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Do You Lube Your Ammo Cans?

KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

Yes, I know - an obscure subject.

As anyone knows that has (a'hem) a few Mil. Surplus Ammo cans knows, what you receive is a mixed bag/cond.

I just received 3 .30 cal cans, in So/So condition. Still had Middle Eastern (?) Sand all over them. Opened them to find rust in the bottom seams. Promptly went out and got my oil squirt bottles from the garage and coated the inside bottom seams. (One can, even had about 1/4" of water inside.) 😔

Left them overnight, near the woodstove. Just now spent about 1/2 hr. Judiciously using the same squirt bottle, to put light motor oil along pretty much every seam and hinge/moving part on the exterior. Lovingly rubbing them down. They look brandy new now. 👍😁

Worth the effort. (So) Do you Lube your ammo cans?

Enquiring minds, (and me) would like to know.

Comments

  • OakieOakie Member Posts: 40,519 ✭✭✭✭

    No. I buy the plastic ones from Harbor fright. I have a few metal ones left over from my M1 Garand ammo, That I store tools and stuff in.

  • dunbarboyzdunbarboyz Member Posts: 2,127 ✭✭✭✭

    I don't have any rusty ones. If I did I would use Fluid Film It would stop the rust.

  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    I have about 7 +/- Plastic ones. (MTM) I have about 20-25 +/- Steel Mil. Surplus ones. 80% .50 cal, the rest, .30 cal. A few 40mm large cans. (Sent my Son a couple of those, to get him started.) 😂

    They have all been treated to this Oil Love/Lube.

    You gotta take care of your stuff. (Especially Gun Stuff.) 👍

  • montanajoemontanajoe Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 57,893 ******

    None are rusted. I think if they were I'd clean up the rust and re-paint them with a rattle can of paint.

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2023

    I am not sure how many are even around here just a guess i am right there with you on numbers some plastic most surplus or knock offs all different sizes

    But I will give the outside and inside a light spray with wd40 or similar and i always toss a few dry packs with any ammo I have stored in them

    I use them for a lot of things though gun parts tools just easy to organize

    I am a bit overboard on keeping such things in good shape every thing i own bascily I am the same

    i think it from haviny to take care of any thing i got as a kid it had to last And be taken care of

    a bit funny now because they are all stored inside and will be around long long after I am gone

    But some day maybe a grand kid or three can have a ball

  • yonsonyonson Member Posts: 892 ✭✭✭

    Harbor fright sounds like a scary place to shop.....

  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    Another question. My older ammo cans have what was inside (originally) cleary stenciled outside.

    The more recent ones have unsightly black spray paint covering all original markings.

    You can still read what was inside, so it's not like it's a big secret. What gives?

  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    Personally, I like the original Military OD Green.

    Would not want to change the over all color. (Sacrilegious.) 🤔

  • Ruger4meRuger4me Member, Moderator Posts: 3,312 ******

    They make OD green paint in rattle cans... he didn't say change the color.

  • GeriGeri Member Posts: 2,089 ✭✭✭

    Sand blast clean, spray with rustoleum undercoat.

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2023

    I am too picky also

    but Think about it a lot of ammo cans spend years in warehouses or unknown storage And do what there suppose to as long gas the seal is good and you can buy new seals also

    I bought a dozen or so a coupe yrs back from a on line place on sale even with shipping it was less tan 10.00 a piece 50 cal cans

    They have different sizes and grades

    I will try and find the site off hand i thinks t's ammo can man or something similar

  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,121 ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2023

    if you oil them won't they slide out of the safe??????????? though I bet it would make the bullets go faster...

  • grdad45grdad45 Member Posts: 5,305 ✭✭✭✭

    Wife--What's in that box?

    Me--Ammo.

    Wife---That one?

    Me---Stop asking!

    etc, etc, etc

  • mrs102mrs102 Member Posts: 1,166 ✭✭✭

    Never had one rusty on the inside. Some have had a little rust on the outside. I used Rem-Oil on them to get the rust off and leave the protective rust prevention behind.


