Storing boolits

[lurch]

How do you store yours?

I am just getting back into this and realized I am seriously lacking containers to put them in. Back when, I'd bum a nice slip top cardboard box from dear old Dad that he got from his job and place them neatly in it, side by side base down. When the box had a full layer in it, we would cut a piece of poster board to fit and put it on top of the first layer and go again till the box was full. I really liked this method since it kept things from getting dinged up and kept stuff from sticking to the lube.

I was looking around for boxes and most of the suitable ones I found are not so suitable. I'm thinking that the best thing to do is to try to find and buy a bale of mailers form one of the shipping supply folks that doesn't have any flaps that go inside the box. I think I've found exactly one that fills the bill, but want to see what other folks do.


lurch

[ron brooks]

Look for some of the Christmas "Candy" containers. You can get them pretty cheap and can put a lot of boolits in one and they will last a long, long time.

Ron

[John Boy]

I'm a Dumpster DIVER! The boyz's at the Pistol Range supply me with more bullet trays than I care to mention. Getting picky now, only retrieve the foam and solid bottom trays.

For my RB's and little peanuts lubed with Alox, they go into the Crystal Lite plastic tea containers. Label on the lid and stack them up.

[NVcurmudgeon]

I store rifle boolitsin old jacketed bullet and gas check boxes. Sturdy, uniform, cheap, and I DO NOT stack them neatly within the boxes. If higgledy piggledy is good enough for Hornady, Sierra, and Speer match bullets it's good enough for me. Labels are masking tape, marked with an EL Marko. Pistol bullets are stored in homemade wooden boxes about 6" X 6" X 3". Pistol boolits of .38, .44, and .45 cal. will stack neatly, so I do. Those boxes are plenty big as 25 lbs. of boolits in a small box is enough concentrated weight to move around. None of my boolits are sizedl/lubricated until just before loading. I've cleaned up all the melted boolit lube I need to for this lifetime.

[JSH]

I am also a dumpster diver. I am getting kind picky too, save the same thing as John does above. I use these for all of my lubed and sized projectiles. Fifty in a flat, a quick look and I can see what I have ready to go.
As for "raw" boolits, I use coffee cans and the new plastic ones. They seem to keep enough air to keep them in good shape.
Ken put me up to this some time back, my best resource for need items is the Goodwill or the Salvation Army stores. I have found plenty of stuff in there to help with my casting, loading and organizing projects. I even picked up anoth heavy duty file cabinet a while back for $10. I had picked up a card file type filing cabinet a while back. That one works very well to stack the ammo packs with bullets in three high and about 9-12 deep, depends on the caliber. The filing cabinets can hold a lot of weight, just don't open the two upper drawers at the same time,don't ask.
Funny thing, the the top drawer is full of FLGC stuff and the bottom nine are full of real boolits, moulds, gas checks, etc.
Jeff

[9.3X62AL]

Castings go into 1# or 2# coffee cans, usually. Like NV, I don't size/lube until just before loading. There are some old Enfamil cans still in service dating from my 2nd daughters's infancy (she's now 23), so I re-use them for a while. Some of my loaded rounds go into the nice Frankford Arsenal plastic cartridge boxes, but this is a relatively recent upgrade--a lot of my loaded rounds still reside in coffee/Enfamil cans.

3# coffee cans are for shotshells. Redneck tech, with a vengeance.

[Sven Dufva]

I use candy boxes who i get free from stores

[David R]

Metal coffee cans!

Last winter I poured 10,000 boolits. They fill up about 7 of those big coffee cans. Sized and lubed ones go in one pounders, another 7 or 8 cans. I do not stack boolits.....ever.

This winter I have poured only a few. Sure glad I had and took the time last year. Probably 1/2 of them are left. Some of the good ones from 2 cavity molds are all used up.

David

[Dale53]

I used to use cigar boxes from a local cigar shop. However, that source is now gone. A couple of years ago, I discovered a better route. The Dollar stores (and ones similar) carry, from time to time, plastic refrigerator boxes. They have snap lids and will far outlast the cigar boxes. If the bottom is not flat, I just cut a piece of cardboard to fit. I also layer bullets (I stand them on their bases after sizing and lubing) with cardboard. I tend to keep one batch (22 lb pot) together. I do not mix bullets from different pots of metal. I carefully label the boxes with a label maker.

