Garbage

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Something that I thought I’d mention in case anyone ever has the same situation….

So, a few posts back, you saw that I picked up a new Ruger rifle, yes? Big rifle comes with a big box. With big lettering that says “RUGER” running across it. Now, I am not one of those guys that saves the boxes that guns come in with the idea that twenty years from now I will have saved the box, it will be in immaculate condition, and it’ll add 20% to the resale of the gun. Why? Because when you get into as many guns as I have, if I saved all the boxes I would literally need a shipping container to store them all. Plus, Im not much for reselling a gun once I take it into my collection.

So..what to do with thebox. Well, it sure as heck isn’t going out in the alleyway to await the garbage collection. Why? Because doing so announces to the world that there’s a guy in that house right there who has a nice shiny new expensive rifle. Who wants that kinda info sitting out there for the homeless dumpster diving wretches to discover? Next thing I know some tweaker is staking out my house waiting for me to leave on a shopping trip or something so he can kick in the door and hope to snatch whatever rifle that cardboard box housed.

So. No. The box goes elsewhere. Where? Well, logically you might just kick the can down the road and leave it in your neighbors garbage a block away. Two problems with that – first, it just transfers the same risk to my neighbors which isn’t really a nice thing to do even though they are complete strangers to me, andsecondly putting your garbage in someone elses garbage collection is a pretty sleazy thing to do, as well as being a theft-of-services kinda thing.

So..where does it go? Easy…just about any gun store will either take the box for themselves for use in shipping, or if you ask nice they’ll let you toss it in their dumpster once you explain why you don’t want it at your own garbage collection point.

Paranoid? No, I don’t think so. I do the same for any high-end item…computer, television, etc. Why let the dumpster divers know that there’s cool goodies at this address just waiting for them?

Alternatively, I could chop up the box into small pieces and mix it in with my usual garbage but thats too much like work. The point here, though, is that this is just another angle of PerSec that might not seem obvious to most people. but..there it is.

 

22 thoughts on “Garbage”

  1. I remove shipping identifiers, cut it up and put it into public recycling containers. Locally they are near schools and get a diversity of contributers.

  2. GMTA.
    My actions are similar:
    1) Dropped off at a friendly gun store
    2) Chop up the body, and scatter the pieces.
    If I had a fireplace, Option Three would be simply make the cardboard go away in a glorious carbon footprint of flame, thus getting the heat off me by producing some, and simultaneously pissing off Al Gore & Co.

    And a point worth covering. Kudos.

    • Burning wood is carbon neutral, so don’t worry about being thrown into Green New Deal re-education camp.

  4. I pull any labels off that might identify me or my location, then throw it in the dumpster at work. I do the same with any boxes that ammo was shipped to me in…especially if it says “XYZ Ammo” on the side or has the ORM-D sticker on it.

    • It turns out that COSMETICS, purchased in quantity (ask my wife…) come in a “ORM-D” captioned cartons, as well.

      the first time I saw that, I was, well, startled.

  5. It sits under the pile of limbs that get burned in the burn pit. Same thing happens when the junk silver shows up in the post.

    This December, go out on the next garbage collection day after Christmas. You’ll see all the shiney new toys you neighbors just got.

  6. I sell mine on ebay. Its ridiculous what those people will pay for an empty box.
    Other hi $ stuff boxes get burned.

  8. I put them in recycling too – but I just flatten them a bit and leave that nice “RUGER” label showing. That lets tweakers worry about who will ventilate them should they break into the wrong house.

  9. I’m fortunate to live in a location where I can burn yard waste, so large pieces of cardboard go right in that pile–particularly handy for dealing with the toy packaging and wrapping paper after Christmas.

    We also have rolling garbage and recycling bins with lids, which discourages snooping. I put the bins out in the morning, within an hour of their collection. I also avoid having any “sensitive” material on top of the pile within the bin.

    Once the garbage or recycling truck picks up the bin and dumps it into the truck (they use the mechanical arm trucks in my area), I feel confident that it’s sufficiently intermingled with other people’s refuse at that point, and no longer an OPSEC threat to me.

  10. I don’t worry about for two reasons: 1. Nobody can see my house from less than half a mile away, and more importantly, 2. I can’t get trash pickup here, so everything that can be is burned and what is left goes into public recycling dumpsters next to the local grocery store.

  11. I wouldn’t call your actions paranoid Commander. The word that comes to mind is prudent. Even if the risk to you is small, there is still a risk. As for me, one of the nice things about living in the country is having an outdoor fire pit. That’s where incriminating empty boxes go.

  13. I have a 30 gallon plastic drum in the back of the garage. Amazon boxes, ammo boxes, gun boxes, etc get broken down and once every few months when it fills I take it to work and dump it in the cardboard dumpster the afternoon before they empty it.

    Also gives me a bit of a stash of flat cardboard chunks available if I need one to crawl under a car for something “fun” in the driveway.

  14. I work in the garbage industry. NOTHING really ever goes away. It just moves around til it gets buried. (And buried can get dug up too.) Best bet is burning. Also, the dude who sold ammo to the Vegas mass murderer was busted because his name was on the shipping label of the box he gave the guy to carry the same ammo in. And if you live in some “utopia” where you can’t burn it, soak the box in water a few days to deconstruct it. Then mash it into a pulp.

  16. My FFL unboxes my guns when they come in, discards the boxes, and puts the guns in the rack near the register where he puts transfers. But I’d rather carry a gun box from the car to the house than a rifle in my hands, so I have to ask him for a box each time…

  17. The shipping box for a 64-inch flat-screen tv makes a dandy target for looking at shotgun patterning when said box is opened up… She got the tv, I got the box. Win-win.

  18. On a similar note, don’t have anything valuable visible from outside your house and DEFINITELY not from a public street!
    What not to do: A guy I know has a 60 inch TV in his front room. Said front room has an exterior wall of glass. he is 40 feet from a public road; anyone driving by can tell at a glance what he (or his family) is watching and who is home to watch it. I’m surprised no one has gone after his TV.

  19. What? No Leftists/Communists/MothersAgainstGuns yahoos in your AO? The triggering, accompanied by calls to the cops, front page news article, and evening toad cast at 11 would have been oh-so-fun. The local Bloomberg members could have made a glorious mountain out of your molehill. Always remove any identification markers, but those RUGER letters were worth their weight in gold. Just sayin’……

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