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Any interest in "once fired" brass?

rangeryo

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 7, 2013
432
2
40
Central Virginia
I've got a local range that I typically scour for salvageable brass. I'm just putting out a few feelers to see if anyone would be interested in buying some sorted/prepped brass that is out of my personal caliber needs. All brass gets sorted, deprimed and a good stainless steel media tumble. Anything less than perfect, with the exception of an out of round case mouth goes into the recycling bin.

Some of the most common brass that I find and don't need is 7.62x39 and .40 caliber, but I do run across some 300WM and .223 occasionally. I clean, and reload anything 9mm, 308, 30-06 or 38/357 for my own personal "plinking" stockpile but anything else would be fair game. I usually pick up anything brass, and worry about what it is back at home, so I figured I'd post to see if anyone wants it, instead of taking it to the meltdown guys..

I've also got a local indoor range that will sell me mixed brass by the 55 gallon drum.. If there is enough interest, I'd be glad to clean it all up and distribute as needed.
 
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I pick up a lot of range brass but I consider it mostly trash, as I have no idea what kind of life it's had, unless I see it come out of the cardboard. A mixed lot from several different shooters is likely to be a mix of once-fired and last-fired brass. That being said, I might take you up on some pistol brass, whihc is something NOBODY at my range ever seems to throw away.

P.S. you might check with your range and make sure it's cool with them. A lot of ranges make money by doing exactly what you're proposing.
 
if there's .243 i'd be interested.

i'll check with a buddy of mine, he may go for .22-250

hey if you can get a 55 gal drum for a song, and be willing to clean it up a bit (or keep it as it is), you'll have a nice thing going for yourself if you can sell & ship cheap enough, but still have enough left to cover your time and expenses.

this thread has a whole lot of potential, but when you start putting prices on stuff, yould best be served putting it in the for sale section, you don't want to get it deleted or face the ban hammer. it's happened in similar threads, with good reasons.
 
I pick up a lot of range brass but I consider it mostly trash, as I have no idea what kind of life it's had, unless I see it come out of the cardboard. A mixed lot from several different shooters is likely to be a mix of once-fired and last-fired brass. That being said, I might take you up on some pistol brass, whihc is something NOBODY at my range ever seems to throw away.

P.S. you might check with your range and make sure it's cool with them. A lot of ranges make money by doing exactly what you're proposing.

The way I see it, if people reload, they are probably going to be picking up their own brass. Generally what is found laying on the ground is truly once fired. As a reloader, I'm not letting a single piece leave the chamber without going back in my "brass bucket".
 
if there's .243 i'd be interested.

i'll check with a buddy of mine, he may go for .22-250

hey if you can get a 55 gal drum for a song, and be willing to clean it up a bit (or keep it as it is), you'll have a nice thing going for yourself if you can sell & ship cheap enough, but still have enough left to cover your time and expenses.

this thread has a whole lot of potential, but when you start putting prices on stuff, yould best be served putting it in the for sale section, you don't want to get it deleted or face the ban hammer. it's happened in similar threads, with good reasons.

Yeah, I'm not necessarily selling anything here, just trying to gauge interest. I'm clearly not running a business out of my Rebel 17 tumbler, but I know how hard is is to find a lot of brass these days. Figured it would be good to be able to source some for others, as opposed to collecting scrap metal weight for it.
 
I'll take all the .45 you can get (at a reasonable rate).

Believe it or not, my last trip to the outdoor range yielded about 200-9mm, 140- 40 cal, 40-.380, a handful of 300WM and a grand total of 7-45's. The range is technically closed until May 1st I believe, so about mid may is when I really start turning up some quantity. It looked to be picked over pretty heavily, and I found most of my brass, far far away from the firing line. If I do end up buying into the 55 gallon drums, there will be LOTS of 22 (scrap metal), 9mm, 40, 45 and a few misc revolver cases.
 
Wouldn't it be different is you were close to the equator vs the north pole as the earth is spinning a lot faster at the equator than it is in the poles?

Even if I don't reload it I still pick it up, I get .95 a pound for it, last batch I took to the scrap yard got me $137

I wont sell it unless I know it is once fired because a lot of reloaders will abandon brass once they know after that firing it is toast and last thing I want to do is sell someone brass and they have a case head separation...
 
Even if I don't reload it I still pick it up, I get .95 a pound for it, last batch I took to the scrap yard got me $137

I wont sell it unless I know it is once fired because a lot of reloaders will abandon brass once they know after that firing it is toast and last thing I want to do is sell someone brass and they have a case head separation...

Possibly, but my local range is filled with occasional shooters. The majority of them bring store bought ammo. You can ALWAYS tell when people are shooting off of the shelf and not the bench. I can tell you this, very rarely do I see someone shooting there that picks up their brass, and doesn't go straight to the trash bin with it. Place is littered with Steel cases as well, if that tells you anything.
 
The way I see it, if people reload, they are probably going to be picking up their own brass. Generally what is found laying on the ground is truly once fired. As a reloader, I'm not letting a single piece leave the chamber without going back in my "brass bucket".


I would say that I agree for the most part but When my brass has reached it's end of life, I don't pick it up (I do but I put it in the range's brass bucket). So you could easily be picking up brass that has 10-14 fires on it.
 
I would want my 1f brass raw and untouched so i can size / bump the brass the way i like it done


I've got a local range that I typically scour for salvageable brass. I'm just putting out a few feelers to see if anyone would be interested in buying some sorted/prepped brass that is out of my personal caliber needs. All brass gets sorted, deprimed and a good stainless steel media tumble. Anything less than perfect, with the exception of an out of round case mouth goes into the recycling bin.

Some of the most common brass that I find and don't need is 7.62x39 and .40 caliber, but I do run across some 300WM and .223 occasionally. I clean, and reload anything 9mm, 308, 30-06 or 38/357 for my own personal "plinking" stockpile but anything else would be fair game. I usually pick up anything brass, and worry about what it is back at home, so I figured I'd post to see if anyone wants it, instead of taking it to the meltdown guys..

I've also got a local indoor range that will sell me mixed brass by the 55 gallon drum.. If there is enough interest, I'd be glad to clean it all up and distribute as needed.
 
I would want my 1f brass raw and untouched so i can size / bump the brass the way i like it done

I wouldnt be sizing/bumping anything. If I proceed with this, it would all be ran through a universal deprimer, and stainless tumbled to a new brass finish. Any sizing, trimming, primer pocket or flash hole work would be done by whoever receives it. I've got a small quantity (approx 500pcs)of 308/30-06 brass with headstamps that I do not use. I know all of this is once fired, as I am the one who fired it, and its presently bagged and sorted by headstamp.

In any case, I'm moving this to the "for sale" section, as I do not wish to violate any forum rules.
 
i'd take 'em just as found. it'd be easier on on you, and this way they can pass the initial "sniff test" of proper colored primers for manufacture of the headstamp, followed by how much residue is on the inside, followed by the looking for factory crimp test, followed by the looking for mouth chamfering test, head seperation scrape, and so on.

i know just deprime takes out step one of the sniff test, the rest is apparant if left to look at if just depriming.

again, i'd take .243 just as found.