How it All Got Started

"Necessity is the Mother of all Inventions"... Plato

AMMO BOXES

I shoot a lot of 7.62 X 51...

To save money, I purchase imported surplus, which seems to be not only dependable, but also reasonably priced.

As I'm sure you're aware, although this ammo usually looks pretty good, because it's older, the bags or boxes in which it's packed come apart with age.

For some time, I’d been trying to find a way to re-box this ammo and couldn't find a decent option. New boxes are available, however, they’re large with styrofoam or plastic inserts. At one Big Name Catalog Seller, 20-round rifle ammo boxes with inserts are $1.25 each plus shipping... too much for me!

NOTE: REPACKBOX offers 30 BOX PISTOL CALIBER KITS, 30 BOX RIFLE CALIBER KITS, 100 BOX PISTOL CALIBER BUNDLES, and 100 BOX RIFLE CALIBER BUNDLES of Ammo Boxes for as low as $.24 each!

To address these issues, I figured the best way to solve it was to make a compact, 20 Round 7.62 X 51 cardboard ammo box where one box fills one mag. Having experience in making other types of boxes, I jumped into the project with great enthusiasm... the rest is history.

FAST LOADING TRAYS

Thank goodness for the $5.00 movie bin at Walmart. As it seems, the best time for me to re-box ammo is while watching a movie. Although filling boxes with ammo is a benign thing for me, my monthly movie budget began to top out.

So I begin to think, there's got to be a faster way to load these boxes. While I won't EVEN share my embarrassing first "non-solution", the correct way to do it finally popped into my head. Thus the FAST LOADING TRAY was invented.

With two hands, all you do is fill the tray, place the open box over the tray, then flip the tray and the ammo slips into the box. So far, my best time with 50 rounds of 9MM is 21 seconds. COMING SOON for Ammo Makers... a gauge tray adapter.

MAG BAGS

I suppose the best way to learn a lesson is through personal experience. Unfortunately however, the cost of some lessons can be expensive.

Take the time I went to the range to shoot an AK. The 30 round blue steel mags were carried in an "all cotton" Chinese mag pouch. During the time I was there, it rained just a little and the cotton mag pouch became damp. Not thinking (the real problem), I had thrown the ammo and pouch in the back of my FJ Cruiser and forgot about them.

When I finally got around to cleaning out the truck, I could see that the blue steel AK mags had rusted through the cotton mag pouch. After a couple hours of scraping and cleaning, you guessed it... MAG BAGS were born.

REMINGTON 700 SHORT ACTION FEEDING FIX

So I picked up a Remington 700 5R, mounted a Leupold Mark 4 scope, and went to the range to sight it in. All went well except to my dismay, almost every time I closed the bolt, it OVER-RODE the base of the cartridge... NOT GOOD!

When I got home, I did an internet search and found that this problem was pretty common with the Remington 700 Short Action in .308. Until now however, no one had successfully fixed it.

In observing how the rounds moved up in the magazine, I could see that the base of the cartridge was ACTUALLY angled down to the rear. This made it possible for the bolt to override the cartridge when closed.

To remedy the problem, I made a magazine spring, which was stronger AND which would put upward pressure on the rear of the follower to keep the cartridge properly lined up. This way, when the bolt was closed, it would engage the base and properly chamber the round.

Bottom line... the problem has been fixed but the cost was high. Making up a couple hundred springs is costly per unit vs making thousands of springs. Thus the price is $24.95 per spring. If you have a $1000.00+ rifle. which doesn't work properly, and this fixes it, the cost really shouldn't matter. Why not give it a try... REMINGTON 700 SHORT ACTION FEEDING FIX.

FOOD STORAGE

Not too long ago, several friends got together for dinner, where we ended up talking about "Being Prepared". One of the major topics discussed revolved around what kind of and how much food to store. The consensus was that freeze-dried or dehydrated food, although expensive, was the best way to go.

The host for the evening, who was somewhat prepared because of his concern over Y2K, took us to his basement so we could see some of his preps. His food consisted of several 6-can cases of "name brand" freeze-dried entrees.

Being nosy, I asked if we could open up a case to see how well the cans had survived some 13+ years. Much to the dismay of the Host, 4 of the 6 cans in the case had severe rust around the top and bottom.

Of the 4 cans, 1 had actually rusted thru to expose the contents to the elements. To see how bad the damage might be, we opened it up and "whew"... what a mess!

HERE'S THE PROBLEM... Corrugated box board is HYGROSCOPIC... in other words, it Absorbs and Holds Moisture!

This is why the tops and bottoms of the cans had rusted yet, the box holding them didn't show any sign of being wet. FWIW... had neither the dinner taken place nor the cans examined, in a future emergency, the Host would have been totally "SOL".

After the discovery, the rest of the evening's conversation was about what could be done to protect one's VERY expensive preps... thus the birth of FOOD STORAGE.