I had asked about storage ideas on another thread. Folks responded with some good ides, but not really what I was looking for, at least not right now. I recently made up some ground in the AR magazines department. Nice to have it done, but what the heck do I do with all of them? Now, I don't have hundreds, but I only have so much room in the safe, which is where a lot of my ammo and magazines went post-panic. So, here's what I came up with.
You'll need:
- sliding door closet. There's a lot of wasted space on the other side of that door!
- wire rack. Sorry. No idea what it's called, but I'm sure Walmart or someone has them. I bought, found mine in the trash, attached to a frame, as you see in the first picture. There are two racks on that frame. That guy had a nice idea. He attached two racks to the frame, then put wheels on the bottom and a gliding rack on the top (like you'd find in a nicer office furniture set). So, he could slide this frame and rack out, get what he wanted, then slide it back. Nice idea, but I have no room for that. So I just took the racks off it.
- to be less than 300 pounds. Sorry, but this won't work for you bubba, so you'll need a vertically challenged friend to help you. I barely fit in the closet! Of course, I didn't empty the packed closet either, so that might help.
- bread ties. Cheap, fast solution to keep the end mags from sliding off the rack. I don't get much time for home projects. Kids are busy, mom takes a nap, and I grab a tool box and put an idea into motion. No time for the right tools, etc., literally just get r' done. You could even just cut some cardboard and put it on the bottom of the shelf. I'll come up with something better later...or not.
The racks should come with two clips that simply screw into a door (i used a tiny drill bit for a pilot hole)). It took 5 minutes - 25 minutes, because I couldn't remember where the heck I left my drill on the last project! Sure, I have almost as many drills as ammo cans, but I wasn't giving up the search for this drill. Besides, when I grab for other cordless drills, there almost always dead. The B&D drills always seem to have charge in them. I had a B&D hedge trimmer that would hold a charge until the next season, every year.
Anyway, my rack shows mostly 20 rounders. I have some 30s on the top shelf, but the 30s fit perfectly on any shelf - like it was made by a Republican!
Each rack has 4 shelves, each shelf holds about 18 mags easily. That said, the PMAGs in wrappers do take up more room, so a couple more if you unwrap them. Plus, there is space in front of the mags to put a few mags sideways, so at least 20 per shelf. 4 shelves, that's 80 mags. And, if you aren't tripping over ammo boxes on the floor of your closet, you can get a second rack on the same door easily, so 160 magazines stored in dead space that wasn't being used for anything. I need to clear out some crap before I can add my second rack on the bottom. Best part, when you open the closet, no on even sees the darn mags. I love hiding stuff in plain site!
Tip 1: I have some 30s on the top shelf, so make sure you give yourself clearance with any ceiling or door frame, for whatever you put on the top.
Tip 2 : all of my mags are empty. Still, I placed the two mounting clips up against the top rail, so the rack won't slide down. If I were placing loaded mags, I'd probably add a couple more mounting clips just for hahas. Probably be ok without the extra clips, but my luck they'd fall at 2AM, like suction thingy in the shower did. Geez, I rose so far off the bed, I damn near hit the ceiling fan when that happened! EDIT: checking the function of the door, I'm thinking full mags might be too heavy. With only 40 mags empty mags, I can feel the door a bit sluggish. I would think full mags might be too much for the cheesy sliding rails. I'll keep empty mags on the racks.
Tip 3: Don't read any of the above and just look at the pictures. Pretty much self explanatory.
The pics are rough, because I had to crouch inside the closet to snap them, but you get the idea.
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