Wooden Ammo Boxes

[Backlighting]

Here's one I've had since the mid-80's. It was for mortars and is marked loaded in '69. Most likely used during the Vietnam war.

 

[Jack Flash]

I'm not sure when corrugated boxes first appeared, but prior to that time almost every item of commerce was shipped in wooden crates, boxes, or barrels. I wonder what happened to all of them? Probably most were used as firewood.

When I first arrived in the Detroit area years ago, it seemed everyone had a Henry Ford story, usually about how cheap, uh, frugal, he was. Here's one about re-using wooden boxes.

It seems that back in the early years of the Ford Motor Company, Ford noticed that a supplier sent metal parts in large boxes / crates made of oak. He told them to make the containers out of oak boards of his exactly specified dimensions.

When the boxes arrived, they were emptied then broken down and the boards were taken to the assembly line. These boards were exactly the correct dimensions to be used as floor boards on the Model T, no cutting required. (Yes, way back when, "floor boards" on cars were really wooden boards. Dash boards too! )

 

[DWalt]

Henry Ford also had a charcoal business (Kingsford) to use up all the odd pieces of wood cut from boards used in car construction at the time. I think there was a Kingsford who ran it, who was some relative of Henry. What wooden crates and boxes he couldn't use for floorboards or making Woodies probably ended up in a Kingsford charcoal oven. Charcoal was sold through Ford dealers. I remember seeing bags of charcoal sitting in dealer showrooms back in my youth.

 

[shouldazagged]

The summer I turned seventeen (right after the Battle of Antietam) I worked in the warehouse of a large sporting goods company here. Unloading and stacking cases of ammo and barbell weights. I was a skinny little bugger, but I damn sure was in shape. I remember without much fondness the times we got half a truckload of ten gauge shells.

As I recall, some of the ammunition we got in may still have been in wooden crates--that would have been 1954.

 

[DWalt]

"As I recall, some of the ammunition we got in may still have been in wooden crates--that would have been 1954."

Probably so. I have understood that the main transition from wooden boxes to corrugated shipping containers took place during the 1950s. I have one Peters wooden shotshell crate that I am reasonably sure is from the mid-1950s. By the early 1960s I know for sure that cases of ammunition was shipped and sold in corrugated containers. I bought lots of them.

 

[SweetMK]

Here's one I've had since the mid-80's. It was for mortars and is marked loaded in '69. Most likely used during the Vietnam war.

I have more than a hundred of those setting in the field,,,
They work great on my shelves to hold junk,,,

34 inches long,,, IIRC

I gotta get rid of them some day,,, Hmmmmmmmm

 

[max503]

I was riding my bicycle today along the Mississippi River and saw this washed up on the bank. After checking it out I hid it under some logs, then went home and got my car and lugged it back home. I've seen ammo boxes but never one like this. Anyone know more about it, or what war it came from? It's in good shape. Just needs a coat of Rustoleum. Writing on it says SMALL ARMS AMM BOX MKI MOD O. There's also a neat inscription of an eagle. All the hasps work and it looks like the seal is still in good shape. When I first saw it I was hoping it had a German Luger or a bunch of money in it but no such luck.

 

[mckenney99]

Looks like a WWII Navy 20mm ammo box. I've got one in my garage as a rag holder.

 

[max503]

I told my wife I was going to use it as a coffee table in the living room. She didn't think that was funny.

 

[Frank46]

Navy 20mm ammo box. Mine is almost a half century old. Have about a half dozen crates that hold two 440 spam cans of 7.62x54r in the garage. Some are holding my tin stash and old solder bar remnants. Pretty good find as you don't see them much anymore. Rust-oleum machinery grey comes close to the original color. Frank

 

[Golddollar]

I'm not sure when corrugated boxes first appeared, but prior to that time almost every item of commerce was shipped in wooden crates, boxes, or barrels. I wonder what happened to all of them? Probably most were used as firewood.

I might have a partial answer to that. My mother's maternal grandfather was a cabinetmaker. He came into adulthood in the late 1880s. As best as I can remember, Mom told me that back then finished wood was not that common. So he made a chest of drawers using dynamite boxes for the drawers. He obviously was a master craftsman because that chest of drawers is probably 100+ years old and the drawers slide in and out like greased lightning. I know how well this chest of drawers was constructed because it's in my bedroom holding my socks and T-shirts right now.