of my dies and an RCBS Junior press were stored in an outbuilding in a steel drum with a rubber gasketed lid.

I thought the equipment would be safe stored in that manner. But after a few years, when I opened the drum, all of the dies were rusted as well as the unpainted surfaces of the press.

Beware storage of such items in conditions with fluctuating temps, as they will draw moisture.

I am seriously considering cutting into the cement floor of my shed and forming a cement box in the ground, then getting an old heavy fridge door and bolting the hinges on the top so I can lock it down and seal the whole thing.

I am a bit leery of it as the cement floor is some eight inches thick...apparently cement must have been free for whoever built the shed.

It will draw moisture unless heated and ventilated.

Moisture isn't so much an issue here, heat is.

Do you store your powder in an open bucket or something?

If you use a propane heater, make sure it's vented. The ventless type will keep the humidity way too high for powder storage.

Average dew point where you live is probably a good bit different. Of course, I didn't see where OP stated his location. He could be somewhere it wouldn't be a problem. Where I am you would have mildew and rust.

maybe keep your powder and primers in the house and only take out what you are using that session?

This is what I'd do if we had the spare room. Did it about 3 houses back. Wife #1 actually supported building a gun/reloading room when we built the house.
Lost that due to a very bad pick in wife #2 the evil one.

I have a 24'x30' outbuilding w/10' side-walls. 2x6 construction and well insulated. Averages $80/Mo to keep it mid-50's in the winter and 72-74 in the summer, all electric heat. There's no water/plumbing in the building so between electric heat and AC, the humidity stays very low. I have 0 rust issues.

The bill can get a little ugly in Jan/Feb but it evens out Mar-June and Sept-Nov when neither the heat nor the AC run much at all.

I've got 40yr old primers that still light stuff consistently and am drawing out of an 8# keg of WW760 that's one of the foil-lined cardboard cylinders again w/no ill effects.

This was all prompted by looking @ dad's neighbor's shop when it burned down 12yrs ago. I know where he kept his reloading components in the shop and there was absolutely NOTHING left of that corner of the building, NOTHING for roughly an 8' semi-circle. At the time, in my own home, my reloading stuff was in my office/spare bedroom. My loading/component storage bench was directly under my newborn daughter's crib. My new building was up and my loading moved outside by the end of that summer.

The house I grew up in dad's "reloading room" was the unfinished utility room with the nat'l gas furnace and gas water heater. At any given time there was 20#-40# of smokeless powder in that room along with a fair amount of loaded ammo. Never a problem. Dad's neighbor's shop that burned down had nothing to do with any reloading components, he had a piece of slag jump and burn through an oxygen/acetylene line. Big boom, lots of fire, he was lucky to survive it. I don't generally worry about reloading components burning up, but, more the "What if they did?"

My shop is a nice escape from TV and the computer. It's a fun place to bring the kids out and get away from that stuff as well. My kids love drilling holes in scrap wood chunks just to drill holes. Same for using an impact driver to sink screws into them. I love the fact that my 8 and 12 yr olds can determine what bit they need for a given fastener and then swap bits in the impact driver to make it functional. They think that an air-blower on the end of the compressor line is great fun as well. When they're done it's a simple sweep and shop-vac cleanup then put the tools away. Nothing there to steal their attention beyond learning life-skills.

I load out in my workshop, keep all my reloading tools and supplies in metal office cabinets on wheels. I don’t reload that much, will set it up load what I need, put it back up. I need to load 358’s, 338 Fed, and 284’s now. I’m sure I’ll put it off until I’m in a bind.

Same here Paul.

I keep all my powder,primers,ammo in a gutted out refrigerator in an out building.No heat.Heat and humidity is the culprit,not cold.I have a small closet type space in the basement that my gun safe and reloading table is in. I reload,I get the components I need out of the refrigerator then reload there.

I can't figure out why people don't use their garage as garage for their vehicle.They want to protect maybe $5000 worth of junk at the most and leave a$35,000 vehicle out in the weather. Twice in past in my young and stupid years when O rented homes, I did the reloading thing in a cold garage .The heck with that.

Build a 12x15 out building with a small space heater that looks like a Tuff Shed and use that.

I’ve lived on the Texas coast for many years, kept my powder in a garage, both insulated and uninsulated. It gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Never had a primer or powder issue.

Will do just fine in an out building as long as it’s dry and in a closed cabinet.

People still have drums of surplus powder that have survived many many years of hot and cold. Just got to keep,it dry.

I own my own home , I bought it and paid for it twice. The first time with my wife and the 2nd time buying my wife out of her "half". That taught me at a minimum of 3 things 1. No one ever needs to be married more than once. 2. I have my reloading gear and stuff wherever I [bleep] want it not where someone else tells me what to do with it. 3. you really are better off if you just piss thru that thing. You asked I have spoken
Mb

Thanks for so much input guys. At this point I am still leaning at building the room in the house.
I think the outbuilding is more suited for other things. None of the shop tools have rusted out in the woodshop so I feel it would be okay but I want to be in the house.
Lots of good ideas if I do use the shop though.

I built an 8' x 8' reloading room in a corner of my 30' x 40' shop. It also houses my gun safe. The only heat I use is a golden rod in the safe. Everything else is stored at ambient temperature and humidity is usually low here. I use a small space heater to warm the room when loading when it's cold.
Been doing this for 25 years, and if there are issues I am not aware of them, and will continue on.
Everything goes BANG! and shoots quite well.

Good subject, we just sold our home and are downsizing. I will no longer have the 3rd bedroom to be my reloading / hunting closet.

Was thinking of an shop / out building that will be insulated and climate controlled but have not decided on how big....

