Should I buy this brass?

[ccjcc81]

Ok mentors, the owner of a local range I shoot at once in a blue moon offered to sell swept up brass for $3 a pound. He says that a company comes by and buys it by the drumfull at that price, and he will pass it on to me. It'll be mixed caliber, and mixed headstamp ofcourse, pistol only. I can't find anyone online who sells it by the pound, so I don't have a reference. Have any of you purchased brass by the pound? Does this sound like a good price?

Unfortunately, I never saved any of my brass. I picked up every piece, and gave it to my uncles, who reload. It was endearing and they appreciated, but now that i'm finally reloading I GOT NUTHIN!

Thanks guys.

 

[Tim the student]

I'd buy it. I don't know how many cases of common calibers are in a pound, but I bet its a bundle.

Unless you reload for some odd stuff, that sounds like a great way to get yourself a ton of brass. You could always sell the stuff you don't reload on here.

 

[LiveLife]

I just weighed my Folgers coffee can full of 40S&W cases - 8.8 lbs for about 800 cases.

So that's about 1.1 lb for 100 cases or $30 for 1000 40S&W cases (You'll get a bit less for 45 ACP and a bit more for 9mm in the mix).


Update: I weighed 100 case samples of 9/38/40/45 - Here are the cost per 1000 at $3/pound:

9mm - 13.8 oz/100 or 8.6 lbs/1000 = $25.80
38 Spl - 16 oz/100 or 10 lbs/1000 = $30
40 S&W - 16.1 oz/100 or 10 lbs/1000 = $30
45 ACP - 20 oz/100 or 12.5 lbs/1000 = $37.50

 

[DIV03]

9mm, 59.46gr/ea, 117.7cases/#, 8.5#/1000

38spl, 68.06gr/ea, 102.8cases/#, 9.7#/1000

40s&w, 70.1gr/ea, 99.9cases/#, 10#/1000

.357mag, 78.3gr/ea, 89.4cases/#, 11.2#/1000

.45acp, 89.58gr/ea, 78.1cases/#, 12.8#/1000

.223, 95.28gr/ea , 73.5cases/#, 13.6#/1000

.44mag, 114.38gr/ea, 61.2cases/#, 16.3#/1000

50bmg, 865.26gr/ea, 8.1cases/#, 123.5#/1000

All weights are uncleaned fired cases with the primer remaining.

Individual case weights were derived using an average of mixed brass weights (except 50bmg)

So, if you picked up 8#?s of 45 brass: 8# X 78.1cases/# = 625 cases+/-

If you use 1gal ziploc freezer bags to store your brass, each (full) bag contains:

9mm, 15.6#, 1836cases
40s&w, 12.2#, 1219cases
45acp, 11.4#, 890cases
223, 11#, 809cases

or if you use the 5gal bucket method

9MM = 8500-9000 pieces
.40 S&W = 7000-7500 pieces
.45 ACP = 3800-4000 pieces

 

[Otto]

Does [$3 a pound] sound like a good price?

I wouldn't pay that much. At our pistol range, the majority is low value 9mm. There is also alot of 22Lr. and other useless cases like aluminum and steel.
Our rifle range is mostly .223 but few people leave it behind now days.
Guess it depends on how desperate you are for brass.

​

 

[MarcusT]

With seeing the price per 1000 broken down by weight I really doubt there is any company buying the brass from them at $3 a # they wouldn't be able to make much if any money off of it.

 

[OldMac]

DIV03: That is some impressive and exact calculations.

 

[ccjcc81]

BDS, DIV, Thank you very, very much!

There is also alot of 22Lr. and other useless cases like aluminum and steel.

Fortunately its all garaunteed to be brass. Someone there weeds out the alum/steel. I don't know about .22.

at $3 a # they wouldn't be able to make much if any money off of it.

I know. I suspect that he's just telling me that. I wouldn't expect him to tell me exactly how much he gets for that brass, just like I wouldn't expect him to tell me how much he pays for one of the guns under his counter. I don't know him that well.

 

[Offfhand]

Otto is correct, what the guy is trying to sell probably isn't worth taking home even if he gave it to you.

 

[Guncollector1982]

Not sorted i dont know if 3 dollars is a good deal or not you may get a lot of 9MM brass and if you dont have one itd be useless or a lot of 40 SW etc. Unless hed let you sort some out of the bucket yourself i prob wouldnt bother.
Some on gunbroker sell it by weight (sorted) i bought some 38 special brass from a guy back east off there that was range brass. I woulda bought some 30 06 brass from the guy back east but he kept calling it 30 08 and decided i wasnt interested if he didnt know the difference between 06 brass and 308 brass.

 

[jonnyc]

Yeah, tell him OK, and you'll spend your time sorting out the brass you want at his price. It should all be the same to him and the recycler. For a little time and money you'll get a good headstart on the calibers you want.

 

[qajaq59]

First things first....Call a local scrap yard and get the price that they are paying for scrap brass. Then negotate from there.

 

[Five of Clubs]

I have bought a huge amount of mixed range brass this year and I can tell you that you will DEFINITELY be paying too much for that brass if you plan to resell any of it. Click my name and search for threads that I have started and you can see I have sold quite a bit of brass on this site.

Earlier this year I bought just gobs of mixed brass because I wanted to have a ton of .40 and .38 brass on hand for reloading (I shoot a lot already but now a gun range opened within sight of my house that offers memberships). Anyway, I didn't pay near that much for mixed brass and after I kept what I wanted I only came out slightly ahead after sorting, tumbling, shipping, etc. That doesn't even mention all the trips to the post office and time spent sending PMs and counting shell cases. I was just willing to do a bunch of work to get the brass free. If I were you, I would counter-offer much lower or pass. BTW, the last time I checked several months ago scrap brass sold for about $1/pound at the recycler.

 

[evan price]

Right now, today, I am getting $1.25 a pound for scrap yellow brass. No scrap recycler is going to pay much more than that. If it is a commercial reloader he's not going to pay much more than that because odds are those sweepings are full of .22 rimfire cases, 9mm and 40 brass. I have never paid more than $2 a pound for bulk range brass, and $2 was for brass that had already been sorted and screen-sized to remove the small stuff.

 

[grubbylabs]

I have been getting .45 brass, at 500 pieces for $30.00.