Free Rifle Brass quality worth the effort?

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jeeptim

jeeptim

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Mar 27, 2010
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890
Location
California
Been reloading for years and collecting what I think quality brass like...
.223/5.56 lake city and Norma
7mm Rem Mag Norma
300AAC Barns & Nosler
.458 Socom Starline
Pistol brass Starline
303Brit/30-06 HXP
And so on......
Is it worth the effort? I mean for the most part I have access to quality commercial o/f brass in all common calibers.
Some of the effort is in removing crimps and trimming.
And yes I have had cases come apart head case separation cracked mouths loose primer pockets and so on with commercial cases.
But now that I have chosen cases for each caliber like 303 Brit I only use HXP in my sloppy chamber jungle carbine I can get 10 reloads other brands 1 maybe 2.
Only brass bought is the .458 Socom and 7mm Rem Mag.
Guess I'm answering my own questions.
Lot of time digging through buckets of brass. And lots of good trouble free trips to the range.
 
Free brass! You are questioning the value of free brass!!. Free brass is like manna from heaven. And good free brass,such as Norma, Starline, Greek HXP, you question the effort of making that usable by sizing, trimming, and removing the crimp?!

You must be daft!

uw2kLhs.jpg

Maybe you can figure out where I stand on this. I have ammunition cans filled with good free .223 brass, 308 Win, and 30-06, and, believe it or not, HXP 303. All good stuff, some I had to pay for, lots that I collected. My 35 Whelen cases are all made from good, free, 30-06 brass. Had to anneal the case necks, but still, free brass! And you found Norma? Norma cases are rare. Norma is good stuff. So is Laupa.
 
You still have to do brass prep no matter what. So YES to your question.

Learn how to anneal will extend the life from split mouths. Setting up your sizing die for minimal shoulder set back will eliminate the case head separation.
 
I have no problem using range pickups for higher volume basic blasting ammo. 223 mostly. It has to pass my inspection of course. 99% of it does. I have many thousands saved up. All free.

But I put more effort into handloads for my bolt guns. With those I want to know the history of the case. I keep meticulous record of my cases. The ones I find left on the ground can stay there. They are dead to me.
 
You ask if it's worth it
To me yes. to most of the others that replied it looks like it. To you? Only you know.

If you don't know then I suggest you figure out what is important to you, and make a list of pros and cons. If the pros outweigh the cons then its yes if not it's no.

Keep in mind that I said outweigh, not out number. You can have multiple items on one side but if you value say money over time you have to adjust for that. I'd suggest coming up with a weighing factor for each item. Most should be given a value of one, but if something say money is worth twice as much to you then give it a two. it'll then balance out two items on the other side.

Only in this way can you tell if it's worth it.
Oh and if you figure out it's not worth it, many here will take your "free" brass.
 
How you guys doin??
I took some brass to the recylcer 2 wheel barrow full got $411.50 Think they paid 90 cents a lb.
Yeah with the rifle brass I neck size as much as I can and it just feels better loading quality brass.
Now I'm on a 300 black out mission I have a crap ton of reformed and about 1k of actual 300 b/o o/f that's what I plan on using.
I also did a lil cost on 300b/o ammo.
On midway the average price for 125gr is $1.16 I am loading 125gr Sierra Pro Hunter with mis 4227 and CCI LRP
.31 Cents !!!!
That makes me happy like puttin it to the man!!
 
Patocazador said:
I save all brass except Berdan primed. I pick up tarnished old .30-06, .270. etc. to cut, ream and trim for .44 Auto Mag cases.
Everything is usable. Even if you don't load that particular caliber, it can be 're-manufactured' into something else.
Click to expand...
what u go the auto mag in. i have a type 99 i think would to fun in the auto mag.
 
You sold all that brass to the recycler? You know they are going to destroy it? You would have made more money selling it here to reloaded who really need the brass. Wow, the recycler?
 
For stuff like the .223 its often not worth the effort to sort, clean, post, and ship brass. IM happy to collect it, and pile it, but i usually leave it there. I do take all the bigger shells, and the small ones like .25ACPs!
9mms are the same way.
Honestly I have a progressive, and i dont even pick up my own 9mms. I simply make a nice pile for the next guy (ill put them in a box if i remember one).

I used to collect every scrap of brass i could find, I had tons of .223, tons of 9mm....gave most of it away lol.
 
Back when I was shooting .45acp for IPSC my favorite brass was LC .45 and the extra prep was not a big deal. You had to ream or swage the primer pocket once in addition to the normal chamfer and bevel. I Love US Military brass.