My boxes are similar to the ones shown in Sven Dufva's post above. They only cost a buck or so.

Dale53

[454PB]

I'm with Sven and Dale53, only I buy them at Wal*Mart. They are about 50 cents each, and stack nicely. Since they are clear, it's easy to see what boolit is inside, and I place a note on top with alloy, diameter, DOB, etc. For lubed boolits, I stand them on their base and use posterboard (cut up beer containers) to separate the layers.

[Bullshop Junior]

we use cans, we like the tall juice cans the best....they have been cleaned, plastic 22 ammo boxes, gas check boxes, soup cans with a zip lock over the top, and other things that are garbage to the cook and ladies.
Daniel

[imashooter2]

Old commercial bullet boxes for low volume production and plastic shoe boxes for the rest. I bought a pile of them when they went on sale too low to resist. Can't picture taking the time to stack bullets into containers individually. Loaded ammo goes loose into .50 cal cans for storage and is transported to the range in drawstring bags made from old pants legs.

[txbirdman]

For unsized/unlubed bullets I use those plastice Folger's coffee cans. I seem to acquire a new empty one about every 2 weeks. For lubed and sized bullets I use some old cardboard TOP loose tobacco cans that my old casting mentor gave me. He rolls his own cigarettes and has accumulated hundreds of cans over the years. Usually make it a 2 layer container by cutting a cardboard circular seperator between the 2 layers of bullets.

[GSM]

Fruitcake tins - preferably the ones from Collin Strett Bakery. For real small runs, the metal tea tins from the 99 cent store.

[carpetman]

There was a time when a pet peeve about muffin pans for ingots was that they didn't stack as well as those from the ingot mold. Why stack them? I put them in empty 5 gallon plastic buckets which are easy to accumulate. I must add that ever since I started just dumping them into the plastic buckets,I have yet to have one bust open and the yolk run out. I mentioned the plastic buckets being easy to accumulate. All sorts of stuff comes in them and there are endless places that will give them away---a few examples--car wash,restaurants,painters,fire stations,carpet cleaners,fire extinguisher service, on and on. For bullets,I cast a lot of small stuff--.22 and 6MM,empty peanut butter jars work great---they are clear so you can see which one you have and a jar will hold several hundred of these small bullets. I also use coffee cans,but wish they were clear too. If you want to send someone some samples(bullet), Rx bottles work great. Other clear bottles like cooking oil,mouth wash etc can be modified to be handy. Cut the top off and drill a hole in them so you can hang them from a peg board hook and you have a pouch. Jars like peanut butter jars can also be hung from a peg board hook by drilling a hole---handy for things like faucet washers and even a place for storing your peg board hooks. Now I read where people are using rectangular cigar boxes etc to store round bullets and I understand better the difficulty some folks were having on the round hole and square pegs tests they gave in the military.

[Junior1942]

I like clear plastic peanut, mayonaise, and peanut butter containers. You can see what's inside.

[dbotos]

One more dumpster diver here. Love the larger size 50-cavity styrofoam trays for holding sized and lubed bullets (nose down). When it comes time to load, I just flip a trayful onto a piece of corrugated cardboard a little bigger than tray and set it next to the press. All the bullets are then nose up and nicely spaced out for grabbin.

Unsized ones usually live in decent weight metal pie pans (from thift store) next to the lubrisizer.

[Treeman]

I also like clear plastic Peanut butter and Mayonaisse jars. Emptied Waterless handcleaner tubs are superb-sturdy and tough.Cocoa boxes are also good. I just stick labels on everything and write the contents and specs on with a pencil. When emptied and refilled I can always put new info on to match the current contents.

[454PB]

Those 5 gallon plastic buckets that Carpetman mentioned are great, but they can and do fail. A few years ago I moved, and had to move several tons of linotype, wheelweights, and ingots that were placed in 5 gallon buckets. I had no helper, and set a few of them down on my shop floor a "little hard". They split like a wienie. Better them than me, I've already had two hernias fixed!

