How do you organize your spare magazines?

Oh good point. You better believe mags are expensive, etc. so ALL get my name and a number in paint pen, silver sharpie, etc.

I also forgot I took some photos to share with a friend about mag stuff a couple months back. Here, a variety of HK33s. A29 was the mark in Malaysian service, orange paint is me:

Those without name have it on the spine and can be just barely seen in the range bag photo below.

Some of the Lewis Bins (with a parts one at the bottom of the frame):



The 5.56 range bag:

 

Horror fright ammo cans.
The 50 cal of CZ 75 has about 36 mags.
The 30 cal of Beretta has about 15.

20220914_175349 by sevt_chevelle posted Sep 14, 2022 at 6:00 PM

 

Each weapon (or those with several mags and other dedicated tools & accessories) has a cheapie surplus gas mask carrier bag assigned for storing these items in. Online surplus companies will often have these sort of bags selling for very little and they are useful and sturdy enough for this purpose. I have a mix of older Czech and some newer, very nice from the UK. For pistols, holsters and such are often stored with the mags as well. I made labels for the bags w/ a dymo label maker. Makes for an easy grab&go bag when taking a specific weapon to the range to shoot.

 

Only have three Different chamberings of centerfire rifles; Pair of PTR-91s (.308), a Czechpoint VZ (7.62x39) and a Maadi AKM.

Most are stacked in three different heaps, each heap behind one of those three types of rifles.

Same with handguns. Now that the chances of a Russian invasion are even Slimmer,,,it's not worth being worrried about hyper-organization.

 

Cases and pouches.
I don't have dozens of guns, but do have the habit of my machining days of keeping precision or expensive tools and their accessories in their own specific cases.
So rifles get their own specific case. Each case has its mags assorted in the appropriate pockets if applicable. Non-mag pockets get the basic cleaning and maintenance supplies to take care of basic to middling issues at the range.
The mags that don't fit go into pouches. Stuff I can throw onto a shoulder and run out to the car if I have to get out of dodge. Something you think about when you have a hurricane season and you're 10 inches above water level between three ponds.

If they don't have pouches, of they're handgun mags, they go in an ammo can. Often loaded.
And all of them get numbered. Body, baseplate, and a non-contact spot in the follower.
Makes reassembly easier if I have to dry them out or something, and makes it easier to track down malfunctions.

 

I have the less expensive mags in a Bisley steel cabinet and the mags for the Swiss Hammerlis and SIG P210 in mag pouches in the safes. Some odd mags are in plastic organizers.

 

I shoot revolvers. Takes care of the whole issue!

that said I just keep my mags in an ammo can.

 

Spats

We have three of those stackable Sterilite 27 qt. containers. While they're alright for lighter weight objects (we use them for storing Christmas bows, ribbons, and some wrapping paper), I don't think they're sturdy enough for holding very many magazines. They also just sit upon each container without any sort of way to secure them all together. Also the drawers can be a bit difficult at times to open and close properly.

As for my storage methodology I store all of my handgun magazines in labeled plastic bags and keep them in a 21" by 15" by 12" plastic tote. My AR and AK mags are in ammo cans, along with some ammo, "just in case".

 

I have 2 rubber made buckets- 1 for rifle mags, 1 for pistol mags. When I go to the range, I dump them on the floor of my shed, get what I need, and shovel the rest back into their respective bucket. Not very organized, but surprisingly efficient.

 

I keep a couple of them filled and near the firearm. All the others go into gallon ZipLoc freezer bags and those into an assortment of duffle type cloth hand bags that I have accumulated over the years and repurposed.

 

I have a chest of drawers for gun accessories. The mags are stored in shoe boxes by brand. I collect old school semi autos and considering what a lot of my mags are worth these days they should probably be in a safe. Amazing how many once common and inexpensive mags are worth a C note AND are hard to find.

 

I inventoried my mags in a database. They are categorized by pistol, rifle and rimfire.
Each category is further divided into two groups…’new’ and ‘in service’.
With over 200 magazines on hand, I needed a system to avoid buying stuff I already have.
The entire inventory is kept on my phone and accessible with two clicks.

 

Grouped by weapon, then in pockets in the appropriate range bag.
Pistol bag has six pockets (five available as a tool roll is in the 6th). The pockes will easily hols a couple of AR 30 round mags, so, plenty of space for pistol mags. And, any spare that are specific to a range trip goes in the main compartment (those are P220 mags in the photo)
Rifle bag


Rifle bag has fewer dedicated pockets, but has room for spares in the main compartment, and most of the rifle specific cases have mag pockets

 

I keep my mags strategically placed in unmarked cardboard boxes throughout my house. Before a range trip I search around looking through boxes and cursing myself for being disorganized.

It's not a system for everyone but it doesn't work for me.

 

I don't have many spare mags to worry about where to store them. So I need two shelves in my vast 72" x 61" x 27" (HxWxD) safe. And that's enough.

 

Organized? Awfully bold of you to assume my ducks are in the same pond let alone in a row.

 

I use Sterilite stacking bins from Target for handgun, .30 Carbine and rimfire rifle mags, they sit on the bottom of my rolling gun-cleaning cart.



AR/Mini magazines go into Harbor Freight plastic ammo cans. I used to keep them in metal cans, but those were repurposed to hold ammo again.

A bunch of magazines can fit in each one.



Stay safe.