When you go to the store and pick up a box of ammo you are purchasing the ammo, some sort of holder for the rounds and a box. I’ve been throwing out the little red holders from Federal for years and years.
When you open a box of military surplus ammo, there is no holder. At most you might find a couple of thin pieces of paper. The packing is much denser.
When you pack your ammo for storage, you would like it to be as dense as possible. For me this means it needs to fit in an ammo can.
All of this lead me to all the expensive plastic boxes, landing on MTM as my prefered type. But even at the low cost of MTM, it didn’t actually get me anywhere near the density I wanted. Then I stumbled on RepackBox.
These guys are into making boxes but then designed a very good box for ammo. I use it for a number of calibers that I reload in bulk and for which I don’t need fast access. I don’t use them for 5.56×45 because those are kept on stripper clips which these boxes don’t fit.
How about 1600 rounds of 9mm in a single 50 cal can in neat little boxes of 50. That’s 32 boxes. The boxes are around $25/30 boxes or $35/100 boxes.
They also sell the same sort of box for rifle cartridges. Rifle cartridges are either 20 or 30 rounds depending on cartridge size. They include instructions for how to pack 50 Cal cans. I pack 30 cal cans as well with these boxes.
They are kind and send a label sheet with instructions on one side and labels ready to print on the other side. The labels are designed to fit in the little bubble under the caliber. I use it to identify the load in that particular round.
If you want to speed packing up they sell little 3D printed trays that hold all of the rounds that will go into a box. You fill the tray, put the box over the tray, flip the two over and all your rounds are in the box. Fold over the laps, label and pack. You’re done.
These are available [at multiple online sources] or [directly] from REPACKBOX Roger Small (I hope I spelled his name correctly) is the owner, I had a nice conversation with him. About a year ago I spoke to him and asked for packing diagrams for 30 cal cans and they are now on his site, so if you don’t want to lug 1600 9mm rounds in a 50cal can, you can carry 850 rounds in a 30cal can.
Be careful with rimmed cartridges, they are a little harder to pack because of all the wiggle room in the box to account for the rims. According to Rodger, I’ve been doing it wrong and I just need to tilt the box at a diagonal and load from one corner up.
Updated for spelling error
Update2: Removed reference to specific online retailer by request of Roger.
Comments
7 responses to “Product Review: Repack Box”
I’ve always wondered why cartridges in non-bulk packs tend to get inserted in a cute little holder, while bulk packs are just dumped loose in a box. Neither seems particularly efficient; the cartridge holder will add space and weight, and the loose packs have to account for the random orientation that will “settle out” during shipping (same as a cereal box — the empty space at the top was full when they packed it, but during shipping the contents get shaken into a more compressed arrangement), so the boxes must be larger than strictly necessary for the round count.
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This product seems to fix both inefficiencies. And don’t think the fact they themselves ship their product flat — the most space-efficient method — went unnoticed. 😉
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Nice find!
Roger explained why we get our ammo in the cute little boxes we do. For the little guys they have inspection trays. The rounds come out of the reloading presses and fall into the inspection trays or are put into them. Once in the tray a quick pass of a hand can tell if all the rounds are to specification. Think of it as a L.E. Wilson gauge but for 50 rounds at a time.
The inspection tray is then turned over into the box and all of the rounds are transferred to the box. I’m not sure if the small ammo manufactures use the boxes are just ship loose.
The big guys have automated inspection and the machinery can place each round perfectly in the little trays that then go into the boxes.
Roger is working to get something to allow small ammo manufacturers to use his reloading boxes. Which would be cool.
I have two boxes of Magtech ammo, both without trays but different. The .45 ACP is just loose, random orientation. The 9 mm is in layers each of which has the rounds side by side, with a thin piece of cardboard between the layers. That’s quite efficient. Without the cardboard it could be even denser (optimal: hexagonal array).
This reminds me of how steelcase 7.62×39 often comes. Poorly fastened, usually, in that case … very often the (*&#^$ boxes break open in transit or fall open when I’m moving them from shipping box to ammo can.
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I wish I had know about this a while ago…
Cool! I stumbled across these repack boxes a year or two ago, and have been happy with them. I used simple ziploc bags before this, these boxes are much better I think. Even for just blasting and plinking ammo, it’s nice.
I’ve used Repack Boxes for a while, great stuff, especially if one wants to store at maximum density, aka “1600 9MM in a 50 cal can.” The only change I would recommend is “be able to order different quantities;” currently, they’re available in a 30-pack or a 100-pack. It would be nice to be able the scale the order quantity in units of 10 or 20 if one needs, say, 20 or 80 of a size, or 150 of a size.
I’d suggest contacting RepackBox via their website and let them know how many you are looking for. It would not surprise me in the least that he would ship any number or offer different quantities. Say the “9mm for 50cal can” which is enough boxes plus a couple of spares to fill a 50cal can with 9mm. He’s a good guy and strong member of the Gun Culture.