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Loading ammo boxes: new pet peeve.


JonF

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First, placing cases in the shall plate got tedious, so a case feeder fixed that and ramped up my production speed considerably.

Then i grew tired of dropping bullets by hand so i added the bullet feeder and production increased a bit more.

Now the press is pretty fast but loading primer tubes is the bottleneck so i whipped up a home made vibra-prime and now i can load tubes faster than i can shake them out in a flip tray.

Where does this all leave me? Loading a few K completed rounds in little ammo trays. Has anyone invented a gizmo (kids are neither a gizmo, nor an economical solution!) that does this faster yet? :blink:

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Yep. They are called Ziploc bags or cardboard boxes. roflol.gif

Funny you should say that. I went from ziplocs, to cardboard boxes, to ammo boxes, to ammo trays. I find the ammo trays infinitely easier to keep track of my loaded round count, so I don't mind filling them.

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Plastic peanut butter jars with the load specs on blue tape on the outside.

A medium sized Skippy super chunk jar holds about 200 rounds of .38 super, the large about 450.

It's best to use all of the peanut butter first. :lol:

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Only took one backwards primer 5 years ago to sell me on ammo boxes.....haven't had one since. Use them for all my ammo including .223. I can't tell you how many shooters digging rounds out of boxes and jars that have had issues that would have been prevented by using boxes. I have not figured out a easy way to fill them but a small price to pay.

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We use these. http://www.locknlockplace.com/food-containers/plastic-series-airtight/classic.html

Depending on caliber and size, we have ones that hold 100-45 up to 350-45. 9mm is about 40-50% more in the same box. They work great!

If you want more info on the sizes we use, PM me.

They stack nice in the safe, there is enough room for the 3 x 5 load card and they are fairly indestructible.

Of course I cheat, lol. I load into 50 cal boxes and my wife case gauges while doing whatever.

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I'll tell you what would be a great idea... MTM and EGW need to get together and make one of those 100 round chamber checkers that is the same grid spacing as the ammo box. Once you're done checking a 100 round group of ammo, you can just invert the block and transfer it all straight to the box. You could even have a top cover to the chamber checker so you can invert the ammo first and when you box it, its the right way. If you're going to handle every round, might as well make it more efficient.

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I guess I do it backwards:

Freshly loaded ammo goes into those open topped 50 round trays factory ammo comes in (I shake up the bin, getting most of the rounds to settle nose down, and pick up 5 or 6 in each hand and drop them in; any going in nose up get picked out). I inspect for high primers, wipe down the bases of the rounds with an alcohol dampened rag to get the lube off, stripe the base with a permanent marker, and then DUMP THEM OUT into boxes, loose, in 200 to 250 round batches, to take to the range/matches.

I used to line them all up in the box to pack them to max capacity, but, with lots of therapy, I've managed to move on... ;):D

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First, placing cases in the shall plate got tedious, so a case feeder fixed that and ramped up my production speed considerably.

Then i grew tired of dropping bullets by hand so i added the bullet feeder and production increased a bit more.

Now the press is pretty fast but loading primer tubes is the bottleneck so i whipped up a home made vibra-prime and now i can load tubes faster than i can shake them out in a flip tray.

Where does this all leave me? Loading a few K completed rounds in little ammo trays. Has anyone invented a gizmo (kids are neither a gizmo, nor an economical solution!) that does this faster yet? :blink:

Small Sterilite 2.5qt. containers with the load data written in sharpie on a piece of Scotch Tape on the lid. :)

I've been doing this for several months now with my 5.56 and have even been known to load a 30 cal. milsurp ammo can with loose loaded rounds on a good day! ;)

No more sorting through boxes of ammo to find what I want. I have 500 loose rounds in each ammo can. Grab and go!

I haven't tried it .... yet ...but I'd be willing to bet that you could fit close to 1k rounds of 45 ACp or 9mm in a 30 cal can.

Edited by roostershooter
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First, placing cases in the shall plate got tedious, so a case feeder fixed that and ramped up my production speed considerably.

Then i grew tired of dropping bullets by hand so i added the bullet feeder and production increased a bit more.

Now the press is pretty fast but loading primer tubes is the bottleneck so i whipped up a home made vibra-prime and now i can load tubes faster than i can shake them out in a flip tray.

Where does this all leave me? Loading a few K completed rounds in little ammo trays. Has anyone invented a gizmo (kids are neither a gizmo, nor an economical solution!) that does this faster yet? :blink:

Small Sterilite 2.5qt. containers with the load data written in sharpie on a piece of Scotch Tape on the lid. :)

I've been doing this for several months now with my 5.56 and have even been known to load a 30 cal. milsurp ammo can with loose loaded rounds on a good day! ;)

No more sorting through boxes of ammo to find what I want. I have 500 loose rounds in each ammo can. Grab and go!

I haven't tried it .... yet ...but I'd be willing to bet that you could fit close to 1k rounds of 45 ACp or 9mm in a 30 cal can.

Grab and go? For a match a thousand 9mm rounds is pretty heavy. surprise.gif

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First, placing cases in the shall plate got tedious, so a case feeder fixed that and ramped up my production speed considerably.

Then i grew tired of dropping bullets by hand so i added the bullet feeder and production increased a bit more.

Now the press is pretty fast but loading primer tubes is the bottleneck so i whipped up a home made vibra-prime and now i can load tubes faster than i can shake them out in a flip tray.

Where does this all leave me? Loading a few K completed rounds in little ammo trays. Has anyone invented a gizmo (kids are neither a gizmo, nor an economical solution!) that does this faster yet? :blink:

Small Sterilite 2.5qt. containers with the load data written in sharpie on a piece of Scotch Tape on the lid. :)

I've been doing this for several months now with my 5.56 and have even been known to load a 30 cal. milsurp ammo can with loose loaded rounds on a good day! ;)

No more sorting through boxes of ammo to find what I want. I have 500 loose rounds in each ammo can. Grab and go!

I haven't tried it .... yet ...but I'd be willing to bet that you could fit close to 1k rounds of 45 ACp or 9mm in a 30 cal can.

Grab and go? For a match a thousand 9mm rounds is pretty heavy. surprise.gif

Grab several handfulls and throw them in a 1 qt. or 1/2 qt. Sterilite container. My wife buys them by the dozen when she goes to Wally World for various organizing around the house. I just ask her to pick me up a few different sizes for a couple of $$$ and she brings them home to me. 1 qt. containers will hold around 100 rounds or so with a little room left over. It sure beats having boxes of 100 ct. bullets stacked all over the place.

It's kind of silly, for me, to pay $3 for a 100 ct. bullet box when I can have 2 containers for $3.

Edited by roostershooter
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Only took one backwards primer 5 years ago to sell me on ammo boxes.....haven't had one since.

For me it was a problem with high primers. Now I put all the bullets in nose down and check all the primers. Then each case gets a swipe of a marker so I know it's been checked. PS, red marker for major and green for minor.

Using the 100 round boxes helps a lot.

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I use ziplock bags for the majority of my ammo, but that feeling when you have loaded up a bunch of magazines and then find a semi-crushed primer in the ziplock bag is not good. :unsure:

I us ammo boxes for major matches so that I am forced to get a good look at all primers.

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