Show Me Your Ammo Can

[H&R Glock]

Gun show today in Cadillac, MI. The Gunny has more cans than anyone, but I have to show you my new one. This is super clean and was $22.

I have three other cans that have graced my ammo dump for years. One of them I have questions about.
This can:

Might have been re-painted by me many years ago as it has no original markings.(I am so old that my memory fails me.) I hope it is an ammo can antique. It has 6 latches about it's circumference. The ammo can guy at the gun show says it's probably a NAVY can. Do any of you have any info on this hopefully old ammo can?

 

[bannockburn]

WestKentucky

Not necessarily your fault; I thought it was a thread about sound suppressors.

 

[WestKentucky]

I like the new title better!!!

 

[H&R Glock]

I'm really awaiting the answer from the ammo can EXPERT----- Gunny. This thread was meant to arouse your sense of humor as well as showing some pictures of old ammo cans. It has!!!!
Some ammo cans are real history and some day might be treated with more respect than Beenie Babies.
BTW my wife invested all my retirement income in Beenie Babies back in the 90's. Thats why I need my social security check each month!
Get your camera out and show us your oddities. I mean ammo cans this time!!

 

[FL-NC]

The first pic (7.62 ammo can) is the same STYLE ammo can for 40mm link MK19/ MK 47 ammo. Yours, however- is somewhat less common. That can was used for 1500 rounds of 7.62 for a mini gun (which is what the GAU and M134 is), in 2 750 round belts. The ratio as per the can is 9:1- that is 9 M80 ball (standard machine gun rounds) to 1 DIM tracer. A dim tracer is a tracer that doesn't shine as bright as a standard tracer when fired. Why would you want this? Because the gunner on a special ops MH60 blackhawk is wearing night vision goggles, and the cyclic rate of a minigun (6,000 rounds per minute) would create an overwhelming beam of bright light to the gunner and anyone else on night vision goggles in the area, hence the "dim tracers". Also, remember this beam of light only represents 1/10 of the 7.62 projectiles in the air. We actually had a minigun mounted on a GMV (HUMVEE). You know what really sucks? When you request 7.62 link to feed your minigun, but the 1500 round cans aren't available and you get issued the standard ammo for the M240 or M60 MG in 100 round belts. You then get to de-crate and de-can all of that stuff, and the whole team sits around and links it all together so you can load your 3 "magazines" (4,000 rounds per, IIRC) before a mission. But it worth it to hear that thing sing when some savages are foolish enough to shoot at you.

As fo the other can, it does look more like something issued in the navy, but not familiar to me. But I thought you may want to know a little bit about the can I do recognize.

 

[Robert]

Yeah, sorry guys. I opted to change the title and clean up the off topic nature before it got too far out of hand.

 

[H&R Glock]

FL-Nc you bring to light a problem that I never knew existed concerning night vision tech. Dim tracer is absolutely new to me. It sort of reminds me of the jet pilots firing AtoA or AtoG missles blinding them to cockpit instruments.
How many different types of ammo are there of any popular caliber? Your reply indicates it is 308 Win. or equivalent.

 

[entropy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62×51mm_NATO

Just a few in 7.62.

The Navy can might be for Orlikon 'clips'.

 

[bannockburn]

total recoil

I have the usual .30 Cal. and .50 Cal cans but the one I remember the most that was the largest (and the heaviest when loaded with ammo), was a 40mm. ammo can. It was nice that it could hold so much but it got to be way too heavy to try to lift it and too awkward to even push it along the floor. For awhile I kept it half full but eventually I just gave it away to somebody who had helped me move.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I’m not sure if your second can is Navy or not. Most of the Navy cans are gray. What color is the inside of the can.
Here is the one Navy can I have. It’s a Mk 2 Model 0.


The bottom of the can has rounded ends and groves.



I just use it for storing old odd ammo.

 

[Chuck R.]

I really don't have that many, and the ones I do have I store primers in:



I like the VT Fuse cans as they're taller. I don't have anywhere near enough for ammo, that says in a wall locker. I do have a couple of the plastic ones that I use to carry ammo for matches in, but that's about it.

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

Here is a can I received from a loved one recently. There were some random items inside it too.

 

[MosinT53Hunter]

I have a few I have picked up over the years, and use them as I can. First one I use for my loose change, second for the tractor's tools and such, and the last, well, he's empty for the time being. Not sure what to use it for, but I still want to hold onto him for a bit longer.

.

 

[bannockburn]

Chuck R.

I love the whole reloading set-up you've got there! So well organized and orderly; very nicely done sir!

