Ammo storage

[Coffeecup]

I'll right, I'm an idiot. Over the past week I spent probably 4-5 hours searching for a box of oddball pistol ammo. I had it, I just couldn't find it.

How do ya'll have your storage set up so you can actually find things in at least a somewhat-timely fashion? Ideas, pictures, etc appreciated.

[Artful]

Bag's or Boxes - put Painter's tape or tag's with Calibers written on 'em
heck my friend even paints his different colors for quicker ID and stencil's the info on.
Example
30 and 50 cal ammo can's filled with loose ammo, stripper clipped ammo or loaded magazines for military calibers.
Goodwill fabric tote / lunch / baby bag's for non-military calibers like 38 spl or 22 LR.

[edler7]

30 & 50 cal. ammo cans for all of it, whether it's clipped, loose or boxed. Caliber is written on the outside front and top in indelible marker.

If I remember right, I can get 12 boxes (600 rounds) of .45 ACP in a 50 cal. can without smashing anything. I think I could almost double that if it wasn't boxed, but it would be pretty heavy. The only loose ammo I store is for my M1, and that's because I don't have that many clips.

[Artful]

Well if you don't care about weight load up a 20mm or 40mm ammo can with 22LR then call the truss maker. :holysheep

[DRNurse1]

I saw a neat method @ Perry last year: long thin military-grade ammo cans stacked on their side with a slide out tray fitted inside. stacked on a suitable shelf they looked like a pretty slick way to store small amounts of ammo and other stuff in a water tight environment. Sorry I did not take any pictures nor do I recall the vendor. He did add a vertical lip an the back of his pull out tray to keep small things from falling off the back. DRNurse1

[DRNurse1]

I saw a pretty slick method @ Perry: long thin ammo cans (50cal dimension but about 6x as high maybe for LAWS or something like it) laid on their side with a slide out tray inside. Stackable and Water tight. Sorry no photos or vendor name. This guy added a lip on the back of the ray to keep stuff from falling off. BTW: I use 20mm and 50cal cans on a pallet>>loaded ammo in .50 cal cans with taped on labels and primers in the 20mm cans.

[Sasquatch-1]

Find things? Heck, I am lucky if I can find my presses on the bench half the time.

If you have the room shelving above the bench works.

[Jim]

My 'gun room' is a spare bed room in the house. Ammunition is stored on steel shelving in the closet. Smallest calibers on the bottom, largest on top.

[mongo]

This might not help for odd ball ammo but, I find plastic clear mayonaise jars work great. You can see what you got at a glance, kinda. All my weekly range ammo is on the shelf where I could grab a few jars when I head out the door. Also I would be careful about storing a lot of ammo in one area in those big 40mm ammo cans, Too much will warp the wood floor, I learned the hard way, LOL

[scb]

30 & 50 cal. ammo cans for all of it, whether it's clipped, loose or boxed. Caliber is written on the outside front and top in indelible marker.


+1. Very little of my loaded ammo, or brass for that matter, is not kept in GI cans.

[StratsMan]

I have so little commercially boxed ammo that I just put it all in one 50 cal can....
Surplus stays in the crate it came in....

For handload storage, I like to use GI cans or boxes big enough to hold about 100 30-06 rounds... They stack easier that way... Whether in boxes or in GI cans, there's a label on the outside with caliber and load data... Sometimes the date built, but I'm not consistent about that...

If there's multiple loads in the can or box, then they are in separate bags and each bag has the load data written on the bag. I don't put mixed loads in the same baggie...

[Bullet Caster]

Well, I use 50 cal. and 30 cal. ammo cans. The 30 contains all 288 of my .30-06 rounds and I cannot get any more in there. I have over 21 enbloc clips and it still didn't hold all of my reloaded ammo. Everything in the 30 is color coded. I have 51 tracers that I colored the projectiles red with a magic marker. The AP ammo has a black tip and the rest are lead boolits. Easy to tell 'em apart.

One 50 can contains only pistol ammo and is subdivided in the ammo can as to caliber. Each container in the ammo can is identified with a computer label stuck on with the pertinent information.

The other 50 can contains only 7.62x39--hollow points and FMJ. These are all berdan primed. When I get my reloadable 7.62x39 ammo finished it will go into that can as well.

If I ever get more brass, I'm gonna have to buy another ammo can or 3 so that each one will contain only one caliber. May have to swap things around a bit but this is a viable thing to do. Sorry no pics. BC

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

In addition to labeling, I try to group my ammo on the shelving by caliber. It tends to flow one direction or the other at times, but keeping it kinda together helps reduce the number of containers to sift through.

[Coffeecup]

I was really hoping was that one of you would have already worked out the "perfect" system that I could steal ideas from!

One problem for me is that I don't have a dedicated loading area anymore. Most of my loading gets done on a Lyman turret press bolted to the end of my gunstocking bench; primers are in one room, powder in another, brass and bullets and dies are apt to be anywhere.

The ammo (brass, as it turned out) I was looking for was wildcat we did maybe 20 years ago . . . and that's another problem: too many calibers, too many loads. Probably like most of us, over the years I've played with a lot of calibers and loads, and I'll probably play with more in the years to come. I'd like to be able to actually find stuff when I need it. Before a recent hard drive failure, I had at least a somewhat organized way of finding stuff, and some idea of what I had, but the system was so counter-intuitive that I have no hope of recreating it (and a lot of incentive to come up with a better system).

