If you've ever seen pictures of an arms cache full of Soviet/Soviet inspired ammo and wonder what the fuck the green cans are, you're in lucky. I misplaced my last 140rounds somewhere in my ammo storage, and need to open a new one. Annoyingly I only need 20 rounds. Anyway.

For 60+ years Russia has been manufacturing their small arms ammo in air sealed cans, two to a crate that need to be opened with a special can opener (and can't be resealed). Pistol, rifle, machine gun, even DShK ammo is stored in these matching dimension cans that stack neatly.

440rds of 7.62x54, 640-700rds of 7.62x39, 1080rds of 5.45 per can etc etc. This packing design was copied by most of the Warsaw Pact and sometimes beyond. The design meant ammo can be cheaply packed and left for 50-60 years and still work just fine, with no air to ruin them. This

means when you open one up, you're getting a rush of decades old Soviet (old Bulgy, Pole, Romanian whatever) air as you break the sale. This one smelled like perestroika. Western Ammo is packed in resealable cans in a slightly more accessible manner, with airtight gaskets.

It's a vastly superior ammo storage system, far quicker to access, more convenient for reuse, easier to move (with a handle). But they're a lot more expensive to make, have moving parts, require different materials. The Soviet spam can is, in essence, food canning technology.

So anyway, let's open one. Like a can of food, a literal can opener (1 provided with every two cans, so every crate) is used to open them. I've bought a few crates over the years....

Working around the edge, this process takes 1-2 minutes to open the entire thing, accounting for some smashed knuckles. But you don't need to open the whole thing, just one side.

But I want to open the whole thing. I'm dumping them out and restoring them in a U.S. 7.62x51 NATO can. And I like to reuse the old cans to hold coffee, tea, medicine whatever. You know you didn't think I threw them away. The lid will become a front license plate cover.

Inside are 22 paper wracked bags of 20 rounds each. Each bag is four rows of five rounds, separated by paper inserts. I'm just dumping them all. Usually I leave them in the bags for ease of counting/restorage. You'll note they store far less densely once emptied.

Here's all the trash associated with one can (minus the wooden ammo holder). In the heat of battle one hopes to never have to reload magazines from an ammo can. Having done it myself, it's fucking terrifying and I don't know that I could have had the fine motor skills to open a

Soviet style spam can. Our Western style of ammo cans is vastly superior on terms of practical useage, restorage/ongoing use, and portability. But it's nowhere near as cheap as the Russian design. Anyway, that's opening a 7.62x54r spam can, the intended way.