Painting an Ammo Can

In keeping with hypocorism's article on "The China" and the recent fourm post by 2happy2gether about markings on ammo cans, I thought I'd share two excellent tips that I found helpful on spray painting ammo cans.

The first place was a forum posting on the Calgary Area Cachers web site. The original poster, ScouterHerb, outlines his technique for camo painting containers with spray paint. I have used this method a few times, and have been happy with the results. I haven't used the kit that he describes, but have been able to find similar coloured camo spray paint at Canadian Tire. It is well worth checking out, whether you want to camouflage an ammo can, or other container types.

The second excellent tip I discovered from pilgrimofthemind off the Canada's Capital Cachers forum. It involves how to identify the ammo box as a geocache. As of yet, I haven't purchased the 'official' labels, mainly because I haven't wanted to spend the money they charge for shipping such a small item. So, on my first ever ammo can, I tried using a stencil. It was readable, but barely. I really didn't like the look and so my next few ammo cans had no identification on the outside that it was a geocache.

pilgrimofthemind had the clever idea of using magnetic letters. After painting one side with a solid colour (the ultimate colour that the lettering will have), place the letters on the ammo can. After camouflaging to your heart's content, you will be left with your identification. Below is a collage from start to finish of one of the ammo cans that he did using this technique:

A sample how pilgrimofthemind painted up an ammo box.

I bought my letters from a local Toys 'R Us store. Having no idea how many of each letter there was in each package, I bought 3 packages. Each package only had 1 "C" so I needed to use all 3. Here's a picture of one of my finished ammo cans (from "Leave Your Mark" GC17EY0 , in case you don't recognize it.)

I hope this is helpful, and will inspire you to place some of these bigger, durable containers out in the wild!