Best ammo cans and range boxes: six picks, and the size question nobody answers for you

Ammunition arrives in a cardboard box with a flimsy plastic tray inside it. That box survives roughly two trips to the range before a corner splits, the tray cracks and you are picking loose rounds out of the footwell on the drive home. A plastic ammo can is the fix, and it is one of the cheapest items on any range checklist.

The problem is that three different products get sold as "ammo boxes", they do not do the same job, and the listings rarely make the difference obvious. This page sorts them out and ranks six currently sold models on what their makers actually publish: inside dimensions, seals, latches and padlock tabs. Every number below comes from a maker page linked in Sources. If you are still choosing the bag the can rides in, start with our best range bags roundup and come back for the box, because the bag's inside dimensions decide which can will fit.

Three different products share one name

Search for an ammo box and you will get all three of these on one results page. They are not substitutes for each other:

• Flip-top ammo boxes hold 50 or 100 loose rounds nose-up in a tray with a snap latch. They are pocket-size, caliber-specific and inexpensive. They do not lock and they do not seal. The MTM P50-9M below is this type.
• Ammo cans are the sealed, latched tubs that replace the surplus steel can. They carry bulk ammunition, loaded magazines, a stapler, targets, wipes, whatever fits. The MTM AC11 and AC30C-11 and the Plano Element-Proof box are this type.
• Range boxes are an ammo can with the inside divided up for a range trip: a padded handgun tray, a magazine holder, room for the rest. The MTM Pistol Range Kit is this type, and it is the only one of the six intended to carry the firearm itself.

A first kit usually ends up with two of the three: one sealed can or range box that lives in the car, and a couple of flip-top boxes inside it for the ammunition you are shooting today.

How we picked

Bench & Berm does not test gear, so nothing here is a test result. Picks are researched from published maker information and scored on the bag and box rubric published on how we pick: capacity, organization, lockability, materials and build, and carry options. For sealed boxes specifically, four things carried the weight:

1. Published dimensions, inside as well as outside. Outside dimensions tell you whether the can fits your bag or your trunk. Inside dimensions tell you what fits in the can. MTM publishes both on its cans. Most makers publish neither.
2. A stated seal. An O-ring seal is the difference between a box and a container, and makers who have one say so in those words.
3. Padlock tabs. Not security in any serious sense, but the difference between a lid that can be fastened shut and one that cannot.
4. Something organized inside. A tray, a divider, a magazine holder. An empty tub is fine for bulk ammunition and poor for a range trip.

We did not rank on price. The site shows live prices where it can and a check-price link where it cannot, because a number typed into an article is stale the week after publication. In rough terms, the flip-top boxes are pocket change, the plain cans are inexpensive, and the fitted range boxes cost several times what a plain can does.

Size is the spec that decides it, and most makers hide it

Every other feature on these boxes is roughly the same. Size is what you will regret. Two numbers matter and they are not interchangeable.

Read those as a pattern rather than a table. The AC30C-11 gives up almost half the AC11's height in exchange for a can that is genuinely light and slides into a bag. The inside height of 3.7 in under the handle slot is the catch: a box of 9mm sits in it easily, a loaded double-stack magazine standing upright may not. That is exactly the measurement most listings leave out, and it is the one that decides whether the can is useful to you.

If the can is going inside a bag rather than loose in the trunk, measure the bag first. Our range bag organization guide works through the same problem from the bag's side.

O-ring seals, and what water resistant is not

Four of the six boxes here publish a seal, and the wording differs in ways worth noticing. MTM describes a "tongue and groove O-Ring seal system for a superior water-resistant seal" on the AC30C-11 (MTM), a "water-resistant O-ring seal for dry storage" on the SFRC (MTM), and Plano uses "water-resistant O-ring seal" (Plano). Every one of those says resistant. None says waterproof, and none of these boxes is sold as submersible.

In practice the seal is doing two jobs for a new shooter. It keeps rain and the damp of a garage floor off your ammunition, which matters because moisture is one of the few things that genuinely degrades it. And it keeps the smell and residue of a range bag out of whatever else is in the can. What it does not do is turn the box into a dry bag. If a can has been underwater, SAAMI publishes separate guidance on ammunition that has been submerged in water, and the short version is that you do not simply dry it off and shoot it.

The flip-top P50 publishes no seal at all. That is not a flaw, it is the category: a flip-top box is a tray with a lid, meant to live inside something else.

Padlock tabs are not a gun safe

Four of the six publish padlock tabs: the AC11 and AC30C-11 both have "double padlock tabs", the Pistol Range Kit has a "padlock-tabbed lid", the SFRC is "dual padlock tabbed for security" and the Plano box is listed simply as "Lockable". In every case you supply the padlock.

Be clear about what that buys. A padlocked plastic box keeps a lid shut in a vehicle and keeps casual hands out. It is not a locked hard-sided gun case and it is not a safe. The Pistol Range Kit is the only pick here with a padded handgun tray, and even then, a plastic range box is not what a pistol should be secured in for storage or for a flight. For that you want a real case: our best lockable pistol cases covers how each one actually locks, and how to transport a gun to the range quotes the federal and TSA language rather than paraphrasing it.

