Organizing

[aarolar]

I need some tips on organizing boolits and brass cheaply. I realize I could go out and buy bins or something but I would like to do something cheaper so I can spend more money on other things. Also need to some rack to hold my 3 die holders from lee that fit my Pro 1000 and turret press. Pictures are great!

[slide]

The Dollar store or Wal Mart have lots of plastic containers with lids. I also use plastic coffee containers for storing brass. One thing though, don't write on the container itself. Put a piece of tape on the container and write the contents on the tape.

[DCM]

The Dollar store or Wal Mart have lots of plastic containers with lids. I also use plastic coffee containers for storing brass. One thing though, don't write on the container itself. Put a piece of tape on the container and write the contents on the tape.

+1 especially on the tape idea. It works great for all sorts of containers and can be changed or taped over easily.

[mooman76]

I started out with one # coffee cans and old powder containers and moved to the cheap plastic containers with lids that are microwavable. They are cheap, strong and stackable plus come in a wide assortment of sizes for your needs. I write right on the container with a magic marker. It can be removed with a alcohol swab if you ever need to.

[Dan Cash]

Plastic coffee cans.

[btroj]

I use whatever I can find. I have bullets in all sorts of different containers. I even use a few small ziplock bags for small batches of bullets or ammo.

I will say that I think a guy could go broke trying to get really organized with purchased containers.

[williamwaco]

If you shoot at a public range and ate not too proud, you can get all sorts of really neat ammo boxes and styrofoam and plastic organizers out of the trash.



.

[harrya]

Coffe cans, plastic or metal with plastic cover for brass. 2-3 inch Masking tape for size.
Those cheap tupperware type containers they use for sandwiches, etc for boolits (I've been told they even work for bullets) Again, masking tape on narrow side and top. They stack and will last. The salad one works good and will hold a BUNCH.
harrya

[jimkim]

Coffee cans, butter tubs, koolwhip containers, COW, oatmill, boxes from the range, and old leftover shipping boxes, I've used them all. If you have an old dresser or file cabinet, you can find some small boxes and use them as dividers. Put your brass and bullets in ziplock bags and toss them in the boxes.

[drklynoon]

I too use cofee cans and ziploc bags. My only advice is to make sure you don't put freshly cleaned brass in a metal can. The can will rust. lol I seperate my brass into headstamps ziploc them and put them into coffee cans. I also recylcle range boxes. The plastic shelves are usually not sturdy enough for any of our purposes. The supports tend to bend, making the drawers fall through.

[Norbrat]

Plastic take-away (take-out?) food containers.

Although we don't do take-out too often, they seem to breed in the dark confines under the kitchen sink and I now have quite an accumulation!

Even new they aren't expensive; for example, 50 off 1 litre rectangular containers with lid are about $16 from a local office supply store.

[kbstenberg]

I am using all those containers also. I scrounge at the local Solid waist disposal site. My suggestion is to mark all the containers with any thing you can think of about the contents.
If there is brass in the container, is it checked for length, is it sized, what brand, when it is bagged. All pertinent information is written down.
Kevin

[Ziptar]

Just by accident mostly I've organized my components this way:

I put my tumbled deprimed brass in Utz cheese ball snack barrels they'll hold allot of brass, one will hold ~1000 .45 Colt cases. They also make great tumbler drums.
http://shop.safeway.com/productimages/100x100/109150155_100x100.jpg

Fired brass goes in Red Folger's coffee containers
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5171raF75%2BL._SL500_SS100_.jpg

Bullets go in yellow Domino sugar containers.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kay638O4L._SL500_SS100_.jpg

Primers go in blue Maxwell House Coffee containers.
http://images.shopletcdn.com/productimages/100x100/EJ1014566970.JPG

I use a masking tape and a Sharpie to label them. I keep a bunch of zip lock bags around too.

I keep anything else that looks useful out of the recycling bin too. Good for odds and ends, small parts tools, oddball stuff.

Wherever I come across the silica packets used for packaging stuff that say "DO NOT EAT" on them I save them. I put them in the containers with the brass or primers. helps keep primers fresh and brass from tarnishing. We get allot of equipment from Dell at work, they put nice big fat ones in with everything just about.

