Brass storage?

[TedH]

I'm in the process of rearranging and organizing my reloading area. Up till now I've been storing all my brass in cardboard boxes on the floor in the basement. I'm wanting to get it up off the floor and a little more organized. I've looked at some different bins and such at Home Depot but nothing really jumped out at me. Problem is I may have a couple thousand 45 acp and maybe 100 of a lesser used caliber.

So how are you all storing your brass?

[JohndeFresno]

Ted,

I store my brass in square plastic boxes that I purchased from Home Depot. Pretty expensive, now that I look back; but I bought the same containers, a little at a time, as I expanded my caliber loadings and stock.

You can see that my shelving was a Rube Goldberg setup using some on hand materials - extra cement blocks and shelving boards. It took a few seconds to set up and can be easily moved. I still use this storage area, but my stock has since expanded to another wall.


Now, I'll be moving to emptied square clear plastic containers of a food product that we regularly buy at a discount warehouse store (Costco). Thinking it through now, one doesn't really need to see what's in the containers if they label the contents, e.g. "30-30 brass Tumbled" or "30-30 Rem brass" or whatever. Stick on labels are very cheap.

EDIT: Like 76/444, I put the various subdivisions of the casings, such as "Unfired," "Once-Fired," and so on, into separate ZipLock plastic bags within the containers. This is a small cost item, since the bags are used again and again. - JdeF

The only thing that I would really worry about is the water on the garage floor where I store my stuff. A few 2x4's and some plywood will protect you from that, unless you live in a flood area.

[76/444]

Zip lock bags in a large plastic bin works for me.

[adirondakjack]

I drink a fair amount of coffee, so I use the plastic coffee cans for such things. If you don't drink much coffee, ask a neighbor or two to save the cans. they stack, have built-in handles, what's not to like.

[AJMD429]

Zip lock bags in a large plastic bin works for me.

Same here. I did get a bunch of surplus heavy plastic bins when a factory in town closed their parts department, though. Any bins should do, though. Handy if they stack, but over three deep and unless the front allows easy access you start pulling off top bins to get bottom contents. The zip-locks keep 'lots' of the same make or vintage of brass separate, and make it handier to get out "100" without counting each time.

[jnyork]

Zip lock bags in a large plastic bin works for me.

That.

[86er]

Plastic coffee cans work for me. Hold 500 rounds of most stuff and more of others, no problem. Mine happen to be the red ones with the black lid (the wife bought a bunch on sale). If I were buying the coffee it would have been a different colored metal can - I don't know if they'd work as well. The plastic one's are great. They are stackable too.

[cnjarvis]

I use these:

1773_LG.jpg

I get them at wally world for about $2 and use a Dymo label printer to label them. Works really well for me.

Looks like this stacked in my cabinet:

DSC02274.jpg

[J Miller]

We have cats, cats use boxes to do their things, cat litter comes in dandy buckets with handles.
My basement floods if it rains too hard, so I use the cat litter buckets to store my empty and loaded brass in.

It's not really space effective because the buckets are not square or consistent, but they work and my ammo / brass stays clean and dry.

Joe

[rjohns94]

loaded ammo in marked ammo cans. Brass, after polishing, in bags in ammo cans under the reloading bench.

[alnitak]

Generally, zip lock bags. Once cleaned and deprimed, I sort them into plastic ammo boxes for the 200-500 pieces per caliber I have in the reloading cycle. The rest I leave (sorted) in the zip lock bags. Large plastic bins work for the rifle brass.

[Idiot]

I've got mine stored (read left) all over the place. Some are in empty ammo boxes, others in Clorox jugs with a hand sized holes cut in them, some find there way into baggies and zip-lock bags, and others are scattered about the house, garage, and sheds in some sort of box or boxes. They are all, however, labeled showing how often they've been fired and what state of cleaning or reloading they are in.

I look at some of the organization and state of cleanliness you guys exhibit and realize I'm just not up to that standard. Heck, I don't even clean my guns unless they're dirty.

[Modoc ED]

I like MTM Case-Guard ammunition boxes along with coffee cans, zip-lock plastic bags, all depending on the amount of brass I have. I primarily use the MTM boxes for fully prepped brass that is ready for primers, powder, bulllets, and crimping. I use the coffee cans for bulk storage of non-prepped brass.

[Mac in Mo]

We had a Dollar Tree store open near us last year. They sell plastic boxes that I think are meant for shoes. They work great for me. They stack well and don't eat up space like coffee cans do. I would pick up five each time I went in to the store. Kevin

[horsesoldier03]

I prefer to use .50 cal cans. Although for some things, I also use old tackle boxes or tool boxes as well as storage containers from walmart. Smaller plastic ones that are clear or colored but transparent allow you to know what something is by the color and also allows you to see inside it without opening it up. Of course, the solid colors are an option too!

