Packaging Reloaded Ammunition
Before I ever pulled the press lever for the first time I listened to many episodes of The Reloading Podcast and watched a great many YouTube videos from some of the fine authors now on this network. A big Thank You to all of you, you got me started in the right direction.
One thing I picked up early on was keeping track of recipes for loads I put together. Initially I was using Google Docs, but have since picked up a good old fashion dead tree reloaders notebook. I have also made a practice of labeling my loads with the recipe when storing.
Now about that storage. When developing a load I use the plastic flip top MTM boxes. But I wanted something less expensive for stockpiling target ammo.
Like many I kept the plastic trays that commercial ammo comes in. However I quickly found that the trays from my wife’s 380 would hold 9mm, but the 9mm would often get stuck. The foam trays that originally held round nose 115 grain rounds latched onto flat nose bullets as well. The trays came in varying sizes between brands of commercial ammo; not being able to stack them properly irritated my OCD tendencies.
So I went looking for cardboard containers that would house the fruits of my labor. Chick-Fil-A Nugget boxes will hold a couple hundred .223 rounds nicely. (I did an independent study.)
Most commercial boxes were kinda pricey for my needs. I settled on these boxes over at Amazon, and these cute 3D printed speed loader blocks. I got the .223 and 9mm varients, they have a number of other caliber choices. They are designed towards buying bulk loose ammo, scooping up handfuls and pouring them over the blocks, the heavy projectiles go down into the printed tray,
you place the box over the tray and flip the box and tray over,
then remove the tray,
fold the tabs,
close the box and affix the peelable Avery recipe label.
There you have it, nicely boxed and stackable to calm the OCD, labeled so as to know what recipe was used and when it was loaded. Plus with the peelable labels the boxes can be reused over and over.
Larger labels could also be used to allow recording lot numbers of powder, stock/lot numbers of bullets, case and all sorts of nerdy data precision shooters want to keep. I’m not there…yet.
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I owned a Marlin 60 since 1987, but never really got ‘into’ guns until 2011 when I bought my first 9mm pistol. That was soon followed by a .380 and a 12 guage pump, and I was all in. I had done some 20 guage reloading growing up, and threw myself into 9mm and .223 reloading in 2017, .380 in 2019, 7.62×39 in 2020 and my first revolver in 45 Colt in 2022. It is so satisfying to go to the range and string together ever improving groups with ammo I loaded myself; it doesn’t hurt that I’m a little OCD about technical things, the tangible/visible rewards are really gratifying.
I have a nagging but as yet unattained ‘want’ for a .358 Yeti unloader, it just looks like a really cool caliber. My next learning curve, space permitting, is casting and coating.