All of that along with loaded rounds, molds, casting equipment, reloading tools and etc go in an old timey bank teller's day safe that someone left behind when they moved out. Its huge, made of 1/8" think steel, heavy, built like a brick out house and got a couple of shelves in it. It looks almost exactly like this one:

http://www.columbusarchitecturalsalvage.com/maint/photos/6840.jpg

3" PVC cut to a length of 2.5" makes a perfect stand for the classic turret heads, for a Pro 1000 maybe 3.5" or 4"? or how about something like this:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b150/rinselman/guns/ammo%20and%20reloading/turretrack.jpg

[geargnasher]

I don't know if anyone mentioned coffee cans ;), but the smaller sized plastic Folgers cans are perfect for housing a complete three or four-hole turret head, even with the tall rifle charging die installed. Wash and dry them well, remove the label, and put a small dessicant pack in there to keep the dies from rusting once you put the lid on. Use blue painter's tape and a Sharpie for new labels.

I store just about everything else that will fit in large cigar boxes and used medium/large flat rate boxes that the PO didn't completely destroy.

Clean, food-grade 5-gallon buckets w/lids from a local burger joint come in handy too.

Gear

[cp478]

Coffee cans again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[C.F.Plinker]

Peanut butter jars. There are several sizes available, they are clear so you can see what is inside, they stack because of the design of the lids, and you can write on them or put labels on either the lid or the jar itself.

Me, most of my loaded cartridges are in the Midway type of plastic box. Fired brass goes back into that box until I am ready to load it. Then it gets cleaned and ziplocked, After loading it goes back into the plastic box with a new labels. Raw boolits are stored in the one pound metal coffee cans. These hold at least 500 45s or 38s which is enough for a loading session. They are lubed and sized just before loading. Boolits that I don't use as many of go in the peanut butter jars or 1 pound butter tubs. J-words stay in their boxes until needed.

[markinalpine]

Many good ideas and pictures at this sticky: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=12392

Mark [smilie=s:

[ErikO]

We buy peanut butter and mixed nuts in clear plastic jars. I'll get pics up later.

I also got a bunch of shop bins when Aldi's had sets for $9.

[ErikO]

If you shoot at a public range and ate not too proud, you can get all sorts of really neat ammo boxes and styrofoam and plastic organizers out of the trash.


Yep, got those too. A little spray paint and the boxes are much more useful.

[bryonbush]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-3-Drawer-Wide-Cart/16415880

i use two of these under my bench since i cant afford cabinets for storage of brass.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-3-Drawer-Organizer-White-Set-of-4/15442451

they make smaller ones like these that are only about 5 bucks. i use them to put all my primers in them in their own drawer and one is used for all my .223bullets.

[Lloyd Smale]

I buy big plastic bins for handgun brass because i have so much. rilfe brass other then 223 and 308 go in plastic coffee cans. I dont know how organized it is as im allways finding brass i forgot i had or cant find brass when I need it.

[jcwit]

I use empty shotgun shell boxes, 12 gauge and the ones with the bottom glued shut.

They're cheap, as in FREE, and they stack nice.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I eat alot of Hillshire Farms lunch meats. They come in these nice reusable plastic containers with snap on lids. They are made by GLAD and are exactly the same except free.

We go thru at least 2 of these a week so I have a steady supply of containers. I put boolits and groups of brass in these along with a postit note telling me when they were put into the container and what the condition is.

For small runs of boolits I use Kentucky Fried Chicken Side order containers which are nice plastic containers now with snap on lids.

I use the black plastic trays from Boston Market TV dinners to route brass and other parts around my machine shop. Some have a partitition some are jsut nice open 5 x 10 x 1" deep rectangles.

I use Wet Swiffer plastic containers with lids to hold large batches of pistol brass.

There is enough free plastic containers available in todays world that no one should ever have to buy anything to hold components for his reloading hobby.

It appears to me that the intent of these types of containers is that they be reused. It's a green thing!

Most are stackable too!

I also recycle all of my Shotshell boxes as well as ones other guys are throwing away to put my shotshell reloads in. MEC makes a nice little gizmo that stacks your shells for you and then you just slide a box over the top and turn it over. I actually need more of these.

Randy

[rasto]

I know what are you talking about :-)
I prefer plastic boxes of different sizes and shapes according shape of storaged brass.
For smaller amount of brass which is not a priority I use ordinary ziplock bags.

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/823/imag0355a.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/imag0355a.jpg/)

PS: I had to put the third leg under it due to the overload ;-)

[3006guns]

Cheap? You want cheap?? Here's a no cost option I picked up from an old farmer:

Make the rounds of all the gas stations and repair shops in your area and pick up their discarded one gallon plastic anti freeze jugs. Cut the tops so that you have a large opening but leave the handle intact. Rinse, dry and you can store PILES of brass and other things in them. The biggest advantage is that, being relatively square, they store nicely on shelves!

[o6Patient]

What every you use like coffee cans butter tubs.. a good fitting lid is a very
good idea.

[baer19d]

I use cheap plastic food containers, i.e tupperware for mu cast bullets and as for the Lee round dies boxes I can't stand them. I try to replace them with RCBS stule boxes when ever I can.

