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Catastrophic ammo can failure.


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Recently, during the discussion of glass containers, I started thinking about worse case scenarios in regard to container failure. I've seen lesser containers torn, warped, cracked, splintered, melted and crushed by damage that the mighty ammo can survived. At an event I held we filled one up with gravel and dirt and chucked it across a pasture (new paint job and it will be fine). One of my cans was swept away in a flood and then run over by a 4-wheeler to be put back in the field dry as a bone on the inside.

 

What does it take to completely obliterate or at least permanently compromise the structure of an ammo can and render it useless?

 

Please share you stories of Ammo Cans Gone Bad and pictures if you happen to have them.

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Heh. Only seen one catastrophic failure. GZ was torn up and criss-crossed with heavy tread-tracks. A large bulldozer was parked off to the side. After some searching we found a mangled, smashed-flat ammo can buried in the ground.

 

Other than that, the only other catastrophic failures were inflicted by Muggles with firearms. Even the ones burned in wildfires were pretty much intact.

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I remember reading a story about one that got run over my a lawn mower, but I forget the circumstances of that.

 

Worst case I've personally seen: Cacher error. Someone left the top of my cache unsealed. (I visited it a few days later and noticed it. Thinks were a bit damp on the inside, but not soaked. Fortunately hadn't been real rainy the last few days.) Just goes to show you that even the best of containers can be foiled by a careless cacher.

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...Please share you stories of Ammo Cans Gone Bad and pictures if you happen to have them.

I found one that had been run over by a bull dozer during constrution of a bike path. Even thoug the can was toast I was able to open it, sign the log, and the contents were protected well enough to have survied the event.

 

No photo's though.

 

Another one suffered the fate of many rural signs and was shot up by some muggles who found it. "I shot your geo thingie. You should hide them better".

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Only ammo can I had to take out of service was because of a bad seal which meant it was no longer water tight.

 

I had one hidden behind some trees in a ditch and when the M.D. came along to remove vegetation the hiding spot was completely obliterated but the can itself was intact and essentially undamaged. I just moved it to a new location and created a new cache with it.

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Sadly - human error is usually the most common cause of ammo can failure - getting some grass or paper stuck in the lid while closing. The item then acts as a wick to pull moisture inside the can.

 

A bulldozer is the only other one I had issues with - Never saw it again - I figure it is under about 20 feet of earth.

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A bulldozer is the only other one I had issues with - Never saw it again - I figure it is under about 20 feet of earth.

 

I have sometimes wondered about that. It has to happen occasionally resulting in some number of containers being entombed in the earth. What is some future construction worker or archeologist gonna make of an ammo can full of cheap toys colorful metal discs? Is a McToy with a TB tag attached going to be the prized exhibit in some museum two thousand years from now?

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A bulldozer is the only other one I had issues with - Never saw it again - I figure it is under about 20 feet of earth.

 

I have sometimes wondered about that. It has to happen occasionally resulting in some number of containers being entombed in the earth. What is some future construction worker or archeologist gonna make of an ammo can full of cheap toys colorful metal discs? Is a McToy with a TB tag attached going to be the prized exhibit in some museum two thousand years from now?

 

That was kind of my thinking behind two of my Travel Bugs (soon to be three):

 

Artifact #627

Artifact #731

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A tree fell on a remote ammo can hide. It was smashed and warped bad. I found it two years later and it was dry as a bone inside. I couldn't believe it because it didn't even close tight. It's been in the wild 4 1/2 years and no comments about wetness inside.

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I found one once that had the paint blistered and blackened from a grass fire. The contents were OK, though.

 

Here's one that got cooked on one side. The logbook was scorched and some plastic trinkets melted and fused to the can, but it was otherwise OK.

 

bc7a768d-5dd8-4df7-bdec-fe1b51e7691a.jpg

 

What about the seal?

I pulled several cans out of our local mountains after last Oct/Nov's fire storms. All were rendered useless because the seals had disintegrated.

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What about the seal?

I pulled several cans out of our local mountains after last Oct/Nov's fire storms. All were rendered useless because the seals had disintegrated.

 

Oh yeah. The gasket was done for. But the cache sat upright in a pile of rocks, so the lid sheltered the contents in spite of the cooked seal.

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MESA-PUERCO CACHE, an ammo can, was pinned under a boulder by bulldozers clearing fire line for the Corral Canyon Fire in Dec '07. It escaped the fire, but cannot be fully closed due to the boulder. The top is tipped down, so the contents have stayed dry, this being SoCal. On the positive side, disturbing it would require another bulldozer!

 

Edward

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