[Ysabel Kid]

Ammo cans for the brass I have large quantities of; plastic shoe box size boxes from "Dollar Tree" for the other stuff. I've started to sort brass too into plastic bags and then into the ammo cans or plastic boxes.

[adirondakjack]

I should amend my remarks to say I store USED brass in coffee cans.

Storage of new brass required the purchase of a shed, building a ramp to that shed, and use of a heavy duty handcart and a ratchet strap to MOVE the boxes into storage. That's right. When i purchase brass, it comes in boxes weighing 200 lbs (several of them).

the next phase involves a "scoop" that is really a 3lb coffee can, a large igloo cooler to transfer brass to my work area, then weighing and bagging it for sale.

To say I have LOTS of brass most of the time would be a gross understatement.

[COSteve]

Deleted

[fordwannabe]

I too use the dollar store sterilite brand boxes for my brass. Loaded ammo goes in ammo cans. The sterilite boxes a $1 each with lid and can stack four high, I then label with duct tape and a sharpie so as needs change so can the labels. Tom

[Ysabel Kid]

Steve eats A LOT of pretzels!!!

[JohndeFresno]

I too use the dollar store sterilite brand boxes for my brass. Loaded ammo goes in ammo cans. The sterilite boxes a $1 each with lid and can stack four high, I then label with duct tape and a sharpie so as needs change so can the labels. Tom

Thanks for the tip about the Dollar Store - I didn't think to look there, and I like those square boxes for stacking. A buck a box is not bad. Also, these shoebox shaped affairs make it easier to reach in and add or remove the ZipLock bags with different types within a caliber (Rem vs. Win, tumbled, once-fired, new, etc.).

As an aside, I use a large Post-It tablet for labels, placing them inside each ZipLock bag but facing out. It makes it easy to identify and change the markings of the contents, keep a fairly accurate count of the contents; so that I know if I have enough of one type of brass or another for a given amount of intended reloads - "WIN Once Fired Tumbled (40)." Were I to separate lots by weight as some competitive shooters do, this would be added to the paper label.

Like others here, I keep loaded rounds in ammo cans, as shown in the photo on the previous page. If I have to move the ammo quickly or store it for long periods of time in harsher environments, the ammo cans help; and of course they stack very well.

[Modoc ED]

I'm partial to pretzel jugs.

That's just anal Steve. Just plain anal. BUT (pun intended) it's a danged good idea. Looks real good.

Now, I'm a pretty big guy and I don't think I've eaten enough pretzels to fill those jugs in my 66-years.

I've seen the pictures you post of your reloading bench and that's anal too but very very nice.

Keep on posting those pictures. They're not only interesting but eye-pleasing too.

[TedH]

I too use the dollar store sterilite brand boxes for my brass. Loaded ammo goes in ammo cans. The sterilite boxes a $1 each with lid and can stack four high, I then label with duct tape and a sharpie so as needs change so can the labels. Tom

Thanks for the tip about the Dollar Store - I didn't think to look there, and I like those square boxes for stacking. A buck a box is not bad. Also, these shoebox shaped affairs make it easier to reach in and add or remove the ZipLock bags with different types within a caliber (Rem vs. Win, tumbled, once-fired, new, etc.).
.

My thought exactly. I'll check out the Dollar Store first chance I get. Thanks to all for your replies.

[COSteve]

Now, I'm a pretty big guy and I don't think I've eaten enough pretzels to fill those jugs in my 66-years.

I must admit that I didn't eat all those pretzels myself but rather I'd take them into work for my staff meetings. It sure keeps the guys quite if they have something to munch on. Besides, most of them looked forward to the meetings, but mostly just for their weekly 'dose' of pretzels.

[Gary]

I use plastic coffee containers. These let me mark the top for quick ID.



"Still good after the last drop"

[stretch]

Coffee cans. Lots and lots of coffee cans with the
plastic lids. They're free after we drink the Joe, so...

All are labelled, so it's easy to find what I'm looking for.
I have enough 45 ACP stuff to fill a 5 gallon bucket.

Loaded ammo goes into plastic boxes, ammo cans, or
the afore-mentioned coffee cans.

-Stretch

[JohndeFresno]

Checked at a TARGET chain store in Fresno and found those Sterilite clear plastic shoe box type containers for $1 a box as noted above. That's a good price - I paid half again or twice as much for the same type of box in another store!

I'm going to move on to some larger (free) empty food storage jars now, since I will be now storing brass of the same type in larger lots. But it's hard to beat those shoe box containers for mixed bags of casings within the same caliber, at a buck a box!

[cnjarvis]

I use green painter's tape to label boxes with loaded ammo in them. Black sharpie shows up very well and the tape won't leave residue when you pull it off.

[Sixgun]

Cardboard boxes and the quantity of the brass dictates the size of the box. Been doing it for 40 years---no problems. I currently have maybe 30,000 empties. The important thing is to keep the acid from your hands off the brass.----------------------------Sixgun