As others have said brass, even in calibers you don't use, is like gold and silver for trading material.
 
All of the brass mentioned, I'd keep and process if I had firearms that fired them. Two or three mentioned I do not but I'd use them as trading fodder.

They are all good cases and worth using.

Otherwise, I cannot say more. Tis already been said.
 
when i was 5 or 6 my dad was given a large amount of surplus ammo from a friend who died. most was no good because it was in a shipping container by the cost and the sail air messed up most of the brass. lots of it was on links in groups of 4 or 5 and the tracers were culled out. there were 3006 on grand clips ball and black tip. 30 carbine 8mm mauser 7.5 french and many more. the container was a 40 ft that was over half the way full. the ammo mostly in 55 gallon drums. two high we would on weekends and days off brake down the ammo in 2 or 3 months we would have at least 2 55s full with brass one with bullets and one full of powder. we put the drums in dads old 5 ton dump. the scrap yard was less the a mile away. we were doing this util i was 15. i hate pulling ammo a black dirt farmer would come by for the powder for fertilizer. good chance if u have eaten any of the big onions they were from this farm.
 
troy fairweather said:
when i was 5 or 6 my dad was given a large amount of surplus ammo from a friend who died. most was no good because it was in a shipping container by the cost and the sail air messed up most of the brass. lots of it was on links in groups of 4 or 5 and the tracers were culled out. there were 3006 on grand clips ball and black tip. 30 carbine 8mm mauser 7.5 french and many more. the container was a 40 ft that was over half the way full. the ammo mostly in 55 gallon drums. two high we would on weekends and days off brake down the ammo in 2 or 3 months we would have at least 2 55s full with brass one with bullets and one full of powder. we put the drums in dads old 5 ton dump. the scrap yard was less the a mile away. we were doing this util i was 15. i hate pulling ammo a black dirt farmer would come by for the powder for fertilizer. good chance if u have eaten any of the big onions they were from this farm.
Click to expand...

I would also hate pulling ammo if I had to do it every weekend for 10 years! :eek:
 
I still collect all the brass I find, even the crushed ones. I keep what I want and the rest will go for trading/PIF to new reloaders of if it is damaged/.22 to the recyclers. I seem to remember not too long ago there were some here that could not even get the brass to reload let alone loaded ammo for common calibers. When that time rolls around again, and it surely will, then what we have saved might be all the brass left to reloaders especially if the likes of what are happening in CA today ammo wise spread to the rest of the states. There was a thread recently about plastic cased ammo and one of the reasons was the enemy could not reload it. WE may someday be viewed as the enemy so I determine my reloading strategy by planning ahead as is prudent. YMMV
 
I don't know if its worth it or not but, I pick up everything that I see. The berdan primed stuff and the crushed/bent/damaged stuff gets sold for scrap. As do lots of the lesser known brands. I belong to a brass trading forum and post up the stuff that I don't load for trade. I keep the stuff that I can use. Its nice to be able to shoot during shortages. I've even spotted new reloaders with good useable brass.
 
troy fairweather said:
ya at worst u can scrap it the few ranges around here never give away brass. there are even 2 that wont let u pick up your own brass.
Click to expand...

I would question the legality of a range prohibiting patrons from picking up their own brass. If you sign an agreement prior to shooting in which you agree that you leave your spent casings, then so be it. However, if you are shooting and a range officer tells you that you cannot pick up your brass, I would take issue because that brass belongs to me whether it is part of a complete cartridge or whether it has been fired and laying on the ground. Does it become the range's brass simply because it touches the ground/floor? If so, what happens if I drop my car keys? Does that mean that the range owns my car keys and, by extension, my car?

When I fire at an indoor range, I collect my own brass. I recognize that many ranges are businesses and that they make money by collecting and selling brass. Therefore, I do not collect others' brass or brass that has fallen in front of the firing line. A my sportsmen club's range, I collect all brass because the club is not a business nor does it collect/sell/use brass for club activities.

Of note, I was shooting at an indoor range last week. It was renting guns out and charging over $1 for .308Win FMJ. The nitwit (nitwit because he was firing a .308 indoors at 25 yards and caused my ears to ring for almost 24 hours) next to me was shooting some semi auto .308 fed by the range's ammo. He probably fired 40 rounds and left all the brass. The range probably paid somewhere around $8-10/box of 20. They're charging over double their cost and then getting to collect and sell the spent casing for another 20 or 30 cents each. With that practice, those rental guns pay for themselves in short order.
 
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