Moving with reloading gear

[WestKentucky]

I’m about to start packing for a move. Not sure where to, but we have outgrown our current home. I have a decent job but I also have a guaranteed gig elsewhere so who knows where I will wind up. With that said, I need to pack up my reloading stuff before listing the current house. Last time I moved I just haphazardly tossed powders into a plastic tote and moved them. Doesn’t seem intelligent looking back. Primers are in their original trays inside of ammo cans with rags shoved in for filler. I’m comfortable with primers, but curious how y’all would go about moving roughly 20 bottles of powder, all 1 pound cans, and about half of them are open. They are all the newer plastic cans so sizes are relatively uniform with the exception of the older AA7 and AA9 cans.

And lead sure does add up quickly. I didn’t realize I had so much. My little chest type toolbox where I store bullets at is probably only about 5 times the listed max weight for the cabinet. I’m separating into plastic ammo cans and trying to keep weight down around 30 pounds per can.

Next up is the random assortment of gun parts, printed materials, and tools. I did find a 1993 S&W line catalog that was neat to look through.

 

[JFrank]

I used totes as well when I moved, why not?

 

[bullseye308]

I’d order a bunch of usps boxes or hit the liquor stores in the area for their empty boxes. Also nice to get are 3 & 5 gallon buckets with lids from the Kroger/Walmart/Publix deli. You can store your powder in there or appropriate sized boxes and primers too.

 

[WestKentucky]

I’d order a bunch of usps boxes or hit the liquor stores in the area for their empty boxes. Also nice to get are 3 & 5 gallon buckets with lids from the Kroger/Walmart/Publix deli. You can store your powder in there or appropriate sized boxes and primers too.

I should mention that I have essentially unlimited supply of 30 gallon flip top totes available for free. I just don’t know that packing powders that way is of utmost intelligence. I do understand though that powder manufacturers ship in cardboard so maybe I will just halfway copy their shipping containers and forget the rest.

 

[Bush Pilot]

I should mention that I have essentially unlimited supply of 30 gallon flip top totes available for free. I just don’t know that packing powders that way is of utmost intelligence. I do understand though that powder manufacturers ship in cardboard so maybe I will just halfway copy their shipping containers and forget the rest.

Make sure the lids are on tight and put them in the totes, you wont have any problems.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Any loose primer sleeves you have, make sure to tape them shut with scotch tape. I put all my stuff in cardboard boxes when I moved. I put all the powder in boxes together and all my primers were still in the factory 5k boxes so I left them that way.
That is the factories accepted way to ship primers so that's how I carried them.
My guns went with me in my truck buried on the floor in the back seat. They were individually wrapped in blankets so they didn't vibrate against each other.
I had to take all them with me, no one else in the family had a CC permit so they couldn't be in the vehicle with them, without me.
The powder I had was the least of my worries, I was really careful that the primers were stored securely.

 

[Alliant Reloading]

WestKentucky,
Good luck on your move. I can appreciate the hassles, as I have moved seven times.
Please be careful to understand the regs on transporting the hazmat components of your reloading gear. I snipped the following from the SAAMI guidance we publish in our reloader's guide.
I don't claim to be an expert in this area, but want to share this. For my last move I pared back on my powder supply and conformed to 11-3.2. I feel the wooden box is a good thing to have for home storage anyway.
Be safe,
Paul

 

[Blue68f100]

I used several ice chest for the powders when I moved last time. That way if I stopped I did not have to worry about the powder being exposed to extreme heat. I took all of my guns with me. I had to find a mover that could handle the gun safe. So will not due to the weight.

 

[Rule3]

I’m about to start packing for a move. Not sure where to, but we have outgrown our current home. I have a decent job but I also have a guaranteed gig elsewhere so who knows where I will wind up. With that said, I need to pack up my reloading stuff before listing the current house. Last time I moved I just haphazardly tossed powders into a plastic tote and moved them. Doesn’t seem intelligent looking back. Primers are in their original trays inside of ammo cans with rags shoved in for filler. I’m comfortable with primers, but curious how y’all would go about moving roughly 20 bottles of powder, all 1 pound cans, and about half of them are open. They are all the newer plastic cans so sizes are relatively uniform with the exception of the older AA7 and AA9 cans.

And lead sure does add up quickly. I didn’t realize I had so much. My little chest type toolbox where I store bullets at is probably only about 5 times the listed max weight for the cabinet. I’m separating into plastic ammo cans and trying to keep weight down around 30 pounds per can.

Next up is the random assortment of gun parts, printed materials, and tools. I did find a 1993 S&W line catalog that was neat to look through.

