Here’s a great Do-It-Yourself (DIY) project from Martin Tardif. Build your own height-adjustable ammo caddy for under ten bucks. This is a great project for F-Open competitors as well as anyone who shoots with a pedestal front rest, either on the ground or from a bench. The ammo caddy attaches, via a flexible arm, to your front rest. The flexy arm allows you to position your ammunition close to your rifle’s feeding port. That makes it easy to grab cartridges and load them into the chamber without shifting your shooting position. Nice job Martin! The total cost of the whole project, according to Martin, was just $8.00!

Martin Explains How to Build the Ammo Caddy
Here are some pics of my DIY P.L.A.B. (Port Level Ammo Block). I cannibalized the goose neck from a Craftsman bendy-style utility light and bought a 3.5″x 1″ Acetal disk on eBay. I then drilled out the disk to accept twenty .284 Winchester rounds and screwed the disk to the bendy arm. The arm, by itself, wasn’t sturdy enough to support my fully loaded ammo block, so I inserted a 1/8″-diameter steel rod cut to length into the arm before I screwed it to the disk. On this Bald Eagle rest, I wasn’t using the windage adjustment cable. That allowed me to secure the bottom end of the arm to the unused 5/16″ x 18 bolt hole for the cable. [Editor’s Note: For other pedestal rest types/brands you may need to drill a hole for the base of the flexy arm.]

Retired engineer Alexander Müller (aka Nando-AS on our Forum) produces handsome oak ammo caddies in his home workshop. Cartridge-specific, the caddy’s holes are sized for specific casehead diameters, so your cartridges go in and out easily. There are also through-holes, allowing loaded cartridges to be placed nose-down if you wish.

To order, visit this Forum Page: http://forum.accurateshooter.com/index.php?topic=3875396

Alexander, a retired engineer tells us: “As many of you have requested, I am again making the Oak Cartridge Caddies, which have worked out very well, and are durable. I am making the Cartridge Caddies out of solid oak, and finishing them with five coats of polyurethane. The proper-diameter counter-bore diameter and through-holes allow the cartridges to be placed bullet up or bullet down. All Caddies have 25 holes.”

Nando offers caddies for the following calibers: .223 Rem, 6 PPC, 6mmBR (and similar), .308 Win, 6.5-284, and .300 WSM (New). The $70 Price includes the Timer and shipping via USPS Priority Mail. (conus). You can pay by check, Money Order, or PayPal. CLICK HERE to ORDER.

About the Timer
I supply Tyler Timers, which I buy from Wal-Mart for around $5. These have served well, and besides the low price, they have a distinct advantage over other, more expensive timers. The Taylor Timers can be set and run up to your preset elapsed time, at the end of which a not-too-loud beeper beeps. However, in matches where beepers are not permitted, the Taylor Timers can be run up from 0:00, and display the time elapsed, without a beeper going off. The two other (more expensive timers) I tested (around $20) did not have this run-up, beeper-less feature.

About the Wood
I did continue to look for a viable source for affordable walnut, but was not successful. The price of a caddie made out of walnut would need to be around $90, and I did not believe that this was an attractive price. The oak went up in price slightly, as did the shipping and packaging, but $70 for the Caddie, shipped, sounds reasonable.

The G-Feed Elevator is held up by a 3/4″-diameter spring steel gooseneck (similar to 50s-style lamp support arm). You can easily adjust the gooseneck to the exact height and angle you want. (But Farley recommends at least 10 degrees of “tilt” to ensure proper feeding.)

Made from machined 6061 aluminum, the G-Feed Caddy ranges in price from $125.00 to $160.00 depending on cartridge size. Currently three sizes are offered: PPC, BR/PPC, and .284 Winchester. The BR/PPC model holds 22 rounds of BR cases or 23 rounds of PPC cases. The larger .284 Win model has a 25-cartridge capacity.

If you’re handy with tools, you can build your own cartridge caddy from a block of delrin or wood, and a flexible mounting arm. But it does take time, and you may end up going through two or three prototypes before you get it “just right”.

Now there’s a “store-bought” solution. Creedmoor Sports offers the new Eller Straight Line Speed Feed Cartridge Holder. The Eller caddy has a large base that will support it on the bench. The flexible black stalk allows you to set the height and angle of the ammo block to your choosing. You can arrange your ammo horizontally, vertically, or something in-between. This unit can benefit any bench competitor, and we’ve even see this type of unit adapted by F-classers for “Belly Benchrest”. The Eller Cartridge Holder costs $94.95 and comes in two sizes: Small (6mm to 6.5×284), and Large (6.5×284 to magnum). Order item #E1002SM from Creedmoor Sports.