persistent stashes.

[Johnathan (DayZ) 0]

Ok so from what I've seen you can drop items and they will stay where they are at on that particular server. One question I haven't seen answered is, will they still be there after a server restart?

[Virfortis 111]

Tents maybe, but normal loot I don't think so.

[sherlock (DayZ) 31]

I'm vairly certain that objects that were droped to the floor will not stay there indefinitely and will be removed after some time by the game. The only way to stash objects outside of your backpack is in tents or vehicles (repairable cars/choppers). Objects just droped to the floor will not be saved and will certainly be lost after a server restart if they were not removed automatically already.

I hope this answers your question.

[amentes 0]

If you drop something on the ground/floor, don't expect it to be there when you return, basically.

It will stay for a while, not sure how long, but the normal despawn/respawn of loot is about thirty minutes, if I recall?

I'd imagine items you drop would adhere to the same rules.

At least, not too long ago I was lugging around an AKS-74Kobra. Dropped it in a deer stand when I found an M16, as I was low on ammo for the Kobra, but had picked up a few STANAGs earlier.

Naturally, I then found plenty of Kobra ammo in the next two Stands, but when I returned to find the Kobra I dropped, it had despawned (or been taken, though I doubt it).