Your issue is not so much with the powder but with your primers. They should not be in sealed ammo cans!, There is another thread going on this. The primers are better in the original boxes inside heavy cardboard boxes of your plastic totes.

The powder is fine in sealed containers in totes or boxes whatever,

Do not let either of them sit for a long time in a hot vehicle, just because.

All my powder and primers are in plastic totes (Rubbermaid) in the closet (separated)

 

[bigpower491]

Had to remind me of that debacle dint ya...
I won't disclose the amount of smokeless I had to move, but the dolly came in handy. The worst was the projectiles.
A decent sized box(es) that you can carry without breaking your back...
Things haven't been so good on this end with the other half in recent times, so there is a possibility I'll have to do it again in the near future, dunno
At least a fair amount of the stuff is still packed....
Good luck

 

[bullseye308]

I’m not comfortable with powder or primers in plastic totes on the chance of static buildup and possible discharge. Appropriately sized boxes for the powder and primers remove that potential problem.

 

[kidneyboy]

I helped a relative pack his reloading stuff for a 3 state move a couple of years ago. A couple hundred thousand primers, about 100,000 bullets, countless pieces of brass, at least 100 pounds of powder and a very extensive pile of equipment. Most in the original cardboard boxes and the rest in cardboard boxes and plastic totes. Zero issues with the move. Make sure the powder containers are closed. It is more nerve wracking moving an extensive collection of guns than it is to move reloading equipment.
While he used movers for all of his household stuff, all of his guns and gun related equipment were hauled in his own truck and an enclosed trailer he rented.

 

[kcofohio]

I’m about to start packing for a move. Not sure where to, but we have outgrown our current home. I have a decent job but I also have a guaranteed gig elsewhere so who knows where I will wind up. With that said, I need to pack up my reloading stuff before listing the current house. Last time I moved I just haphazardly tossed powders into a plastic tote and moved them. Doesn’t seem intelligent looking back. Primers are in their original trays inside of ammo cans with rags shoved in for filler. I’m comfortable with primers, but curious how y’all would go about moving roughly 20 bottles of powder, all 1 pound cans, and about half of them are open. They are all the newer plastic cans so sizes are relatively uniform with the exception of the older AA7 and AA9 cans.

And lead sure does add up quickly. I didn’t realize I had so much. My little chest type toolbox where I store bullets at is probably only about 5 times the listed max weight for the cabinet. I’m separating into plastic ammo cans and trying to keep weight down around 30 pounds per can.

Next up is the random assortment of gun parts, printed materials, and tools. I did find a 1993 S&W line catalog that was neat to look through.

@WestKentucky, I feel for you! Your post made me think of all that's accumulated at our place. Probably close to a ton of lead and projectiles alone. I hope you have good strong backs for help.

 

[edwardware]

. . . but curious how y’all would go about moving roughly 20 bottles of powder, all 1 pound cans. . .

If that worries you, I assume you're terrified of spray paint, hair spray, and would never own a propane tank, right?

Seriously, that's less than half of a standard UPS order of powder. Stick it in a box, secure it with tape, and move.

 

[rfwobbly]

Note: Moving companies won't move powder or primers.

 

[jmorris]

I’d use plastic totes for powder before I would use steel containers for primers. When I get orders of powder and primers (up to 48 lbs ship with one hazmat fee), they are in cardboard...

 

[WestKentucky]

On a good note, packing up projectiles this morning I found 2 bags of 32 wadcutters I didn’t know I had. They were underneath a couple bags of 38 wadcutters and I thought they were all 38. I haven’t found 32 wadcutters in a long time and I have been looking. 32 wadcutter is probably my next mold.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Totes, 5 gallon buckets with lid, blue painters tape, and 10 rolls of brown paint paper!

 

[Riomouse911]

You could use wadded paper towels or wadded newspaper to help cushion the powder bottles so they don’t get jounced around too much in the totes.

Other than that I would put primers in their original packaging in a separate tote with wadded paper padding and that’s it.

Good luck with your move! I’ve only moved once in the last 28 years, the next one will hopefully be my last.

Stay safe.

 

[George P]

When I moved across country, I moved all of the things the moving company wouldn't take - powder, primers, gas cans, charcoal starter fluid, propane tanks, etc. I was a rolling bomb..............this was only two years after 9-11 so I chad to skirt around Hoover Dam because they weren't going to let me cross with huge amount of primers, flammables, etc. Everything was placed in cardboard boxes and covered with a blue tarp. The propane tanks were placed in metal milk crates so they didn't roll around. Everything came through just fine. I would use your totes and not worry about it.