Ammo Cans Redux

I’ve had some old ammo cans for a while. They’re a convenient place to store ammunition, they survive most conditions (light rain, sandstorms), and they make it easy to categorize the type and/or caliber of ammunition.

You typically find ammo cans at an army surplus store, and they range in price from six dollars all the way up to twenty-five or thirty.  I took a few that I had, plus two that were found for me by the illustrious Blitzfike, and decided to give them a makeover.

Here’s what they looked like before I started (click on the picture for a full-size photo):

I had to sand them, buff the rust spots out of them, and polish the hinges. I used a medium grain sand paper for the clean up, then a fine grain to remove the minor blemishes and polish the hinges. Once that was completed, I spread them out on the back porch and spray-painted them flat-black on the top with a Krylon paint. I used a glossy Killz paint for the hunter green on the sides.

Here’s the finished product. You can see the lids and the closing handle are all flat black; the top ammo can I stacked to the rear so that you could see the hinges. Once the paint dried, I carefully removed all traces of the paint and used a little WD-40 to make them open and close very smoothly.

I’ve debated about finding a stencil set and doing the caliber and ammo type on the sides, but I may just go with labels. I’ll keep you guys posted and update the pics if changes are made.