[Ricochet]

An aside, I like to use .45 caliber cartridge trays as loading blocks on the bench for Mauser head size cases.

[jonk]

Altoids tins, band-aid metal boxes from the 'day' when they were metal, plastic zip locks, old Lee die boxes, coffee cans, sauerkraut jars, cardboard boxes....you name it.

I just dump in together. I lube right after casting; never had any run yet as I store them in a cool basement.

[Pilgrim]

I use the "Glad" or similar plastic containers with lids. The lids keeps the dust and dirt out and you can mark on the container sides what's in 'em. I used to stack the booits in the containers, but that took as much time as casting or lubing them so now I just set them in the container (random orientation) after lubing/sizing. The advantage to these containers is they are uniform and can be stacked fairly easily. They aren't particularly expensive ($3.50 for 8 ea 2 qt. size) and last for years (at least so far). Pilgrim

[RayinNH]

I use the plastic utility boxes available from Dillon.They measure 4 5/8 x 6 3/8 x 1 5/8. Boolits are stacked base first. Rifle boolits are stacked one layer deep, handgun boolits, two layers deep with a paper board insert between them. I then print a picture of the boolit and label pertinent information such as sizing diameter and whether they were air cooled or water dropped. The label is then affixed to the end panel for quick reference...Ray

[grumpy one]

We seem to have a house-full of those white Betty Crocker containers for holding that ultra-fattening stuff that goes on the outside of cakes. I use those containers for unsized, unlubed cast bullets, with a loose paper tag on the inside giving details - replace the tag each time I re-use them. Yes, bit of a pain opening the lid to find out what is in them, but I usually stack them in some kind of sequence so I can go straight to the one I want (more or less). Sometimes I drop one, and the lid always comes off. Best not to drop more than one at a time or there's a nasty sorting job to do.

I don't store sized and lubed bullets at all, because I use 50-50 Alox-beeswax, and the stuff smells, so there are volatile components of the Alox leaching out. I've retained lubed ones for a month or so and it has changed colour (darkened).

[lovedogs]

Midway sells different sizes of styrofoam/cardboard boxes. After inspecting I put them in these boxes. They don't get damaged or dirty. They are cheap and do a good job.

[Kraschenbirn]

Over the years, I'd accumulated a dozen of the large size (.44-.45) plastic cartridge boxes (MTM, Amm-O-Box, etc) and almost as many of the medium (.38, 9mm) size. When I began casting for my trapdoor replica, I found the "large" boxes perfect for storing my BP-lubed boolits and plan to use the "medium" size for storing alox-lubed .309s for my K-31 once I get rolling on that project.

[twoworms]

I store them over a few grains of powder, in a brass case.

I seem to shoot boolits about as fast as I cast them. If I do have any on hand they are in clear plastic containers that I buy from Wal-Mart.

Tim

[TCLouis]

I use these old metal Capt Black tobacco cans that my Father- in-Law gave me years ago.
Next down the list is coffe cans. I try to size all boolits within a week (or less) from the casting. A 3 pound coffee can will hold one casting session of an alloy that is consistent . This and will last a while on the loading shooting end unless I crank up the Dillon for a big run.

Alloys are fairly consistent within a pile because I try to alloy in batches of 3-400 pounds so ingot casting is a ONE full day affair but have a run of metal that will last a while. 1.25 or 1.5 ( I forget which I used) angle irin makes a very stackable stable pile of ingots. By sure blind luck I picked a length that AVERAGES a pound a piece for a full stack (some light, some a bit over). They may be UGLY, but they work!
Minor test runs from a mold will only fill a little Mocha Coffee can and may be less that an afternoons shooting here when I walk back and forth from firing bench to loading bench.

[fiberoptik]

Peanut butter jars.:Fire:

[Murphy]

The vast majority of the time I store mine in coffee cans.

It was simple enough when I used nothing but Magma's hard blue lube, or Thompsons Blue Angel lube.

