The Gun Counter

Yes, you got that right, Costco has ammo cans.

They're selling them as a set, a .50 cal can with a .30 cal can inside, for $20. Not a fantastic price but not terrible either and you don't have to worry about shipping.

As an 'attaboy' to Costco I picked up 2 sets. I kind of needed a few anyway.

Were they new excess production, or beat up?

JustinR wrote:Were they new excess production, or beat up?

Brand new.

My understanding is that these are made in china cans and not up to official specs, so caveat emptor and whatnot.

They are Made In China cans, and not up to specs.
IIRC, .30 cans do NOT fit inside .50 cans.
Therefore, one can or the other, or both, has apparently had its milspec LWH measurements jacked around to make this work.



That said, they are steel, painted OD, and have a sealing gasket, so they'll probably serve "about" as well as actual surplus for everything short of carrying their actual intended quantity of ammunition components on linked belts.

Aesop wrote:They are Made In China cans, and not up to specs.

That has yet to be determined. They appear identical in every way I can easily visually determine to my authentic surplus cans. Except these work properly, I have a couple surplus cans that came a little fucked up and don't seal properly.

IIRC, .30 cans do NOT fit inside .50 cans.

They sure do. Hint: take the lid off the .30 can. Try it, I'll wait. (You didn't ask how they got it to fit before you leaped to conclusions.)

Therefore, one can or the other, or both, has apparently had its milspec LWH measurements jacked around to make this work.

No, the gross dimensions are pretty easy to verify and they're fine. Watch out, coming to conclusions based only on unjustified assumptions isn't really the best way to go.

That said, they are steel, painted OD, and have a sealing gasket, so they'll probably serve "about" as well as actual surplus for everything short of carrying their actual intended quantity of ammunition components on linked belts.

Whatever the 'real' ones will carry, these will carry. Have fun.

The Rural King store in our area had these a while back as a "loss-leader" with a coupon for $8.00. I bought 20 of 'em; the steel gauge is just slightly less than USGI and the gaskets appear to be a poly material rather than the neoprene in a GI can but they are just fine for storing ammo etc. They might not be water-tight @ 30 feet deep or whatever but I don't ever plan on testing them. Beats hell out of $20 apiece at a gunshow for repainted cans with"slight irregularities"

Anybody here remember the atrocious cans the Pakistani/Indian .308 came in? Bottoms were resistance-seam-welded, left and right halves formed apparently by drunken dwarves on an ancient anvil with handmade hammers in the Himalayas.

Greg wrote:

Aesop wrote:They are Made In China cans, and not up to specs.

That has yet to be determined. They appear identical in every way I can easily visually determine to my authentic surplus cans. Except these work properly, I have a couple surplus cans that came a little fucked up and don't seal properly.

IIRC, .30 cans do NOT fit inside .50 cans.

They sure do. Hint: take the lid off the .30 can. Try it, I'll wait. (You didn't ask how they got it to fit before you leaped to conclusions.)

Therefore, one can or the other, or both, has apparently had its milspec LWH measurements jacked around to make this work.

No, the gross dimensions are pretty easy to verify and they're fine. Watch out, coming to conclusions based only on unjustified assumptions isn't really the best way to go.

That said, they are steel, painted OD, and have a sealing gasket, so they'll probably serve "about" as well as actual surplus for everything short of carrying their actual intended quantity of ammunition components on linked belts.

Whatever the 'real' ones will carry, these will carry. Have fun.

Easy, Greg.

I didn't "leap to conclusions". I simply didn't buy them and pull the package apart, nor break out a micrometer to compare USGI ones with a set from CostCo. I have enough of the real ones to last me without getting the Chinese ones, thanks.
Whether they are up to military spec is anyone's guess. I don't have a spare weekend to find the arcane 270 page government specification for GI ammo cans that kept 57 lawyers employed for a month to write. But based on China's sterling reputation for the highest quality in everything they clone, like using leaded paint for children's toys, and any number of "high quality" Chinese tool exemplars from Horror Freight, I have no problems leaping to the conclusion that they're probably not only saving money on them by making them with prison labor. YMMV.

But exactly as I noted, they're probably serviceable for just about all normally intended uses, provided you didn't want them to survive the apocalypse intact while immersed in salt spray and acid rain in 150 degree heat, nor drop-test them from several stories under full load.

If you're happy with yours, that's ducky. But they're "GI style, Made In China", and not "USGI surplus". If that doesn't matter to someone, that's their business. And if the Wang Flung Poo Number Seven Ammo Can Factory used some half-assed gasket that rots out or shrinks up in five years, and all their stuff goes to shit to save a coupla bucks now, that'll be their business too.

One ironclad rule of retail is you generally get exactly what you pay for.
Another is that products with a 70-year pedigree come with a bit more reliability built in than those that were manufactured last Tuesday.
I have milsurp cans now that are older than China's current premier, and they work as well now as the day they were made.
In 2070, anyone still alive can tell me how their Costco Chinese ammo cans are holding up, but I expect they'll need to shout pretty loud for me to hear through six feet of sod and a casket lid.

Aesop wrote:Easy, Greg.

Once upon a time, I thought about making that my sig line.

One thing:

I say:

ammo cans

You 'hear':

Aesop wrote:USGI surplus

And assume they changed the dimensions. Why? Dunno.

And nobody is leaping to any conclusions. Ok.

If Costco has them, they're not surplus. (They don't sell used anything.) Milspec, honestly I think you'd have to be fairly presumptuous to expect it, under the circumstances.

But they are, most definitely, ammo cans.

The made in China thing is less desirable, and I had not noticed that on the packaging. Oh well.