Which one for which shooter

• One handgun, building a first kit: the MTM Pistol Range Kit. It is the only pick that organizes a range trip rather than just holding ammunition, and the five-magazine case solves the problem of magazines rattling loose in a bag.
• Buying ammunition in bulk and storing it at home: the MTM AC11. The 707 cubic inches inside is the most storage here, and the stacking ridges mean a second one sits on top of the first.
• You want the can to live inside the range bag: the MTM AC30C-11, at 1.38 lb and 5.1 in tall outside. Check the 3.7 in inside height against what you plan to put in it.
• You want one box for ammunition, tools and whatever else: the Plano Element-Proof, which is the most generic of the six and sold in four sizes.
• You just want today's rounds sorted: a couple of MTM P50 flip-tops inside whichever can you bought.
• Shotgun or clays: the MTM SFRC, with its divided lift-out tray. Pair it with the bags in our best range bags for sporting clays.

What to look for in an ammo can or range box

1. Inside dimensions, not just outside. Outside tells you whether it fits your bag. Inside tells you whether your ammunition, magazines and stapler fit the can. If a maker publishes only one set of numbers, assume they are the outside ones and plan for less room than you expect.
2. A seal, stated in the maker's own words. "O-ring sealed" is a specification. A photograph of a rugged-looking box is not. Resistant is the word these makers use, and resistant is not waterproof.
3. Padlock tabs if the box rides in a vehicle. Two tabs is better than one, and you buy the padlock separately. Treat it as a closure, not as security.
4. A handle you can carry loaded. A full AC11 is a serious weight. MTM says that can "easily handles 30 pounds of gear", which is its own warning about what a filled one feels like at the end of a long carry.
5. Stacking ridges, if more than one can is likely. Most people who buy one buy a second within a year. Cans that nest or stack save a shelf.
6. A tray or divider, if the box is coming to the range. A single open tub turns into a jumble by the second stage of a range trip. A tray is what keeps the magazines and the loose rounds apart.

What SAAMI actually says about storing ammunition

This is the part worth getting right, and it comes from the industry body that writes the standards rather than from a forum. SAAMI's Recommendations for Safe Ammunition Storage and Handling is four pages long and free to read.

That last line is the one that changes how you use these boxes. The Pistol Range Kit holds a handgun and ammunition in the same case, which is right for a trip to the range and wrong for storage at home. At home the gun goes in a secured case and the ammunition goes in the can, in two different places.

SAAMI is also blunt about what damages ammunition: "extended exposure to high temperatures and/or high humidity may damage ammunition", and "exposure to water, solvents, petroleum products, acids, ammonia, and other chemicals can damage ammunition." A sealed can addresses the humidity and the chemicals. Nothing addresses heat except where you choose to keep it.

The hot trunk problem

Almost everyone who buys an ammo can ends up leaving it in the car, because that is where it is convenient. It is worth reading SAAMI's line on that once more: not advisable, for extended periods, in direct sunlight or at elevated temperatures. A summer trunk gets hotter than a parked car's cabin, and it stays hot for hours.

The practical compromise most shooters land on is that ammunition travels in the car and lives in the house. A sealed can makes that easy, because moving it is one trip rather than an armful of split cardboard. If something does stay in the vehicle, make it the empty box.

Packing the box for a range trip

• Ammunition for the day, not the whole supply. Two flip-top boxes of 50 is a normal range session for a new shooter. Leaving the bulk can at home means less to carry and less to lose.
• Magazines loaded before you leave, if your range allows it. They travel better in a magazine holder than loose. A loader makes that painless: see our best magazine loaders.
• Keep eye and ear protection out of the ammo can. They need to come out first and go on before anything else does. Our what to put in a range bag checklist puts them in their own pocket for that reason.
• Note what the Pistol Range Kit includes, and what it does not rate. MTM packs eye and ear protection with it but publishes no Z87 or NRR rating for either, so buy rated protection separately and treat what comes in the box as spares at best.
• Wipe the can down with the rest of your gear. It collects the same residue as everything else at the bench. NIOSH's guidance for indoor firing ranges recommends washing your hands after shooting or handling spent cases; our page on lead exposure at the shooting range covers the habit.

Beginner mistakes with ammo cans

• Buying a surplus steel can without weighing it. A military surplus can is cheap and heavy before you put anything in it. MTM explicitly markets the AC30C-11 as lighter than the 30 caliber surplus can, which tells you what the comparison usually is.
• Assuming the padlock tab makes it secure. It is a plastic box. The tab stops a lid opening, not a determined person.
• Mixing calibers loose in one can. This is how a 380 round ends up in a 9mm magazine. Keep calibers in separate flip-top boxes or in their factory boxes inside the can, labeled.
• Storing the ammunition next to the solvent. SAAMI names solvents and chemicals explicitly. The cleaning shelf is the wrong shelf.
• Buying the biggest can first. A full AC11 is awkward to carry and most of it will be empty for a year. The small can plus a couple of flip-tops covers a new shooter's first season.
• Treating a range box as the gun's home. It is a carrier for the trip. At home the firearm goes somewhere secured, separately, as SAAMI recommends.