The Gun Counter

I was perusing the internet today and came across this.

http://tinyurl.com/kjn9g6l

My question is:

Is there any reason not to build my own battle packs with a vaccuum seal machine?
I might or might not use stripper clips and would probably double up on the plastic at the hard edges to reduce the likelihood of bag puncture.

This would allow me to use the same load and bullet that I normally use instead of being stuck with milspec ammo.
example: my AR gets a steady diet of 77gr Berger OTM for social work purposes
. battle packs only come in 55gr FMJ or 62gr penetrator FMJ neither are going to follow my normal ballistic curve

No reason not to. Make the packs of such a size that they fit easily into an ammo can and save it all for a rainy day.

As I finished my post 4th of July travel, I drove through an "economically challenged" location. I had a J-frame with 5 rounds and two speed strips, but I lamented that I had zero .45acp for my FNX-45 in the range bag. I was thinking about doing something very similar with common rounds that I carry or use to store in the truck long term. Seal them flat so they can be squeezed into tight spots and forgotten about until needed.

If you do this, put them on strippers and include a mag loader with each pack.

Make sure they'll adequately seal.

There's nothing worse than going to pull out your carefully saved ammo, only to find "sealed" on the box advertising turns out to mean "leaks very slowly but predictably until all seal integrity has utterly failed", which discovery is usually concurrent with "just in case" becoming "right this minute".

Aesop wrote:Make sure they'll adequately seal.

There's nothing worse than going to pull out your carefully saved ammo, only to find "sealed" on the box advertising turns out to mean "leaks very slowly but predictably until all seal integrity has utterly failed", which discovery is usually concurrent with "just in case" becoming "right this minute".

So are you saying I need to be careful that the stripper clip edges don't poke holes or are you saying make sure my sealing machine does a good job or are you saying double down and throw an oxygen absorber in there too?

Precision wrote:

Aesop wrote:Make sure they'll adequately seal.

There's nothing worse than going to pull out your carefully saved ammo, only to find "sealed" on the box advertising turns out to mean "leaks very slowly but predictably until all seal integrity has utterly failed", which discovery is usually concurrent with "just in case" becoming "right this minute".

So are you saying I need to be careful that the stripper clip edges don't poke holes or are you saying make sure my sealing machine does a good job or are you saying double down and throw an oxygen absorber in there too?

Pretty sure that's a yes on the stripper clip edges. Putting the loaded strippers inside little cardboard boxes serves several purposes. Also yes on the machine doing a good job, and I suspect there's also the warning that you also need to use heavy-duty material in the machine, that the pouches are going to need to be pretty thick and strong in order to be properly durable and to retain the airtight (and waterproof) qualities that are the whole point of the exercise.

Not sure what an oxygen absorber is going to get you if your pouches leak/puncture.

I would think you'd want silica gel packets (desiccant) rather than oxygen absorbers. Usually I just keep my ammo in USGI ammo cans, including the stuff I have clipped up. Clips are really handy but they definitely have a downside. My brother and I ran through close to a couple hundred bucks worth of 7.62x39 steel case the other day in the space of an hour or so, using two AKs and clipped ammo. Just finished re-populating all of my clips a few hours ago. You can't have too many.

Why not just get a sturdy, gallon-sized freezer ziplock bag and some silica gel packs? Also, why FMJ for the ammo?

skb12172 wrote:Why not just get a sturdy, gallon-sized freezer ziplock bag and some silica gel packs? Also, why FMJ for the ammo?

Those tend to leak too much for long-term storage.

Edit: Wanted to add, he said the whole purpose for wanting to roll his own battle packs was so he wasn't stuck with FMJ because that's not his choice for social work.