Joe's ctg box label

[J Miller]

Well the threads by Ysabel Kit and Rihmfire made me decide to show the label I made some years back.
I did not make the boxes they are the generic Styrofoam - card board ones sold by Midway, but the labels are my design.

Being a subscriber to the KISS principle I kept the labels simple. Here is a couple pics. You can also see my color coding scheme in action on these labels.
Green = Useable in all smokeless powder guns
Blue = Useable in all smokeless powder guns but exceeds SAAMI
Red = Use in Rugers and high pressure compatible guns only.
Black = Black Powder

IJ with ammo box.JPG

Green Label.JPG

Red label.JPG

Sorry about the crappy pics. I just couldn't make good ones today.

Joe

[Chuck 100 yd]

Looking good Joe. I may have to try that.

[Griff]

Man, you guys make me feel like a slacker... I just put my ammo in those green MTM plastic boxes!

[Hobie]

I've taken to just dumping my ammo in the cans, in bulk!

Yes, I do box the "special" stuff, but it seems that several hundred identical loads will be made up for any given cartridge. These are given the bulk treatment.

[J Miller]

I have ammo in plastic zip lock bags, plastic ammo boxes, and all sorts of other boxes. I used to store the bulk ammo such as my .45 ACP IPSC match loads in 3# coffee cans till the cans became extinct.
But over the last three or four years I've been trying to tidy up my mess.
That's why I spent the money on the Midway boxes and made my own labels.

Joe

[Griff]

Joe,

I was teasin', my MTM boxes are almost all green, except for some Ruger level .45Colt loads for my 1892 rifle; and the red ones for BP ammo. Then there's my 45ACP... just dumped in a GI can, they get sorted when I load mags! Pretty easy to distinguish bullet weights by their shape! Being organized is for later... much, much later!

[J Miller]

Griff,

No problem. If I was shooting as much as I'd like to be I'd have my ammo sorted into three groups: Loaded, empty, and to be loaded.

Joe

[AJMD429]

But over the last three or four years I've been trying to tidy up my mess.

By my calculations, if I'd been working the past three or four years tidying up my mess(es), I'd be approximately 1/700th of the way done...

Joe, what do you PRINT the labels on - some sort of adhesive 'label paper'...?

[RIHMFIRE]

Way to go Joe...like the Kis said...its a fun little project...
I have been messing around with my computer this afternoon
trying to figure out how to import clearer pictures onto my labels
with no success

[J Miller]

AJMD,

We buy 8.5" x 11" label sheets at the office supply store. I can get three labels like these per sheet.

RIHMFIRE,
I have the same problem. The way I've found that I can get a really clear pic for my labels is to save it as a .jpg, then import it through my printing program. For my labels I use Printshop 6. I know it's way out of date, but it works for me.
Here's a fancy label I did some time back:

ammo box label A_web.jpg

The problem is when I print the labels the colors do not come out as vibrant as they do on the screen. They're kind of flat and lifeless.

Joe

[Ysabel Kid]

Very cool Joe! I hadn't thought about using adhesive label paper.

[J Miller]

TIP: Adhesive label paper only sticks good to clean surfaces. So don't touch it and get body oils on it. It don't stick really good then.

Joe

[perry owens]

I have always made my own labels for my CAS shotshells


Guess I should start work on some rifle cartridge labels as well.

Perry Owens

[J Miller]

Perry,

That's pretty cool, matching your label color to your shells.

Joe

[COSteve]

I've taken to just dumping my ammo in the cans, in bulk!

Yes, I do box the "special" stuff, but it seems that several hundred identical loads will be made up for any given cartridge. These are given the bulk treatment.

I'm with Hobie.

[rjohns94]

very nice Joe. I keep my ammo in ammo cans and label the top of the can with grey duct tape and a marker.

[J Miller]

Sometimes I think life would be simpler if I did just that. Load one load and just dump it all in military ammo cans. But I've got a bunch of different loads that need segregated so I really can't.
Maybe someday if I can get all my experiments shot up I'll be able to just load it all with one load and dump them together.

Maybe .........

Joe

[Malamute]

Cool box labels Joe.

I always use different cases for different loads. Then I can tell at a glance what the load is, as in, if it's been in the gun for a year or two (or 5), in a cartridge belt a couple years, or in my day pack for a while, or in some plastic bag under the seat for a couple years. I still turn up loads from 20 years ago or more here and there, I can always tell what load they are by the headstamp and bullet style.


I have some boxes from an outfit, I think Frankfort Arsenal, that are repros of 1870's military cartridge boxes for 45-70 and 45 Colt. I filled them with black powder loads. Fun to put on the shelf. The outsides are covered in shellac.

[J Miller]

Malamute,

You got a source for those boxes? I wouldn't mind having some.

Joe

[COSteve]

Sometimes I think life would be simpler if I did just that. Load one load and just dump it all in military ammo cans. But I've got a bunch of different loads that need segregated so I really can't.
Maybe someday if I can get all my experiments shot up I'll be able to just load it all with one load and dump them together.

Maybe .........

Joe

I've got a bunch of ammo cans with all different types of loads. For small runs, I put them in a heavy duty ziplock quart bag with a label dropped in with them. A few cans have half a dozen bags in them. The cans protect them from the elements as well as from getting knocked around and are handy to carry to the range.

[Malamute]

Joe, I don't recall exactly where I got them, it was 10 years ago or so. I did a search, but didnt find anything, tho I didnt spend much time on it, need to get to work.

It may have been from the OLD Mount Baldy Bullet Co when they were in SD. No idea who made them, or who may have them now. Seems like there would be a market. They had the boxes, cut out but in flat form, carboard dividers, and a label that covered the whole box.

[Pitchy]

Pretty cool Joe, and the others too.

[6pt-sika]

But over the last three or four years I've been trying to tidy up my mess.

By my calculations, if I'd been working the past three or four years tidying up my mess(es), I'd be approximately 1/700th of the way done...

Joe, what do you PRINT the labels on - some sort of adhesive 'label paper'...?

THE easiest way to "tidy" up the mess is sell the stuff you don't use or have more then a passing intrest in !

I sold 100+ guns in the last 2 1/2 years along with a mutitude of stuff to go with them and it cleared up my reloading room as well as making my three safes just about enough to lock up the remainder with only using one 13 gun Gun Cabinet LOL's !

The dies , molds etc got cleared up PDQ when I took my lever action cartridges down to the 44 MAG , 444 and 45-70 !
Think I got rid of 30+ sets of does and about twice that many molds to say nothing of the brass !

[6pt-sika]

As to cartridge boxes labels etc are nice but not overly practical in my way of doing things !

I use MTM 50 round non handled plastic boxes , write the cartridge and bullet on the outside and put the load data on a piece of paper inside . If something changes Hoppe's #9 works wonders to remove the black magic marker from the outside and we can start all over .

[olyinaz]

I use the .50 cal ammo cans and .30 cal also. Only problem with .50 cal cans is that they are freakin' HEAVY when you load 'em to the gunwales. Especially with .45 ACP - compact little bugger is HEAVY.

Oly