Upping the storage game

[metricmonkeywrench]

Since starting cast bullet storage has been an ongoing project in waiting. With my 1&2 cavity moulds even manic casting sessions only yielded a hundred or two at a sitting so the fantasy of having coffee cans full of bullets is a bit too far at this time. Perhaps after I retire and mama boots me out if the house to go play during the day.

But I digress, storage to this point has been various plastic take out and salvageable food containers. Being round and various sizes that corner of the bench left me unsatisfied and despite the tape and markings it was always a chore to dig through the pile to find my desired bullet.

After my father passed one of my tasks was to clean out his storage shed and I was once again reunited with the Caldweld slip top storages boxes. They measure out to about 3x3x7in making for a nice neat stack. He was a Journeyman Lineman (IBEW Local 1249) and whatever was in them (some sort of connector) he used a lot of, and brought home a pile of these things over the years. Pressed into service at the house they became the storage Tupperware of choice for nuts, bolts, screws and all manner of small hardware. I hauled all the boxes home and have been slowly going thru them and keeping the good and tossing the rest.

I finally reached a point where I had a couple of empties to bring in to try out and things are looking good so far. They fit well and take up less overall real estate than the oddball round take out containers, I can stack 3 high and they’re about the depth of my shelf. The label maker makes them even easier to tell what’s what. I’m not sure if I want to carry this on to rifle bullets. Perhaps I can devise some sort of solid divider to keep them separated. I have the plastic red garage trays and none of those dividers ever want to stay in place.

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[Land Owner]

Boolit storage is problematic. That said, I went on a tear making 12,000+ of 223, 357, 380, 45 ACP, 45 Colt, and stacking some of them neatly in Altoid containers that the Choir Members at church keep saving for me.

Twelve (12) Altoid cans for 223 caliber, every can containing 267 boolits x 50 gr. each boolit in a Singleton (single malt) Scotch box weighs in at 22.5 pounds. I have two of those, so far.

The 357 FN's and HP's stack in the Altoid cans nicely too. At a single boolit weight of 158 gr. and 144 gr. respectively, each Altoid can of 357's is significantly heavier than a can of 223's. And so it goes for the larger and larger calibers.

I have heavy plastic peanut butter, mayonnaise, and salted peanut "jars" (circular and square) full of sized and lubed boolits. Heck I even have those types of "jars" filled with nuts, bolts, washers, screws, nails, and "what nots" in the garage too as well as orange medicine bottles, racks of bins, pull out trays, and best of all, 4-drawer filing cabinets, one drawer for each caliber I reload, one drawer for spray cans of paint, one drawer for oils and lubes, one drawer for plumbing, one for electrical, you get the picture.

I store lead, pewter, WW's, and boolit-alloy in 30-caliber steel ammo cans at a weight not to exceed 50-pounds per can or the 1/2" inch steel handle tears up the palm of the hand trying to carry one. Storage is problematic, but we deal with it.

[lightman]

I store my un-lubed bullets in wide mouth half gallon jugs that a friends Wife saves for me. She uses some kind of flavored coffee or sweetner of some sort. About the size of an 8# powder jug except with a wide mouth. I write the info on the front with a sharpie. When empty I use PVC pipe cleaner to erase the writing.

[lancem]

I'm a quart zip lock freezer bag guy. You can mark the who, what, when, and why easy enough on them and I stack them side by side in a cheap multi drawer roll around tool box. Pistol in one drawer, rifle in another, room in another drawer for keeping gas checks and the like. Easy to just open the drawer and scan over the bags and pull the one you want out.

[LabGuy]

I was a peanut butter jar guy, but have switched to the square mixed nut jars from Costco.

[Rapier]

I wash plastic or steel 3# coffee containers.

A suggestion, get a 25 pound pot, several dozen ingots of alloy, commercial flux and get four moulds to temptature, cast four molds at actime in different styles of bullets, water drop, with foam peanuts covering the water in a 5 gallon bucket. That should cure you volume issue. I setup on a 4x8 sheet of plywood.

[Walter Laich]

we have cats

cats require treats

so after they finish off one of those square jugs of treats, they, the jugs not the cats, become bullet containers

https://image.chewy.com/is/image/catalog/208285_MAIN._AC_SL600_V1673293691_.jpg

[elmacgyver0]

Good reason to get a cat.

[farmbif]

I use jacketed bullet boxes when I have them but mostly empty cans from canned vegetables, peaches, pineapple or whatever else is cleaned easily. far too often ive had plastic containers with nails, screws bolts, bullets deteriorate and crack apart at the worst possible times.

[lightman]

I use jacketed bullet boxes when I have them but mostly empty cans from canned vegetables, peaches, pineapple or whatever else is cleaned easily. far too often ive had plastic containers with nails, screws bolts, bullets deteriorate and crack apart at the worst possible times.

I've had 5 gallon plastic buckets full of ingots crack open.

[DDriller]

Coffee creamer jars work well for me, the 16oz size holds 8 pounds of cast bullets. I can stack then 2 high on the self.