    @Ditch-Runner.........like so many other things, freight/shipping is killing reasonably priced cans.

  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,947 ✭✭✭✭

    I have one .50. Unrusted. And I live in the desert. I do use CLP on the hinges.

  • tsavo303tsavo303 Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭

    No, I buy nice ones, lol. But I’ll bet the spray paint was compliance for Obama during transition to the new policy of not selling them as surplus(just a guess)

    he’s the reason the military sells them for scrap now, instead of selling them as surplus. What a * , but we knew he didn’t want an armed constituency

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2023

    I agree shipping has killed a lot of deals

    about 5 yrs ago I bought 10 or 12 at tractor supply they had a sale clearing out some items ( I am sure knock off from China but its exact copy I think they were 7 or 8 dollars each marked down ) any way I lost all them in a fire when I had a single car garage go up over a dehumidifier shorting its self out ( insurance company told me the dehumidifiers are/ were a huge issue

    any way could not even salvage one they were all burned up and the seals all burned and melted ( I am a cheap old fellow ) but they were beyond the effort of even me to try and save them and thats bad 😁

    I had not even got to put any of them to use 😕 but my insurance covered them along with all the rest of what I had stored in the garage my son had it full of books lucky I had my old Camaro in the pole barn to make room for my sons books ( he sells train and RR related books )

    over the years I have picked them up a gun shows fle markets the internet auctions and the ammo can man ? or one similar I really cant remember and local farm stores

  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    I bought these 3 .30 cal cans at $7 ea. Free shipping. (Since I added the M12 holster for $32 and broke the $49 threshold.)

  • BrookwoodBrookwood Member, Moderator Posts: 13,280 ******

    My ammo cans are made out of wood, so no rust problems here.


    My biggest CAN problem has to do with those darn square Tidy Cat Litter buckets! I just can't seem to throw any of them away and the stacks and stacks of them are growing out of hand!!

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,453 ✭✭✭✭

    Use cat litter bucket ti store cat and dog food and other things

    Started buying cardboard boxes of cat litter some time ago but will pick up a plastic bucket of it now and then to use the buckets

    Some years ago my wife had the idea to use them to plant tomatoes in must have been 20 of them at least it was just a one year event

    We also lay them on the side and attach to shelf for the chickens like aail Boxford each one lol

  • cbxjeffcbxjeff Member Posts: 17,401 ✭✭✭✭

    Look what you started, Ken.

    It's too late for me, save yourself.
  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    Believe me, Jeff - I had no intentions of things spiraling out of control, like they have. 🤔

  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,806 ✭✭✭

    No, I do not.


    BUT, 15 years ago, I bought 8,000 cans for $.25 EACH! The catch was......they were a bit rusty. Not terrible, but they'd been outside for years and years.


    I sold all of them in six months at $5 each or 3 for $10! People didn't care about the rust at that price! Everyone said "Put some WD-40 on them, they'll be fine!"


    Wish I'd been able to get 80,000. :)



    Merc

  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    That's Awesome Merc.!! 😀

    The last three (.30 cal cans) I just received and showed some Lube Love to, look Great. 👍😁 (Night and day difference.) I will have to get the residual light oil out of the inside, before storing ammo in them. (Been letting the oil, sit inside for about a week now.) It wasn't like I needed any more cans, but these were a good deal. I'll probably give them to my Son, when he comes to visit.

    I paid $7ea. (No ship charge.) Quite the deal, nowadays.

  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,806 ✭✭✭

    $7 is a screaming deal!


    The cans I had came out of Texas, and had Hebrew writing on them. No idea what caliber they were used for, but the US uses that size for .50 caliber, I think.



    Merc

  • KenK/84BravoKenK/84Bravo Member Posts: 12,055 ✭✭✭✭

    They were 1/2 off. 😁

    I posted a link, but it was deleted. (I had said to Mods/Admin to delete it, if innapropriate, in my post.) The Co. In question, sells Firearms now. (Direct competition.) I get it. 🤔 No worries.

    *Was just trying to clue Members in to a screaming good deal.

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