Well, first of all, let’s throw in a link to a proposed Mountain House group buy if I can get enough warm bodies on board.
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Now that that’s out of the way…
A few posts back I commented that CostCo had ‘ammo cans’ for sale…a .50 and a .30 for $19.99. I speculated that these were Made In China and therefore not worth my time. Some poeple took issue with that. So…back to CostCo today. Let’s just cut right through the foreplay and get to the money shot:
Now, to be absolutely fair, these appear to be a different brand of ammo cans than what was there a couple weeks ago:
However, I’m willing to bet that there are several companies buying these cans in bulk and rebranding them as their own. So, as far as I’m concerned….no, not the ‘real deal’.
Caveat emptor, kids.
Still not at Costco by me. No matter, can’t afford more ammo right now anyway.
Reading the fine print on the label, I have to ask: Does anything NOT cause cancer and reproductive harm in California? It’s a friggin’ can, fer cryin’ out loud!
DO NOT EAT THE CAN.
Only if you intend to store lead filled products in them!!!! Which California bans also!
Cabelas is selling their poly ammo cans for half off right now.
I know what doesn’t cause harm on the left coast. Apparently being a liberal socialist/communist doesn’t cause cancer or reproductive harm in Commiefornia, they’re breeding like crazy out there.
It’s kind of odd, a while back US military was told to crush/destroy ammo cans so they don’t go to the citizens, yet these and the plastic type are being sold to the public.
Plastics/Polymers are notorious for being made from individual constituent chemicals that are not good for you. In this land of sue first, ask questions later covering oneself from liability is the price we pay when it comes to labeling. 🙂
Saw those the day after your original post, at my Costco here in Califrutopia. And saw the Made In China labeling right off. (Thought maybe you hadn’t flipped yours over.)
(And yes, both the paint on the can, the cement used to bond the gasket to the lid, and the gasket itself, trigger the asinine Prop. 65 warnings here. So does pretty much everything made by the hand of man, including diet soda and apples from trees. The law is typical nanny-state BS, which has had the net effect of inoculating people from paying any attention, because of the phenomenon first noted by my namesake in “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. In this case, 40,000 times a day. But it’s probably been a boon to printers and ink-makers. Whose signs and ink, BTW, are known to cause cancer in humans, just for the irony win. But I digress.)
I didn’t measure legit cans, but I note FTR that actual milsurp .30 and .50 cal cans are the same height, so these have had their sizes jarked around to make one fit into the other. But lacking the objective numbers, I cannot say which or by how much.
That said, the cans are, in fact, painted steel with a sealing gasket, and there’s no reason to think they work any worse than the real milsurp deal, except they haven’t been thoughtfully tested by 27 privates with sledge hammers before you purchase them.
If someone wants to by a pair, and subject them to water immersion and salt spray according to .Gov purchase order specs, and report back on the results, good for you.
I suspect there’s little difference between legit and ersatz in this case other than size, but if you’re that worried about it, OR you’re using them to store the linked belts in the actual calibers Uncle buys them for, by all means, just buy the milsurp cans.
For me, its just a preference to avoid Chinese goods.
A mil-surp .30 can WILL fit inside a .50 can. Just take the lid off the .30 can and slide it down the side. I suspect it fits due to the slight hollow of the lid, which makes it taller than the body. I think someone mentioned this in the original post, but I thought I would check it for accuracy.
The MAIN problem with ANYTHING coming from China is their near total lack of ethics, and possibly morals. If someone can figure out a way to produce it cheaper than their competitor, NO MATTER HOW, they will attempt it.
There are a number of ways to make these cans cheaper. Quality of metal, type of paint and/or primer, gasket material, glue, and attention to dimensions.
A big factor is very cheap labor, of course.
Does every one of them seal? Can the lid be swapped to any other can? With a mil-surp?
They are totally untrustworthy in any area of production and manufacturing. Your first batch may be fine, but there is absolutely no guarantee that any succeeding shipments will be the same. EVER.
There are only two ways that control them. One is to have your own people on site to monitor everything. The other is that the Chinese govt will kill their business people that embarrass them internationally. Any business that deals with them are terminally stupid, as you can bet that they will start making copies of your product at some point. Boeing is in the process of doing this by making airplane parts there. Idiots.
I had to get the cans, I needed a good place to carry the wife’s tire chains. She had them laying all over the back seat. Yes they are made in China but the big can will work fine for this application. I have not found a use for the smaller one yet.