[ascast]

I use high quality zip lock bags, then into boxes, plastic jugs or drawer.

[OS OK]

I like see through plastic best. I kinda like containers that are uniform like those on the top shelf...but...I ain't picky, I'll use whatever comes down the pike but I like getting them for free or cheap. Dollar Store is where I got the ones with the blue & white lids but seems like when you find something good there...there ain't many left.
I know..."I'ma day late and a dollar short!" :bigsmyl2: With casts, weight mounts up fast...make your shelving is super sturdy. We have earthquakes out here so I bolt my shelving to the wall.

https://i.imgur.com/DDkVIs6h.jpg

Clean ready to prime & load pistol & rifle cases are another thing, uniformity really helps there unless you want to store them in 5 gallon buckets & plastic baggies in a dirty condition but separated & clean as needed. I like keeping cases segregated by headstamp also. Those fat jars with red lids...I think salsa came in them from Costco...plastic see through & heavy duty, they work well stacked 2 deep on the shelves.
The pistol cases mostly reside in heavy duty quart ziplock baggies down in the 4 drawers below.

https://i.imgur.com/le2aa5bh.jpg

You can make yourself little jigs & fixtures to hold specialty items like the shell holders and utilize wall space or the front of a shelf instead of putting them in a box or spreading them out in all your die sets.

https://i.imgur.com/51QxvOUh.jpg

A sure tip..."Never put something in a safe place! You most likely will never see it again!" ..:bigsmyl2:
My secret for staying organized is to try to stop making a 'chaos pile' of tools and parts every time I start a project & put things away as I go. It's a lofty aspiration for organization but...about 25% of the time, it works.

[Big Dipper]

I use the SFRB from USPS. I tape the corners and fill them with boolits. They stack good and I can write on the top and flap of the box.

[uscra112]

My secret for staying organized is to try to stop making a 'chaos pile' of tools and parts every time I start a project & put things away as I go. It's a lofty aspiration for organization but...about 25% of the time, it works.

Harry Pope used the "chaos pile" method. If it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

But like Harry.....I will obliterate you if you move anything when I'm not looking. :bigsmyl2:

[Old Iron Sights]

I'm a big fan of the stackable Sterilite tubs. Always grab one or two at Wally World311720

[Jtarm]

I'm a quart zip lock freezer bag guy. You can mark the who, what, when, and why easy enough on them and I stack them side by side in a cheap multi drawer roll around tool box. Pistol in one drawer, rifle in another, room in another drawer for keeping gas checks and the like. Easy to just open the drawer and scan over the bags and pull the one you want out.

That works well storing in 50-cal steel ammo cans.

My wife is a craft queen and picked me up a bunch of stackable locking plastic containers roughly 11x6x4. I use them mostly for bulk brass . They’re OK for bullets, but they can’t be filled full. 2,000 .38 wadcutters is about their limit, which is about 60% capacity.

[OS OK]

That works well storing in 50-cal steel ammo cans.

My wife is a craft queen and picked me up a bunch of stackable locking plastic containers roughly 11x6x4. I use them mostly for bulk brass . They’re OK for bullets, but they can’t be filled full. 2,000 .38 wadcutters is about their limit, which is about 60% capacity.

That's about 45 pounds...isn't it?

[MarkP]

Apple Sauce bottles are thick plastic and super easy to clean. Kids vitamin bottles are also thick plastic, I saved a ton when my kids were younger.

Clausen Pickle jars for brass, the have a large opening and flat sides and stack nicely.

[GregLaROCHE]

I like clear plastic tubs. I write what the boolits are on a piece of paper, that I can see through the plastic. When the container is empty, I can use it for something different and don’t have to deal with any complicated labels to change.

[georgerkahn]

Bion, I still have and use METAL one-pound coffee cans for the great majority! My casting criteria, too, is generally to over-fill a can -- and then after pulling culls, sizing, and lubing -- turns out to be ~ an inch below top. Interestingly, I stopped keeping lids snapped on, as (to me?) it seems bullets seem slimy and stick together a bit if lidded. Might be just my perception, only, but, again, I keep them in the cans -- un-lidded.
Years back, MidwayUSA used to sell actual blue plastic square boxes for bullet storage and I bought/have a couple of dozen of these as well -- and use these for either odd-ball creations or bullets I do not shoot that much of -- but want on hand :) should I get the urge to load and shoot some.

[AZ Pete]

Freezer "zip lock" bags in GI ammo cans.

[crandall crank]

I use the Ovaltene containers. White plastic with screw on lids.

[metricmonkeywrench]

So a bit of an update, I got thru moving about all of the pistol bullets over and spent some quality time with the label maker. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Still pondering on the rifle bullets, but that will come with time. I did have to move one of the shelf supports over about 1/2in to allow for the 5 wide stacking between the supports and that more or less forced me into cleaning up and organizing the bits and pieces gathered up on the shelves.

I am now able to locate the desired bullets quite easily

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