How much brass to save

conan32120 said:

I Am A Range Scrounger! There I said it. Now it seems that I have many, many coffee cans of the various calibers I shoot full of empty brass. More brass than I'll ever load in the years I have left. Can't seem to let it go tho, even the cans of brass for calibers I don't have, (somehow i even have 13 .50BMG shells). Am I alone in this or are there others like me.

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Um… do a search on the forum for all the many times I’ve been injured by falling buckets of brass, picking up overfilled boxes of brass, spilled old baggies of brass…
In other words, you’re not alone.

I have about ten cat litter 5 gallon buckets and if I had access to a range they would probably all be full.

Its a wierd thing...hoarding brass. Like that box of wires....

I have so much 9mm Im only loading them once and leaving them behind lately.

conan32120 said:

More brass than I'll ever load in the years I have left.

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Remember - the reloader that dies with the most brass wins.

I don't pick up/take range brass unless it is in calibers I load. My club range has a group of guys who take ALL of it to the scrap yard, really upsets me as they sometimes are scraping good/$$ stuff which others could really use now.

I likely have enough revolver brass in most calibers I load to last me a lifetime.

conan32120 said:

Now it seems that I have many, many coffee cans....

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Coffee Cans!?!?!?!?!?!? That's so cute!!!!!

You'll need larger containers and more of them soon enough.
I think saving brass is part of the sickness.

Shudder to think about what all I have stashed away.

conan32120 said:

I Am A Range Scrounger! There I said it. Now it seems that I have many, many coffee cans of the various calibers I shoot full of empty brass. More brass than I'll ever load in the years I have left. Can't seem to let it go tho, even the cans of brass for calibers I don't have, (somehow i even have 13 .50BMG shells). Am I alone in this or are there others like me.

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You are absolutely not alone.... it's bad when you spend the effort to sort out every caliber by headstamp. I do that with most.

I have unlimited access to our club range & I keep the range clean of valuable brass but the stuff like 9mm or odd calibers I let lay. Because the odd calibers I will never get enough to make even one mag full & the 9mm I already have about 800 lbs, so I don't need any more.
If I find range members that need brass I do see that they get what they need, so I'm not trying to hord it all.

Your not alone. I have 3 & 5 gal buckets of brass all cleaned and ready to load. Plus some in cardboard boxes but those are not cleaned. And some of it is calibers I don't even have.

dredd said:

Coffee Cans!?!?!?!?!?!? That's so cute!!!!!

You'll need larger containers and more of them soon enough.
I think saving brass is part of the sickness.

Shudder to think about what all I have stashed away.

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Isn't five gallon buckets the standard????

The 5 gal buckets started getting to heavy for me to handle with my bad back, the reason I down sized to 3 gal.

The bad news is that I will probably looking at another surgery, have a broken screw in my hardware. Not looking forward to it, it will be #5 on my back.

AJC1 said:

Isn't five gallon buckets the standard????

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Yes, I think so.

dredd said:

Yes, I think so.

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Too heavy and the round footprint doesn’t take full advantage of the space afforded. I switched to boxes - cardboard at first but they can’t be stacked more than four high so I started using heavy gauge vinyl. Unfortunately now I’m finding those dry rot and can’t take the summer Florida heat.

Polycarbon is showing promise but it is pretty pricey. I’ve given away about 200 pounds of brass in the last four years. I’m down to the bare minimum!

Blue68f100 said:

The 5 gal buckets started getting to heavy for me to handle with my bad back, the reason I down sized to 3 gal.

The bad news is that I will probably looking at another surgery, have a broken screw in my hardware. Not looking forward to it, it will be #5 on my back.

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So sorry to hear about your back!

I haven't had to have surgery (yet), but I can definitely relate to a certain extent.
A messed up back is an awful thing to deal with.

I hope they get you fixed up!

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Too heavy and the round footprint doesn’t take full advantage of the space afforded. I switched to boxes - cardboard at first but they can’t be stacked more than four high so I started using heavy gauge vinyl. Unfortunately now I’m finding those dry rot and can’t take the summer Florida heat.

Polycarbon is showing promise but it is pretty pricey. I’ve given away about 200 pounds of brass in the last four years. I’m down to the bare minimum!

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I have had poor results with the vinyl as well in this Texas heat.
They kinda shatter at a certain point.

Brass? Anybody pick up wheel weights when they find them? Asking for a friend….

Brass is gold for us reloaders, more the better.

I don't leave good brass behind.
If I don't load it, I can trade for stuff I do use.

Anchorite said:

Brass? Anybody pick up wheel weights when they find them? Asking for a friend….

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Yep!

I used to collect it from our range buckets but realized I had too much. I sold all of the brass I didn't have any use for. I don't like to have too much of anything.

It seems to me like there are fewer reloaders these days. Might be the price and availability of primers and powder. IDK.

For some pistol cartridges it just isn't cost effective to load most of the time. That may change soon according to what I read in the news however. Some companies are warning us of price hikes and shortages coming next year. I hope they're wrong. It won't be brass shortages.

CoalTrain49 said:

For some pistol cartridges it just isn't cost effective to load most of the time.

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I must agree with this, especially when you factor in the time.

GeoDudeFlorida said:

Um… do a search on the forum for all the many times I’ve been injured by falling buckets of brass, picking up overfilled boxes of brass, spilled old baggies of brass…
In other words, you’re not alone.

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I don’t think any of us are alone I don’t know to many reloader that don’t hoard brass . I have been getting rid of it at our club swap meets and am just about where I want to be. I had so many #10 tomato sauce cans of 9mm it was disgusting. I worked in food service sales for the last 15 years of my work life and my customers would always give me empty #10 cans when I needed them they are perfect for brass as they hold a gallon. Restaurants will give them to you they hate putting them in their dumpsters as they take up a lot of room, I probably shouldn’t be telling you all this it will just make us all worse. LOL

conan32120 said:

Revolver cartridges are always cost effective to reload.

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I agree.