Now that I'm making my own lube (which is softer), I'll more than likely be looking for a better way to store lubed boolits.

Murphy

[Newtire]

Peanut cans work great with the labels covered over with my own I make on Paint program. Now that I am not eating lots of peanuts anymore, I use plastic containers like lots of other folks.

[KCSO]

This may be a little strange but since I never know what rifle I might be wanting to load for i cast and store all my bullets unsized and not lubed. I keep them in tip out drawer units that I got on sale at Menard's. Then when i want to load for a rifle i pull out some 180 gr bullets and size and lube as many as I need. No old drying lube, no thring to stack greasy slugs and I always know just what is going in the case.

[Sundogg1911]

I use the plastic folgers 2# coffee cans for my sized/lubed pistol boolits, for my smaller batches of less used ones, I use plastic dry roasted peanut jars. They seem to work well, and it gives me an excuse to eat dry roasted peanuts, and dry roasted peanuts give me an excuse to drink beer, so it all works out well for me.

[Navahojoe]

When I got back into reloading and casting, after retirement, I was lurking here and saw that someone, Buckshot, I think, mentioned not being able to find metal coffee cans as often as in an "earlier" time. Bingo! The light bulb went off for me! We usually have about one metal coffee can per 2 weeks emptied around our house. Soooo, methinks, why why not metal coffee cans? I cast with only 2 molds for each caliber that I reload for, .45 Colt and .44 Rem Mag. After sizing and lubing, I store them in zip lock bags, 100 to each bag, labeled with marking pen as to caliber, weight, size, date, alloy and lube used. Then I mark the coffe can with said marker as to caliber. Only problem, those coffee cans get pretty darn heavy when full.:castmine: so I can:Fire:
regards,
NavahoJoe

[Hunter]

My casted bullets are store unstacked in plastic Glad containers.

[keeper89]

Cigar boxes. Seem to accumulate them as fast or faster than I can cast up boolits. Got about 30 full and at least 35 more "in waiting" don't know if it will be lead poisoning or the cigars that eventually get me or falling in the shower......:twisted:

[Frank46]

I get my plastic boxes from the dollar stores. Course I have a few rubbermaid tubs
left over from when I shot steel targets. And just maybe one or two of them high priced tubs that I stole from my wife. Just about anything you find could be used to store your silver missiles. Just limited only by your imagination or depravity. Frank

[Lloyd Smale]

coffee cans. tuperware. glad containers. Just about anything! you guys that stack bullets have more patients then me. I stick a coffee can under the star sizer and just fill it up.

[FISH4BUGS]

I live in a condo building with 48 units in it. I watch the trash room and pick up many, many (too many in fact) large coffee cans with the plastic lids. I will cast as many as I can in one session (in the shed at my girlfriend's house) and fill them up, then size and lube them here on Star with the Magma hard lube. They stay perfect in the cans with the lids on them, and I put a label on them with masking tape and a marker. Works for me.
Anyone need a few hundred large coffee cans? I get about two or so a week. I have so many that I no longer save them.

[Bass Ackward]

Here is a point that I don't worry about too often and is how I cull my molds and sometimes my guns too. :grin:

We all do a lot of thinking and planning forming arguments for this or that. Writting them here keeps them fresh in our minds. Bottom line is that we can talk ourselves into opinions that we changed in our mind awhile ago. The old, "Don't listen to what a man says, watch what he does." argument. Bullets stored for too long send a message.

The method of storage depends on quantity. Small amounts most any container will do. I use feed sacks with bed sheets for padding for the few bulk items that are too heavy for the shelves and must sit on the floor.

[1Shirt]

I use what ever is handy at the time, and find that one pound coffee cans with the plastic snap on lids work well, and with a perm marker you can identify what's in them at a glance. That said, as usual Junior speaks with a lot of common sense regarding the plastic see throughs. Guess I will have to start eating more peanut butter. For the little 22's, I like the small individual yogert containers with the snap on tops. For the 6mm's, I like the small "I can't believe its not Butter" tubs. Above that, want volume and thats where the coffe cans start.
1Shirt!:coffee: