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Has anyone thought about collecting brass off the firing range?

Yes. I have taken a few pounds to the recycler. Can't remember what I was paid though.

Do not mix spent casings with your other brass. It's still good brass, but don't mix it.

I have about 10 pounds of spent brass that I have found in my back yard with the metal detector.

Cartidge brass is much higher in zinc than normal brass. I think up to 30% if memory serves.

with the jump in price and shortage in supply im sure most are picking up their brass...

DON'T scrap it! There is a huge market for fired brass. More in it than scrap value.

Deal

Always save brass! You can sort it by caliber and sell it to re-loaders or take it to the scrap yard. Obviously make sure the primer has be fired, which shouldn't be an issue if its laying on the ground at the range but you never know.

Just to add to this a bit, my buddy just bought 15,000 lbs of brass.... No this is not a typo, really 15,000 lbs, hehe.

Deal

When I worked and shot at gun club ranges, the brass not picked up by the one that shot it belonged to the range. End of the day or slow times had the boys working on the range sweeping it up and putting it into storage. This over 25 years ago. If you can find a range that doesn't mind you collecting it, pick away! I would.

So I had a family fun day shooting several calibers. I picked up all my brass for the first time. I collected 38, 9mm, 5.56 and a few 7.62x64r. Should I sell as I accumulate or venture into reloading? Part of me wants to reload because of the price of ammo, but the initial $ outlay has me concerned and wondering if that's the best route. What do you guys do???

Bham wrote:So I had a family fun day shooting several calibers. I picked up all my brass for the first time. I collected 38, 9mm, 5.56 and a few 7.62x64r. Should I sell as I accumulate or venture into reloading? Part of me wants to reload because of the price of ammo, but the initial $ outlay has me concerned and wondering if that's the best route. What do you guys do???

personally i just save all mine and sell to a buddy that reloads - some for me when i need him to

i dont have any place inside i can dedicate to a reloader and setup

plus right now all reloading components are gone gone gone - just like the loaded ammo

Dang!

Glad I got into this thread. I've been a bit lax on the whole guns and stocking up on ammo thing due to recent domestic circumstances. And now it's ALL GONE. Hummmm, have to see what Grandpa back in CA is willing to relenquish to his prodigal son. I hate being behind the curve.

It will all be back. Panic buying at it's worst. And that's OK, as all those guns and ammo is in private hands. Just wait a few weeks, it will start showing up again. Hell, I just seen $1100.00 AR's again at our little local gun store.

silversaddle1 wrote:It will all be back. Panic buying at it's worst. And that's OK, as all those guns and ammo is in private hands. Just wait a few weeks, it will start showing up again. Hell, I just seen $1100.00 AR's again at our little local gun store.

I've been wondering whether the government's huge ammo orders were meant to cause a shortage and inflation of ammo prices. #1, it helps their buddies at the Fed who are desperately afraid of deflation, and #2, it makes ammo less affordable for the average person...which fits into the liberal agenda of limiting the supply to the public.

Even the talk of tax credits for turning in weapons seems to be driving up prices...and the liberal push for an unconsitutional ban did a wonderful job of getting people to spend money (inflation due to increased monetary velocity and/or debt) which would otherwise be used to pay down debt (deflation).

Have we come to the economic point where the government intentionally creates panics to prop up the financial system?

Bham wrote:So I had a family fun day shooting several calibers. I picked up all my brass for the first time. I collected 38, 9mm, 5.56 and a few 7.62x64r. Should I sell as I accumulate or venture into reloading? Part of me wants to reload because of the price of ammo, but the initial $ outlay has me concerned and wondering if that's the best route. What do you guys do???

I reload to save a bit but more for the technical nature and relaxing hobby. Similar to sorting pennies. I probably do not shoot enough to justify the initial outlay in equipment but it is fun.
When Wal-Mart had it in stock I could get Federal 9mm 115g FMJ for $19.97 per hundred in the bulk pack and about $12.97 for 50 in the nice organized tray. So say $20 to $26 per hundred for plinking ammo. I get most of my reloading supplies from http://www.midwayusa.com and I can pick-up from the warehouse so I save shipping. I can reload the same hundred 9mm plinking rounds for about $13.50. That $6 to $7 will pay for the equipment if you shoot large quantities. I also reload 38 Special and 45 ACP. The savings are similar.