I've been considering building a number of cabinets, with space below to store powder, and cans of brass or ammo, and having bullets/small quantities of brass/etc stored in the upper shelves. Or maybe cabs for powder and ammo cans, with some really big drawer stacks on top for loaded ammo/bullets/small quantities of brass.

[halfslow]

I use ammo cans.
.30 and .50 cal.
I write on the can what is in it on a paper label.
I number the cans and have a list by number in a notebook of what is in each can.
The cans are mostly in a big toolbox.

Whenever I want something, I usually spend 4 to 5 hours looking for the notebook.

[Artful]

I've been considering building a number of cabinets, with space below to store powder, and cans of brass or ammo, and having bullets/small quantities of brass/etc stored in the upper shelves. Or maybe cabs for powder and ammo cans, with some really big drawer stacks on top for loaded ammo/bullets/small quantities of brass.

Steel rolling baker's racks hold weight well provided your on a concrete floor. You can buy multiple shelving units and put them back to back and as they are on wheels roll one away from the other to get at the stuff in the back. If you want to maximize you can put the shelves at different heights for different containers. Spaced large for plastic tubs that hold shotgun wads, hulls, and other bulky items...closer together for Ammo cans. You just have to watch weight distribution as with out thought it can go top heavy pretty quickly - if you live in country prone to earthquakes etc you need to think of strapping to the walls.

[W.R.Buchanan]

NO! I spend more time looking for things I have placed in places that I wouldn't forget,,, than I do actually working.

Been that way my whiole life.

Once spent 2 hours looking for pliers that were in my back pocket! That was at my first mechanics job at age 18 in 1968.

Nothing has changed.

Randy

[boltons75]

NO! I spend more time looking for things I have placed in places that I wouldn't forget,,, than I do actually working.

Been that way my whiole life.

Once spent 2 hours looking for pliers that were in my back pocket! That was at my first mechanics job at age 18 in 1968.

Nothing has changed.

Randy

Kinda like losing a pair of sunglasses that are on your head, or getting mad because you can't find your keys, which are in your hand. Been there.

Always carry, never tell.

[DeanWinchester]

I use ammo cans for everything. For ammo I know I will shoot soon, I just dump it in th can, exception being my precision loads and those go in plastic ammo boxes to prevent damage.

Well, I was thinking of ammo for long term storage and I thought of our beloved Comm-Block surplus ammo. Much of it is stored in small quantities, wrapped in brown paper, then put into larger containers, tins or crates. BRILLIANT! So I tried it 38 special first. You'll need a paper lunch sack, some scrap cardboard, masking tape, scissors and 56 rounds of .38 SPL.

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/pack1.jpg


Cut two squares of cardboard that fit tight in the bag. Using one of the squares as a guide, cut off the top of the bag a piece the same size as the squares to use a divider. Place one of the squares in the bottom of the bag and then lay two rows of 14 rounds, tightly laced. Like so:

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/pack3.jpg

Using the part of the bag you cut off, lay it on top of the rounds and lay two more layers of ammo. Then top it off with the other piece of cardboard. Taking care like wrapping a Christmas present, fold the bag over itself tightly and tape it shut. Write your info on the tape in ink and viola! A perfect dispensary pack of .38 ammo.

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/pack4.jpg

They sure fit snug in the can. Just what I was wanting. WooHoo!

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/pack5.jpg

[bobthenailer]

If its has to with shooting , reloading or casting i have almost total recall ! If its to do with anything else its pot luck !

[dnotarianni]

20mm and 40mm ammo cans under the bench. Each is labeled with what caliber is inside, 45, 40 9mm 38 ect. Same goes for primers and powder. Also cans make a great footrest when sitting at the bench

Dave

[Reloader06]

DW

Brilliant! Creative, simple, cheap. I like the way you think.

Matt

[MGySgt]

Practice ammo goes loose in a 30 cal ammo can that is labeled on the outside. Hunting ammo goes in a MTM box and stored in a 20 MM ammo can.

[Spike]

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b8/spike440/Mosin/880RoundCrate722.jpg :D
-Spike

[Bored1]

Anyone ever use 2 liter pop bottles? I have a few, school was teaching the kids about recycling this year, so they don't like throwing them away. Passed the 3 on the kitchen counter this afternoon on the way to work and thought that would make a pretty handy storage container for brass or ammo. Just rip the label off, scribble on it with some sharpie and into a milk crate it goes. All pretty much free since byproducts of other uses!

[3006guns]

I use 50 cal. cans, but only because I was able to buy a pallet of them about ten years ago. I still have about thirty, filled and marked with caliber, stacked up in my gun closet.

Now, you don't have a pile of ammo cans, right? O.K......here's a little stunt I saw at an automotive shop years ago that's pretty darn clever, and CHEAP.

All the guy did was to save the one gallon anti-freeze containers.......a throw away item.......and cut the tops off. This left a rectangular shaped open top container of tough plastic that will "give" somewhat if shoved into a tight space on a shelf. I would say a one gallon container, cut off rather high, would hold hundreds of rounds of pistol ammo quite easily.........and it is CHEAP

Think ahead here a minute.....the same idea would store a tremendous weight of lead, boolits, primers, etc. Labelled with a permanent marker or Dymo label maker you have CHEAP (i.e. FREE) heavy duty storage containers! An afternoon of hitting the local garages should get you an adequate supply of "material".

[frankenfab]

There's a label on top of each ammo can handle as well. Inside is a gallon ziplock for the empties and a load data sheet.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=479&pictureid=3651