 

[H&R Glock]

My ship had quad 40's (Bofors) on each corner. Yes the ship had corners- escort carrier. I never had to load ammo or off load it, but there were several thousand cans of it that arrived or left by barge. The cans were about 17" square on one end and about 24" tall. I think there was a one handled latch for opening.
Loading ammo or off loading it was an almost "all hands" job and no fun. I was an E5 so I shirked ammo detail and found a good hiding place during the rotten job. Had I got stuck handling it, I would have more accurate information on the cans and their capacity.
WE were allowed to watch gun practice from the middle of the flight deck. Marines manned the forward guns while the sailors manned the aft guns. The concussion felt from 40 feet away was amazing. I felt my spine move when the guns fired! Targets were towed sleeves or floating 55 gallon barrels about 500 yards away. Those 40mm ammo cans were about worthless as general purpose storage boxes because of their deep depth, but I wish I had one now.

 

[Walkalong]

Some .38 Spl. 148 Gr DEWC.

 

[CapnMac]

Navy "cans" were used for many things, sometimes even for complete ammo.
I suspect OP's second can is either for fuses or for charges. It's the wrong sort of size for 20mm loaded magazines (which were stowed in a Ready Service locker near the mount (the magazines were loaded in a Clipping Room in the superstructure near a trunk with access to "small arms" ammo).

Ammunition that had to be "made up"--like the early 3" & 5" caliber ammo, the projectiles were set in ready service racks with a plug in the fuse pocket. The fuses would be in cans in a nearby rack. The Quarters Call "General Quarters, Battle Stations, Air" or "GQ, Battle Stations, Surface" would clue the gunners as to what sorts of fuses to start rigging the ready service rounds with. The cartridge cases were set up a deck below, where powder bags went into the brass cases, which would be rameeed after the projectile was loaded.

Fully assembled rounds would appear for the 3"50cal Mk22, which used two five-round "revolver" loading racks over the breech of each gun. The mounts were radar-directed and used VX radar proximity fuses. Some 5"38Cal mounts were upgraded to fixed ammo, but, it wasn't until the 5"54cal was introduced, with its auto-loader that fixed ammo became standard.

In that nice photo of a "quad forty" above, each one of those 4 round clips is about 10# (±5kg) made up. When the ready service rounds weer struck down from the racks on the mounts, they typically went into ad hoc wooden crates for hauling to the Clipping Room. IIRC, the "standard" quad forty had 144 clips per mount (this varied widely per ship). Now, there were 10 men assigned per mount, 6 of which were dedicated ammo passers.

 

[Charlie98]

Oddest one I have came with 1000rds of Belgian 7.62mm in it. It holds 1200rds, shipped in 50rd boxes, but wherever I got it from had to take 4 boxes out because it put it overweight. Anyway, it's a nice can, with a big latch, and two giant carry handles. It holds a lot of ammos, and doubles as a shooting perch or even a front rest if I need it to.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Here are a few I painted a few years ago.


These two are 60 mm mortar ammo cans from the 80’s


And my just in case can.



I don’t remember where I got this one, but it holds two shelter half’s and everything needed to set them up.

 

[fpgt72]

 

[Deus Machina]

Here and I just remove the letters with lacquer thinner or respray them with a pretty darn close spray paint.
If they're dedicated to one thing, they get that stenciled on in matching yellow.
It saves me money; I get the imperfect ones from gun shows, with paint all scuffed off. As long as the seal's good and they're not rusted, I call it good.

 

[H&R Glock]

FPGT72 you have my ammo can for sure. I rattle canned mine years ago since the grey paint was pretty much inviting rust and the ravages of old age. Hmmm-just like me! I'm surprised to see yours held 30 caliber ammo.
Thanks for the picture!

 

[Chuck R.]

Chuck R.

I love the whole reloading set-up you've got there! So well organized and orderly; very nicely done sir!

Thanks! My wife gives me chit about it constantly. Seems like it's the only thing in the house I come in contact with that stays neat!

 

[kBob]

In Europe in the early 1980's the USian Army decided they would not sell empty ammo cans as surplus or recycle them. I saw at one point a pile about half the size of my current house awaiting crushing and about cried. They would flatten the things then sell them as scrap steel.

My Infantry squad in the 1970's carried two of the big 5.56mm 880 round cans all over the place. One had cleaning gear and spare parts and a spare sewing kit and such in it and the other had been scrubbed out repeatedly and was filled with water. I hated the one filled with water. About 16 pounds of sharp edges that thing was.

I have one of the flat 20mm cans I use for "Guest" ammo. I will on occasion pick up a box or stripper clip or whatever of some round I have no gun for but know to be semi common or that once were. My excuse is that we may have a house guest that needs ammo for something I do not have. I mean who knows some one MIGHT show up at the front door and NEED a stripper clip of 6.5 Carcano, right? I also keep a few more common and realistic things in there like 9Mak and 7.62 P and .40 S&W. OK the box of .30 Luger is something of a streatch, but the 9mm Largo might actually be useful (forgot about it when I sold the Astra 400). few factory rounds of .270 and .243 just stuff.

I have a couple of Brit .30 cal cans for Radway Green 7.62 NATO that are a bit different from USGI, I must see if I can dig them out for pictures.

-kBob

 

[243winxb]

One can has a hole . I am guessing its not original?