With all that is going on politically the cost of ammo and reloading supplies are rising but I suspect that the cost gap for reloading will get bigger as the supplies are not rising quite as fast. Availability is also an issue. You might not be able to find ammo but if you have a hoard of supplies you can make your own.

As I mentioned, I do it for the technical nature (being an engineer it is fun). I also save a little money but I probably have not yet paid for my equipment. I have loaded about 2500 rounds so far.

mutiger

Do I understand that you can load for about $13.50/100? Are those pre hysteria prices or current prices? What would you say is the total outlay for equipment to load several calibers? I can see where this might be fun, and allow me to afford shooting more. I shot about 120 rounds (about my norm) of 5.56 and afterwards I was sitting doing the math, yikes! As difficult as it is to find, and the price per round, I may have to wait a long time before I get to shoot again, otherwise I might not be able to afford replacing them. Edit-I was just informed that my son sank the fishing boat again and now we have nothing ...

Bham wrote:Do I understand that you can load for about $13.50/100? Are those pre hysteria prices or current prices? What would you say is the total outlay for equipment to load several calibers? I can see where this might be fun, and allow me to afford shooting more.

Here is a quick breakdown of the math I come up with for 9mm reloaded round.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1050111171/rainier-leadsafe-bullets-9mm-355-diameter-115-grain-plated-round-nose

These are usually on sale about once a quarter for $82.99/1000 so with tax you are about 9 cents per bullet
I use about 4.1-4.3 grains of this Universal or HS-6. I can usually get for 21.99 a pound which is about 7000 grains or about 1650 loads. So that is about 1.5 cents per round after tax.
http://www.hodgdon.com/shotpist.html

For primers I use CCI 500 small pistol. These used to be about 23.99 per 1000 but last time I got them at Grafs (local drive) http://www.grafs.com/ they were 27.99 per 1000 with tax 3 cents per round.
http://www.cci-ammunition.com/products/primers/primers.aspx?id=32

Add it up and you get about $13.50 per hundred. I buy in 1000 quantities to get a little price break. You can see from the links, bullets in boxes of 100 or 500 are higher and I have MidwayUSA about 4 miles from my house so I pay no shipping. Buying the bullets at regular price will increase the cost about 1.2 cents. I have been very pleased with the Rainier bullets for plinking but do your own diligence.

As far as equipment, I initially bought a Lee press set from Midway for about $105 at the time. You also need a set of dies for each caliber and they were about $29 on sale. All of these prices have escalated in the last three years. See the Midway website for current prices and get on their monthly mailing list for the sale items. Be patient because the item you want will be one sale in less that three months. Sale generally means 12% off. I was a little concerned about the Lee equipment being "Cheap" but I read the reviews and it has performed well for me. Some reviews even indicate that people buy Lee Dies to use on more expensive brand presses due to their good features and low cost. After getting the first press I got several Lee Progressive 1000 presses from ebay with various extra parts and features. I also picked up a couple at local live auctions and packaged together sets for a couple of friends. You can(?, could) get a good Lee press and dies on ebay if you were patient for about $150. Right now I have 3 Lee presses and some Redding stuff as well.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/622290/lee-4-hole-turret-press-with-auto-index-value-kit

I have no connection to Midway USA or Graf & Sons but both are local to me and serve the nation with mail orders. I have met Larry Potterfield a couple of times at NRA events in town and once when I toured their facility and sat in on some taping with Michael Bane of Outdoor Channel. He is very nice and approachable and a great business story. I have heard that the current administration is doing great things for his business.

Anyhow, that is a long ramble for a short question.

Thanks,
mutiger

Wow Mutiger, thank you so much. Last night I actually spent some time in the Midway website reading and then found some YouTube videos that were quite good. I'm going to continue learning and I need to find out where is the best place for supplies and equipment is in the Birmingham, AL area. I have a couple of calls in to some friends on that. Cheers!

Bham

Look at this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0MqEWW3L8c picks up brass from the range! Very cool