Is selling spent shell casings legal?

[Glockedout17]

I've gotten into the habit of collecting a few (about 50 or so) spent casings everytime I go to the range and a friend of mine put the idea in my head that I could sell them for extra cash.I wanted to know if this was true and is it legal? If it is , how do I go about cleaning the brass up and how is it priced? I'm lookiing to gain some info from people that have done this before. Thanks in advance guys. Al

 

[Scimmia]

Take a look at the Reloading Components for sale forum, people sell used brass there every day. Should give you a good idea on the process and on pricing. If you're not a reloader, don't worry about cleaning it up, the buyer will do that.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Selling spend shell cases is perfectly legal. No worry shipping them through the mail or anything.

Now, some ranges consider spent cases to be their property, so you may catch some flak from the range owners. Potentially, they may consider it theft, but I have no idea how any of those range laws might play out if they decided to press charges.

 

[armoredman]

Other thing you can do is pick up 22 brass. It's non reloadable, but a few big baggies of them will make you smile at the recycling depot.

 

[DPris]

Why would it not be legal?

There are two ways to go, selling to reloaders or selling to a metals recycler.

The first group prefers to buy cleaned brass, you can get a vibrator or tumbler from $50-$75 and media from a number of Internet sources like Midway.

The second couldn't care less if it's clean or not.
Decide which way you want to go.

Denis

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I wouldn't worry about cleaning it. Very few reloaders will turn down used brass that is priced right because it is dirty.

 

[Fishslayer]

The first group prefers to buy cleaned brass, you can get a vibrator or tumbler from $50-$75 and media from a number of Internet sources like Midway.

I wouldn't bother. When I was buying used brass I much preferred cheaper & dirty to clean & expensive.

If a reloader really wants clean brass they probably already have a tumbler.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I take odd brass that I don't reload and wornout brass (5+ reloads, split necks, stepped on, etc) to the scrap metal recyclers.

Once or twice a year when I drop by the recyclers, I get more for a one gallon freezer bag of brass than I get from two lawn size garbage bags of uncrushed aluminum cans.

They do not like to get casings with live primers, or live rounds, because they feed the brass into a shredder to seperate the primers and dirt from the brass.

 

[Snowdog]

Oh gosh no. You aren't even allowed to be in possession of spent shell casings. I can provide you with [strike]my[/strike] an address to ship them to for disposal. Yeah, I know... lame. I just wanted to use the strikethrough feature.

I will say that while completely legal to own, ship, reload, recycle, etc... some indoor ranges frown upon this practice unless it's your own brass you're collecting (as they also like to reload/recycle/sell abandoned brass).
A couple times I've been questioned about collecting brass policed from my lane after a session by range employees. These are often the same times I question myself why I bother going to these ranges.

 

[CajunBass]

A couple times I've been questioned about collecting brass policed from my lane after a session by range employees. These are often the same times I question myself why I bother going to these ranges.

I've never had anyone at a range question me about anything that hits the floor.

The stuff in the buckets...different animal.

 

[303tom]

I do it all the time...............

 

[browneu]

What's the going rate for brass at the recycler?

 

[TwoWheelFiend]

What's the going rate for brass at the recycler?

All depends where you go and how much you have. The local recycler around here gave me 1.60$ / lb for anything more than 50 lbs. I brought back 53 lbs and got like 80 somthing bucks.

Just collect brass and once a year bring it in and put that money on a new gun

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

It is just scrap brass. In fact, when I was doing a lot more shooting than I am now, I've sold it to metal salvage yards that way. Because there were still spent primers in it and some of it was nickel plated, it was "contaminated" brass. But it wasn't worth my time (it has value, too) to sort out the nickeled, let alone decap every primer.

 

[DPris]

Pardon me.
The used brass I see for sale is always cleaned & if I bought used stuff I'd prefer it to be already done for me.
Denis

 

[browneu]

All depends where you go and how much you have. The local recycler around here gave me 1.60$ / lb for anything more than 50 lbs. I brought back 53 lbs and got like 80 somthing bucks.

