Been looking for a way to condense all of my ammo junk. I have brass by the tens of thousands, ammo by far too much. I looked around to see what, if anything, that might be the trick over just plain metal ammo boxes. Looked at the MTM Ammo Crates, 30 caliber, that has 4 crates per tray. I ordered 2 to get started. They are stackable and have a nice latch that can be easily marked for contents with stick-ons. The frame that holds the crates is relatively substantial. But the crates themselves are mighty thin and flimsy for ammo that gets heavy quick. Of the complaints I looked at on the net about them was the crates do not seal air tight when loaded with ammo. I guess not. The plastic on the sidewalls I doubt measures 1/16" thick and you can easily bend it with your hand. So if you are considering these crates, for ammo I rate them as a fail. Ammo is just too heavy for the plastic box. For brass, it worked relatively decent. Brass isn't all that heavy individually. But be aware, a tray of 4 crates loaded with 9mm, 45 acp, brass only probably weights 30-40 lbs maybe. As for the size of the boxes, I was using a shoebox plastic container for holding my brass. I could only put 5 shoeboxes of loose brass in 8 crates. The plastic crates are considerably smaller than a metal ammo can. You can put as much as 4 boxes of 10mm factory ammo in one with a bunch of wasted space. Take the ammo out of the boxes and you could probably put 500 rounds in it but you're not going to pick it up and not eventually do damage to it. It's just too light weight. So for my usage, the MTM Ammo Crates are not going to work. I think I'll probably be going back to the clear plastic shoeboxes that have been holding up just fine. Biggest issue is finding the heavy duty ones like I already have.
So in doing all this with the ammo crates, I went thru all of my junk. I went in and told the wife she is married to a complete whackjob. Jeez, I have ammo and brass for cartridges I've never owned a gun for. Who would ever need a thousand rounds of 300 H&H Mag brass or 300 Stevens ammo? I found stuff I didn't remember having like several thousand rounds 3006 military match brass or 7.62x 51 match brass. Even found my IDEAL handloading tool for the 38 Winchester. Amazing all the crap I own and didn't know it. I'm a sick puppy! ;D
I know what you mean. I have dies for cartridges I don't load or own guns for, as well as brass.
I often end up with this stuff when I buy out an older gun enthusiast who is cutting back. I end up taking everything for a single cash price, but only 70% of it is stuff I could use.