When I was in high school I read a book about PVC pipe being used to cache supplies as well. The author stored everything from a break-open single shot .22 and several boxes of cartridges to camping supplies, etc., and had several buried all over. There was a caveat, he said, with doing this - anyone with a metal detector and a little bit of curiosity could find your stash in the woods before you dug it up to use it, and he wrote this had happened to him several times. I totally forgot who the author and what the title was though. I was surprised enough that the book was in my high school library. I should have swiped it when I had the chance...

Love the PVC chairs as well - looks like something my college buddies would do in their dorm.

THANKS very much for sharing Chisel!

I'm not sure if this comes in an appropriate size, but I know you can sometimes get flexible/rubber pipes. Maybe something like this would be easier to stash. You fill it, seal/glue the ends shut. If you ever take it from the cache, you just cut it open. Negates worrying about leaks from the ends, and needing a pair of pliers to get it open.

If you are looking for UV resistant PVC use the sch 80 grey electrical PVC. It is easy to find at hardware stores and building supply stores. The white UV rated PVC is used by the patio furniture places, some of them will sell PVC and fittings.

Using the primer greatly enhances the glue working properly. But i have used quite a bit of glue without primer and get away with it most of the time.

Someone else mentioned buying several small cans of cement and primer which is the way to go. As long as the can has not been opened it will stay good for years, i store it out side in the garage and i live in florida so it gets hot. If you want to check the condition of the contents with out opening the cans shake them. The primer is almost water thin so it sloshes(sorry for using such highly technical terms) around in the can easily, the regular glue is a little thicker so it doesn't slosh quite as well but you should still be able to easily hear and feel it slosh in the can. The PVC glues that can be used under water are fairly thick but you should still be able to feel it move around in the can when you shake it. If it doesn't slosh throw it out.

The threads on PVC fittings are molded which means that they do not always fit together well. Teflon tape will help, normaly two to three wraps is enough. Tightening the fittings by hand is not enough, wrenches on both sides of the fittings will be needed. If you want to make sure that it doesn't leak AFTER THE FITTING IS SCREWED TOGETHER place a bead of RTV silicone sealer over the joint where the two fittings meet. If you put RTV on the threads and then screw it together it will not leak, but you will not get the fitting back apart. When you need to remove the fitting peel off the RTV and then unscrew.

I got a custom plastic container that telescopes and is airtight to put a rifle in. It is great, and so long as I keep it out of the sun, it doesn't show signs of aging.

I've used gorilla glue on pvc pipe ends as well. You know, you can actually glue together two pieces of same diameter pipe with gorilla glue, and once it cures up completely, it is like you welded the pipe almost.

Keep in mind also that plastic pipe, especially pvc, will deform under pressure in time, so if you bury it, better to bury it in something that will take the load, otherwise it will go out of round or even collapse.

I am still in the learning stages with our metal detector, but I suspect that as long as you buried your stash a couple of feet deep, most metal detectors would skip right over it without a beep...

"...you just cut it open..."

One could do that with PVC also. Just glue end caps on both ends, when it comes time to open it, just seesaw the pipe near a cap with a shoelace (kindasorta like shining a shoe), it will cut thru the PVC almost like a hot knife thru butter...

Match cases are one of the things I have in mind. Holes in a match case... Kinda defeats the purpose. :P There is a part that sticks out, but if I put a hole in it, I have no way of ever being 100% that it would be water tight. I've got more matches, but this would be the big one in my big bag.

I haven't priced them lately, but I suspect that you can buy Coglans matchsafes as cheap as, if not cheaper, than you can make something similar out of PVC. They are not the best, but will probably work as well as any you can make...

Well, the match case is where I want to start. I'm looking for something that can take more abuse than a basic match case, and if I like it, it might be adapted to other roles.

Hmm, glass jars maybe. You know, there's probably a lot of lost loot buried in old mason jars that old farmers planted and forgot about or lost track of. Baby food jars are airtight, long as the lid seal is still intact and handled right. I am guessing, though that you want something a little more durable than glass.

Polystyrene and closed cell foam can be pretty handy things for small, durable containers. Ever think of cutting a slit into a piece of closed cell foam, inserting a few matches, then sealing the end with glue or some such? I imagine the same could be done with styrofoam if you needed something a little more rigid.

I've also seen some pretty cool watertight containers made from rawhide coated with polyurethane.

Well, these may not be the best for long term storage, but they ain't bad.