Once my kids started moving out I moved in to the smallest bedroom. I added shelves in the closet and moved my bench in. My garage is used up with 2 dirt bikes, my safe, a big rollaway and cabs that hold all the ancillary stuff for hunting, shooting and dirt bikes. It was just to damn hot out in the garage to do anything when we have our heat waves in SoCal.

Good thread - and this probably is superfluous - because i have been spoiled by being located in the very dry SW for most of my adult life. And, even early on (1964) when my stuff was in a carport closet in a place with 120 degree highs on some summer days, nothing ever spoiled. I am still shooting some 4831 from those days. Keeping it dry is the biggest issue. For those thinking of concrete structure, it takes a LONG time for that stuff to fully dry, and even old concrete seems to take on moisture if exposed.

Maybe it's just old guy caution rising, but I would not want to store these things - particularly guns/scopes/ammo - in a shed or workshop much away from the house. To do so is probably just fine in some remote and/or very secure neighborhoods - but these are not good times. For example, down here we have a flood of illegals roaming north.

Houston, I have problem..... . Just kidding.



When/if I get my reloading set up again, it will be in my garage, with slab heat and a dehumidifier. Everything is out there now in storage, anyway.

Temps range from about 53 to 60 in winter, ( I keep the thermostat turned all the way down) the commercial grade dehumidifier is set at 70%, the powder is in sealed containers. No air condtiuoning, so in warm weather (such as it is here), inside temps might get a bit higher, but not much.

With some variance - I just turned both the boiler and de-humidifier off for the summer season - the temp won't vary much, tho the humidity will pretty much follow ambient.

When we moved to Tucson, the house we bought had a small shed in the back yard so that became my reloading area. We had a much larger shed built to store a couple of refrigerators and a large chest type freezer. One day my wife got all fussed and bothered about the powder I ha in one closet So one of the refrigerators got recruited for storage. I had to turn it on as it gets hotter'n hell out in that shed. Temp can get up to 120 degrees on a really hot day inside that shed. The smaller shed does have an A/C unit but I try to not use it as it raises hell with the electric bill.
FWIW, I found two cans of 4350 and four 100 primer packets that had got stuck behind some stuff a long time ago. Well, the powder was a total loss, but the primers were another story. I have no idea how many years they were stuck on the back of that shelf but the design on the primer packs were from the 1970's and it was about 1995 when I found them. Those primers are still good and I've used them for some very stiff loads in my .44 mag. Makes me think primers can hold up fairly well even under poor storage conditions. That shed gets hot in the summer, has high humidity during our rainy seasons, one in summer and one in winter. It can also freeze at times although periods of freezing here don't last long.
As it is usually quite dry here, I have not had a problem pulling powder from the fridge and transferring it to the powder measure with moisture forming in the powder. Might be a problem in areas with high humidity though. Our normal temp spread for a 24 hour period runs close to 30 degrees. In the summer 100*+ for a high and 70* + or- for a morning low. Naturally, YMMV.
Paul B.

Mine is in a small room added on the back of the house. I have a 110 window unit I run in the summer when I am home. Use a little electric heater in the winter if I do any work in there. I haven't had any problem with my tools rusting. I do wipe my dies with an oiled cloth before I put them back in the boxes. I insulated it well when I finished the inside and it has a slab floor it is never hot like the outside temp or as cold.

Rust might become an issue with humidity and condensation.

I've had some really tight spaces available to me for reloading, like a broom/entry closet, 2x3 feet with a 28 door. But clever design can make that super effective AND keep your components in good condition because you're inside the living area and not subject to extremes. I just stacked everything vertically in "built" units, laid it out so all I had to do was open the closet door and set up a barstool halfway inside the doorway. Turned out pretty well, all I had to do was put the stool back, close the door and out of sight, out of mind. No place for clutter, either.

Well in my case I am in SW PA. The outbuilding has been a woodworking shop and none of the tools have ever rusted so humidity is not a huge issue.
Space in the house is not an issue either as I figure I can take and build about a 15x12 foot room in the basement and never miss the space.
Basement is not totally underground so it is not a damp dungeon. The front is actually ground level. I also have the means to make my own siding
to finish the walls and make it a very nice den. The whole 30x50 foot basement will be my domain so I don't have to make the mrs. happy.

Mine was the old farm smokehouse. I insulated it, added metal siding, sealed it as tightly as possible. Primers are stored in metal ammo cans, or in one of my gun safes. Powder is stored the same way, some in an old zinc lined icebox, some in a large ammo can, and the rest in a gun safe. Some of my powder and primers are 20 years old. I don't worry about temperature extremes and humidity as much as some of you do. I've never had powder go bad, or primers that didn't pop.

Unobtanium primers too.

I think she is playing you.

Can't really say.

The meter that my shop runs off of also has the large barn and an irrigation well on it.

The bill when the well has not been run is only about 100.00.

I put a mini split in the shop that is made out of bolted tank steel and has 5-6 inches of spray in foam between the outer wall and the inner.

In the newer, bigger fridge I had to buy after I explained to the warden that the old one "broke"....

Keep a basic locker indoors climate controlled with powder & primers. If you can have your bench under the same conditions so much the better. I personally do not wish to load with sweat running down my elbows in the summertime and condensation creeping into everything in winter. One must sometimes do as required but the best way possible is always better. If primer and powder requires separate climatic storage only remove what is to be used in a single loading session. Replace in climate controlled conditions ASAP. JMHO

We also live in a desert. Moisture becomes an issue with changes in temperature causing condensation.

Do you NEVER see dew on metal or glass surfaces in the morning before sunrise?

Not in my shed.