I wish to sell Nitro Express and Large Magazine rifle cartridges in ten packs. There are options for packaging. The cartridges themselves will be in MTM 10 round brown "ammo wallets". The cartridges will be sealed for and aft. The "wallet" will be well padded. There will possibly be a small packet of dessicant in the package.

Now, for the outer packaging system.

I am looking at:

1. A sardine can metal container.

2. A HEAVY foil wrapper.

3. A HEAVY poly plastic wrapper (these come up to 16 mil thick). This would likely be clear to see the full label inside. I could also use green or brown poly (like MRE pouches).

The idea is that the ammo could safely rest inside the "glove box" of the truck/lorrie/land rover/land cruiser/etc. until it was needed. This would HELP prevent or slow down breakdown of powder granules. The ammo will be guaranteed to not spit the bullet out, and the pressures will be safe for the hottest of conditions. There will be an expiry date on the ammo. Partly for safety, mainly so I can sell more . Hell give it to your appy then.

I am not very knowledgeable about packaging systems. I would appreciate any suggestions, specious or useful are equally welcome.

I refuse to accept resposibility for any damage to any of Walter's fingers, and I will charge full price for sewing them back on if I am in camp with him when the blood starts spurting.

(Maybe I should put a packet of QuickClot in each can.)

Thank you for your help.

I want to do this ammunition thing the right way from the get go.

LD

Haven't used Speer ammo in quite a while but 10 or so years ago they packaged 375 in 20 round boxes that contained 4, 5 round individual boxes of 375's. The boxes (wallets?) even had seperators between rounds. They were perfect fo shirt pocket carry. I use the brown plastic wallets to carry the same way for extra ammo not on the belt. I would think a clear plastic wrapper would be more than adequate if provided with a pull strip to open. I would consider buying such a package of ammo but mostly load my own.

Thank you Zimbabwe.

I think those nitrex boxes are perfect for shirt pocket cary in the intermountain west.

LD

Be aware that nearly all plastics are not "air tight". Oxygen permeation through the sidewall of the plastic resin starts very quickly. Unless you put a whopper of a desicant into the container it will soon be useless. If you are looking for extended shelf life, I think you will need some type of foil laminated pouch. Metal containers such as the sardine tin are costly and the equipment to seam the lid to the can is complex and expensive. Even the polycarbonate bottles used for soft drinks have a short shelf life. Leave a 2 liter bottle of Coke in your garage for 6 months and you will find it is flat when it is opened. It would seem to me to provide the longest shelf life and be commercially reasonable a foil outer package is your most practical approach.
You need to determine what the shelf life you need and what do you want the outer packaging to accomplish then contact suppliers of foil wraps and pouches and discuss with them.
I had a background in rigid packaging (mostly glass and plastic bottles) so I know enough about what you need to be dangerous.

Thanks LJS,

That helps a lot.

Too bad we can't put our youth into an airtight package to use on occaision. Short shelf life.

LD

In days of old if I remener they sealed them by galvanized tins with lead soldering

I have a client in South Africa, that seald a lot of his ammo in tinned fruit cans , but then he onwned a cannery, too stop the line and put a couple of tins with ammo in them was no sweat, but that ammo was sealed 25 years ago and we opened a can of 577 end of last year and they were excellenty preserved

Thank you very much for that info Walter.

What got me thinking along these lines was seeing an 80 year old leaded tin of NE ammo in a local gun store.

I will do some more checking around on this topic.

Thank God for the internet.

LD

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:

Too bad we can't put our youth into an airtight package to use on occaision. Short shelf life.

LD

Ain't that the truth!

quote:

Originally posted by Kwan:
In days of old if I remener they sealed them by galvanized tins with lead soldering

I have a client in South Africa, that seald a lot of his ammo in tinned fruit cans , but then he onwned a cannery, too stop the line and put a couple of tins with ammo in them was no sweat, but that ammo was sealed 25 years ago and we opened a can of 577 end of last year and they were excellenty preserved

"577 NE loaded Ammunition by Charlie Tuna"