Once fired brass?

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Glock19Fan

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Hello.

Im not a reloader, but I do shoot quite a bit, mostly WWB.

Instead of throwing away the cases, or leaving them at the range, I was thinking about keeping them and selling them for some extra cash.

My question is whether or not they are worth saving, and if so, how much could I get per 1000 once fired 9mm cases?

Thanks!
 
Some commercial reloaders will credit the value of your once fired brass toward the cost of their ammo.

But to sell it out right you can get around $10 to $30 per 1000. Sorted by headstamp makes it a bit more attractive, but a lot depends on who else is selling brass in your area and what they charge.
 
Not a lot of cash, but if its not too much trouble, why not pick it up for what you can get as someone who does reload can always use it. Or an acquaintance who reloads would apprec having it. Put me on your list, I'm now an "acquaintance"........ :) :)
 
You will get the most from someone at your range who doesnt pay shipping. Maybe $15 per 1000
 
Once fired 9mm in my area is almost always available if you want to buy it, dirt cheap and easy to find at the local ranges for pickup.

9mm once fired, unprocessed goes for about $18 per M, with an extra handful or so thrown in to allow for any culls in the bunch. Clean, polished, deprimed runs about 25$. Seperated by headstamp, processed runs about $35.

If anyone would like to do a little trading, I picked up some known once fired brass last weekend. A buddy of mine owns the range, shoot for free, but you have to buy ammo from him (about 1.50 a box higher than the best prices I've seen on the 'net).

I take him a bottle of decent tequila every once in a while and he lets me pick up all I want. His range is pretty small (used for CHL classes only) so I don't usually get a whole lot at once, but it is all known once fired and doesn't sit on the ground more than a couple of hours after the class.

I have for trade:

600 +/- 9mm
80 +/- .357 Sig,
100 or so 9x18Mak (nickel plated),
20 or so in .380.

All in good condition

Looking for 32 H&R, 10mm, 45 ACP, 50 AE or 500 S&W brass.

If you have any at all to swap, drop me a message, and I'll do an actual count. I have no use for the stuff, and don't really want to hassle with taking it to the next show. I can always toss it in the bag and hold it for the future, but it will probably be a zillion years before I reload any of it. I just can't see wasting the brass.

BigSlick
 
Used brass

Glock19fan--Used brass is always worth the picking up--Most recyclers will buy the crummiest assortment, and pay scrap brass prices, if you can't sell/use/give away to a reloader. My practice is to go to the public range with a coat on with Large side pockets, and pick up every case I can. Sometimes non-reloaders will become interested, and save their empties for me and I don't even have to pick 'em up! I save the brass I can't use in ice cream buckets.

Have to do SOMETHING while the bbl cools, or the others are walking down to replace targets and I don't have to. (That's why God made spotting 'scopes, I guess.) So I scrounge brass. Note: Recyclers get very huffy if there is even one steel case in with what they're paying brass prices for. So you check for that.

Ostensibly I'm picking up empties for my own use, but most of what I get ends up as scrap brass--which gets the brass re-used, saves resources, helps the earth, etc, etc, AND puts $$ in my pocket. Can't yet see a down side to that!
 
I just got back from the range an hour or so ago. I came back with about 5 times the brass that I actually shot. How? The Range Master let me use the range broom to pick up my brass. After a minute he said to get all I wanted from the range. Because they had closed and because he was just going to have to sweep it up anyway he didn't mind if I got all I wanted. He said that they sell theirs for so cheap that it wouldn't make much difference anyway. I'll make sure I'm there at closing time more often!
 
Crazy at it may seem I pick up all the brass at our range. I shoot several common pistol calibers and keep the good stuff for myself. The rest I throw in a brass box and once a year take it to a recycle depot. I get about .40 cents CDN for it. Usually get a lb. of powder or so out of it. Better than nothing and the brass goes to good use. Load for a few friends so nothing goes to waste. Postage kills the fun out of selling it unless there is someone I know who really wants the stuff. .45acp brass up here is hard to come buy I have bought off of ebay what I need.
 
One of my firearms instructors got me some brass about a week ago. I asked him if he had a couple hundred .45 acp that could be spared. About a week after asking him he brought a box to me of almost all .45 and it ended up being 1200 usable pieces. He is also the leader of this county's sheriff's department emergency responce team, and a really stand up guy.
 
i'd say keep it too. especially if its not to much bother to pick up. at our outdoor range, brass has a tendency to end up ahead of the fireing line in grass, not as easy to recover. but if its right there id definatly grab it
 
Keep it, maybe one day you will want to get into reloading yourself and you'll have plenty of brass to start with. :)
 
Keep it for later. It's not worth much. We sell it for 10.00 per 1000 and sometimes run it on sale for 7.00. I can sell it for scrape at 30 to 40 cents a pound.
 
I usually give away brass in the calibers I don't use (38special, 357sig etc..) or save it in case I end up getting a gun in that caliber (44 mag)
 
Once fired brass

Could someone define the phrase "once fired brass" for me? I am thinking it means it has been fired at least once and therefor not new. How close am I.
 
I sort my brass as follows:

New
Once-fired
Twice-fired
etc....

I keep track of the number of firings because it tells me approximately how much life it has left. I don't anneal, so that's why I do it the way I do. I wa thinking about doing it, but I don't shoot enough to bother with it.

One more category is 'trash'. Split necks, etc send a case into this category.
 
1ce fired...

Ustbwelder--
I am thinking it means it has been fired at least once and therefor not new. How close am I.
Click to expand...
About 99 44/100%. Commercial rounds, fired, become once-fired brass, which reloaders pick up @ the range and re-use. Also, virgin brass, bought by a reloader, sized, loaded, and fired, is of course once-fired brass.

With pistol brass, I just load, fire, collect, clean, and re-load the stuff, throwing out individual cases that split, and adding any range pick-ups to the mix. I'll buy nice brass, usually Starline, for my target pistols, but don't keep it separate. Similar-wise with my milsurp autoloading rifles. Autoloaders are very hard on brass; the cases never live long enough to die of brass fatigue. The only brand I WILL NOT use for the above is Amerc.

With my "serious" rifles I'm much more fussy--each rifle gets a lot of brass bought for it, (usually Norma or Lapua) and that's all that rifle gets fed. Neck-sizing only of course. And careful trimming. The whole lot is checked for damage when reloaded, and if I get more than 1 or 2 split necks the entire lot is scrapped.

So far I've not considered annealing the "serious rifle" brass, nor have I gone to the trouble of keeping track of the number of times the brass has been reloaded & fired.
 
Yes, too many people reloading .45acp :scrutiny: Brass is getting harder to come by. I find alot of discarded 9mm, and whether it's glocked or not, just throw it in the bucket for scrap brass sale. Anyone just kicking .45acp brass out of the way in their house is more than welcome to send it to me. :D
 
I save all of it, even 9mm.

I was getting two cents a case for bulk 9mm, as found, not cleaned, not processed, not sorted except for obvious garbage and caliber. Worked out to $50 shipped for a flat rate box of 10 kilos/22 pounds which is 2552 9mm cases nominally (extra few to cover anything being amiss in sorting).
Only thing is, anyone buying common brass like .40 S&W or 9mm only wants a large quantity to make shipping worth it. USPS flat rate boxes are your friend here.
You're talking quantities of 2000-3000 rounds per box to make it attractive to a potential buyer.


At the very least the smelters are paying around $1 a pound for scrap brass. I save all the berdan primed stuff and the junk or chocolate or stepped on brass, add it to my spent primers and split cases from reloading, and sell it annually. You can get 70 pounds plus in a 5-gallon bucket.
 
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