[gkainz]

Hopefully not to hijack this but what do folks use for tracking or managing inventory? In my searches I see spreadsheets with which I'm quite experienced. I've been digging for iPhone inventory apps have yet to find one that looks like its robust.

[xd4584]

If you shoot at a public range and ate not too proud, you can get all sorts of really neat ammo boxes and styrofoam and plastic organizers out of the trash.




.


Thanks! Now I don't feel like the weird guy digging in the trash at the range anymore! I always get the pistol 'blocks' when I see them.

[xd4584]

My favorite is the cascade dishwasher tubs with the flip up lid that the little detergent cubes come in

[o6Patient]

I always used coffee cans with plastic covers and have worked fine.
We went to grinding our coffee so my supply of cans dried up.
I ended up buying a case of commercial food grade containers with lids.
-Weren't free nor cheap but not too bad when bought per 100 ct case.
I'll have enough for a life time and my wife has plenty for kitchen use.

[375supermag]

I use a variety of Akro-bins in the reloading room.
I also use the cheapest plastic containers I can find from Ollies, usually $1 each.
Brass gets tossed in an Akro-bin or big red Folgers plastic coffee container. (Disclaimer: I don't drink coffee(Earl Grey tea, for me), but my wife drinks a lot of coffee.

I save and re-use the boxes that cast lead bullets (500-ct.) come in. Jacketed bullets stay in their boxes until loaded.

Loaded rounds either go in MTM-style cartridge boxes or just get dumped in a .30 or.50 cal. ammo can. I try to keep one can full of .45 ACP 230-gr RN cast lead and one full of .357Mag 158gr cast LSWC for plinking and and such. Every other caliber and bullet type goes in cartridge boxes. If I do decide to load as many as 500 rounds of one particular load, it goes in an ammo can or plastic container until it is time to go to the range.

If my new plan to keep 1000 rounds of each caliber comes to fruition, then I will be dedicating an ammo can to each caliber and what ever loads I believe I need a 1000 round safety stock of. I think one cast lead load in each handgun caliber will be sufficient, at least to start. As time and resources permit, I expect to increase my safety stock in increments of 1000 rounds.

[44Vaquero]

Baby formula cans! I saved so many from my 1st born (19 years ago) I have never needed anything else! LOL I also now use mayonnaise jars and grated cheese containers for small parts etc. All stack and store easily.

[Dave C.]

I use gallon orange juice jugs for bulk pistol brass and steel coffee cans for cast bullets.

Dave C.

[trixter]

I use plastic coffee cans for all Brass. Each marked separately. The ones with 223/556 brass also have a small sheet inside to remind me which stage in the reloading process they are in. Costco Nut jars for loaded rounds so they are easily identified, I also label them (just in case), for boolit weight and powder & grains however with my 45's they always have 4.2 grains of Bullseye, with 200gr LSWC. I was IN Wal-Mart one day and saw plastic shoe boxes that have hinged lids and were on sale for $.99 each and invested $8.00. In them I put Primers in one, Priming tools in one, electronic scale, calipers, and misc in one and lube tubes and Lee LLA in one and , well you get the idea. I liked them because they stack very nicely and nest well in my shelves.
So far I have used 3" pieces of PVC pipe to set my turrets on, but would like to get them in sealed container to avoid as much dust as possible Someone used some 1 pound tall plastic
deli containers. Maybe I will try them. As said before the possibilities are endless.

[Jon]

I use the Sterlite plastic shoe box size containers from walmart. They are about $2 each, and will hold quite a bit. They stack well as well.

[**oneshot**]

cigar boxes work great. Most times they are free or almost free.

[zuke]

For just bulk brass storage a 5 gallon pail with a snap on lid.
For brass that's in use or in the process of soon to be loaded zip lock bag's.
Brass that's being reloaded,plastic try's that optomotrist's use. A frind was given a couple 100 and he just passed them over to me.
Cast boolit's,metal ammo can's.

[L Erie Caster]

Brass is stored like this
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g327/Wynn3/221.jpg
Boolits and some bullets like this
http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g327/Wynn3/030.jpg

[Adk Mike]

one thing I use is half gallon milk gallon milk cartons cut off at 4 inches . My range box is 8 inches wide so they set side by side . empty's in one and loaded in the other . They are on my bench holding different things. gun oil and . small bottles that my leak stand up in them on the bench . easy to cut . they have no value so if I mix paint or stain in one I toss the whole show when they get dirty .

[rutilate]

I have a bunch of large lemon juice containers that I pulled from our food storage after they expired. Can anyone think of a good use for them?