Storage ideas

[steves86ta]

Hi All,

Im semi limited on space as I use my garage for my reloading room. My workbench is drilled and tapped for my press mounts and i move presses on an as needed basis. The rest of the garage is used up with kids stuff, my work office is in here, and just general things i work on/do.

I'm looking for ideas on how you guys store your brass/shells. I have a steel cabinet that i use for all my components (primers, powder, projectiles) and that's great. However since I started shooting a lot more (USPSA and steel challenge) i find my self storing a lot more brass as I'm loading for up to 3 shooters. Just started loading shotshells as well and now im trying to store those too.

Currently im using some 5 gallon food buckets for the 9, 45 and 308 brass i load in bulk. But they are honestly kind of in the way and not really great. Now that im doing shotshells as well, trying to store those seperated by type im kinda stuggling for ideas to store them, shot, and wads.

Just curious what you guys use?

 

[Warpspeed]

I prefer the clear plastic tubs. I have them in 2 sizes ; 17 qt for brass and 29 qt for hulls. They make them smaller too if you have an odd caliber that you don't keep 1000s of.

They are easily marked with what is in them and also you can see if they are full or partial if you are looking to add or take from.

The ones I use are form Lowes and under the "Project Source" brand

 

[ikeo1]

My workbench is drilled and tapped for my press mounts and i move presses on an as needed basis. The rest of the garage is used up with kids stuff,

I store 9mm brass in 5 gallon buckets outside in a shed until they're ready to process.

 

[JoeLogic]

Same as above. 5 gallon buckets outside in a toughshed.

 

[mindwreck]

I get a lot of akro bins from work so anything currently awaiting processing or about to be reloaded gets put in those on the bench. Everything else i store them in whatever i can use. amazon boxes. buckets. bins. costco animal crackers. protein shake jugs. Hell i have rigid job box i have at work thats full of stuff too. Boss thinks i just have some tools in there.

 

[molonlabe]

Could consider a rolling wire rack or more to get some vertical storage.

For reloading and other moderate value supplies clear bins and higher value a safe or pelican case depending on usage

 

[DDranch/Anyracoon]

I use LFR Boxes for my brass storage. They stack well and I use a Harbor Freight Dolly to move them. I use the clear flip top totes for shotgun hulls.

 

[H. Bowman]

Harbor Freight just had a sale on buckets for 2.99ea. They work great. Store outside. It'll be several years before they start breaking down enough to crack or break.

 

[yatzooa]

+1 on brass in 5 gallon buckets. They're stackable (to an extend) as well. I label my buckets with painters tape and permanent marker since I have so many haha. If you want to ball out on nice buckets, you can get screw top buckets instead of the normal ones. Its kind of overkill, but I don't see the buckets breaking any time soon, so I justify it as buy-once-cry-once type of thing haha

Screw Top Pail - 5 Gallon, Red Lid S-13652R - Uline

Quickly open and reseal for easy access. Vacuum tight – Use with granulars, fine powders. Tamper evident with use of cable ties. Lid includes neoprene gasket for moisture-resistant storage. Molded, high-density polyethylene. FDA compliant.ULINE offers over 42,000 boxes, plastic poly bags...

www.uline.com

 

[treelogger]

+1 on brass in 5 gallon buckets. ... If you want to ball out on nice buckets, you can get screw top buckets instead of the normal ones.

Screw top lids are available quite inexpensively at Winco foods, in the bulk food department. Sadly, Winco is not all that common in California.

 

[Nautworthy]

5 gallon buckets are great for anything in quantity but I also store a lot in ammo cans until they're ready to process.

 

[Batman]

OK, a few thoughts.....

1.) Buckets are space wasters. Yes, I said it. They waste space with all the area around them that's empty. Use the black rectangular or square totes, like the ones with yellow lids at Home Depot or Lowes. Don't go with huge, unless you like to hurt your back. Brass is heavy. They stack nicely and you can label them easily. Which goes to #2;

2.) Label your boxes. You don't want to go searching for that batch of .44 magnum that's buried somewhere.

3.) Have boxes for clean and boxes for dirty brass. Try to keep more clean than dirty! If space is at a premium, THEN buckets outside with dirty brass is fine. Keep the garage neat.

4.) Normally I tell people to keep stuff off the floor. Here's an exception. Build your reloading bench where the bottom shelf allows you to store a full compliment of totes underneath. If you've got more clean brass than totes, start reloading!

 

[Malibu]

Bulk brass, bulk bullets, bulk lead ingots, casting equipment, and anything else that is not temperature sensitive gets stored in a 20’ secure Connex container that is situated under a large roof-shed. Heavy steel interior shelves lining the sidewalls accommodate square steel surplus mortar boxes to hold sorted brass of various calibers in both processed and dirty conditions. Very important is the labeling and positioning of the boxes; a printed chart displays exact locations for each lot, with a brief dated description of the contents. Scrap brass that is not deemed usable is sorted into five-gallon pails and stored outside, but covered to prevent further degradation before being hauled to the recycler.
Live ammunition that is not useful is stored in a bulk “de-mill” pail, with components that are deemed useful are later separated in the manual reduction process before that scrap brass enters the recycling chain.

 

[ButtonPusherPro]

Take a look at your containers and see how much empty space is at the top. I’ve noticed some people get really obsessed with separating different types and then that splits into clean versus dirty. This results in a lot of different containers. Each additional container creates a certain amount of unused overhead. Anything round tends to create unused space. So I like to use heavy vinyl or canvas bags to separate categories and then put those in large stackable containers like the plano small storage boxes.