Cool it doesn't take long to collect 50lbs of brass. I can't believe how much money I threw away over the years.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Pardon me.
The used brass I see for sale is always cleaned & if I bought used stuff I'd prefer it to be already done for me.
Denis

Nothing wrong with that either. It would be a hell of a boring place if everybody preffered stuff the same way. Personally I don't mind tossing it in the tumbler to save a few bucks, but I certainly see the advantage of spending a few extra dollars and having that already done for you.

 

[mljdeckard]

Yeah, if I come across some brass that is used and clean looking, i'm going to tumble it again anyway.

 

[FROGO207]

Well I bought a used Ruger MK II SS last fall with the proceeds from taking my used brass to the recyclers the previous week. BTW I had almost 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket full of primers alone. I try to get rid of my scrap brass and such each fall so I don't have to trip over it in the garage all winter long. I just can't see anyone throwing away something that is worth so much. Still there are some on here that admit to doing just that.

 

[DPris]

I've never bought used or picked up anybody else's brass at the range, too much stacked up in the basement & you just never know where that used stuff's been.
But if....
Denis

 

[InkEd]

I keep my .38, .357 and .44mag brass. When I get home from the range, I toss it into
a cereal box. When it's full I sell it to reloaders.

 

[Pacsd]

I've got 6 five gallon buckets of brass that I pick up from ranges. A bucket weighs about 48 pounds. The salvage yards in my area are giving 1.45 for shell brass and it does not have to be clean or deprimed. My goal is 10 buckets by the end of May. They do require photo ID for any non ferious metals and record the transaction due to high thefts of brass, copper, etc.

 

[rondog]

Yes, selling used brass is perfectly legal and very common. But you need to realize that not all "brass" is actually brass, there's a lot of steel and aluminum cases out there too, and those are worthless except as scrap metal. And rimfire cases can't be reloaded.

There's also "Berdan" primed brass, which is next to impossible to reload efficiently and most people don't want it. Berdan brass will have two very tiny "snakebite" looking holes in the bottom of the case, instead of one larger hole in the center. It's very hard to deprime those, and finding primers is a real challenge. Most guys won't mess with it unless it's some really obscure and hard to find caliber.

But Berdan brass, rimfire brass, and damaged brass cases do have good value as scrap metal, if you can collect enough of it.

Also be aware there's a lot of competition out there, lots of people selling brass these days, and the most common stuff like 9mm and .40 S&W sells cheap. .45 acp runs about a nickel apiece, big rifle stuff like 7mm Rem Mag or .300 Win Mag may be upwards of 15-20 cents if once-fired and in great shape.

Don't plan on retiring from it unless you can get truckloads for free! And have free labor to sort it all out. And most buyers will want pistol brass 500-1000 pieces at a time, but will buy the big rifle stuff in 100 lots too.

Lord knows I've bought several thousand cases of many different calibers over the years.

 

[lindy]

I wonder where the scrap brass we sell eventually ends up ? I'm thinking most of it goes to China or Japan. Anyone out there Know where most of it goes ?

Good Shooting

Lindy

 

[perdurabo93]

Absolutely hold onto any and all brass you can for trading towards new ammo. Theres several companies around the country that do "brass exchanges", basically you bring or ship them your fired brass and then they reload YOUR specific brass and ship it back to you at a significantly lower price than even commercial brass cased "remanufactured" reloads. Not only are you providing the most expensive cartridge component, but if they are loading YOUR brass, then they aren't manufacturing ammo, they are providing you a custom loading service, which means you avoid the 11% Pittman-Robertson excise tax (FAET). One such company in TX called Parabellum Research (http://www.pbrammo.com/) near Austin provides this service which they call their "Customer Brass Program". The savings is mitigated somewhat by shipping costs, but if you live in TX they do make the gun show circuit and you can pick/up drop off that way to save money. If you provide them with ALL the components, they will load ammo for you for a flat hourly fee, and they can produce a lot on their commercial AmmoLoad loaders per hour. Very much worth looking into for those calibers you can't or don't want to handload yourself.

Even if the brass you pick up is berdan primed, or banged up, chewed up, shot out, or whatever you can still trade it in to a place like Scharch/Top Brass (http://www.topbrass-inc.com) who will give you $2.25/lb credit for ANY yellow brass in ANY condition (except rimfire) you send them, which you can exchange for once fired, 100% processed or even 100% processed AND primed brass which you can either load yourself or give to someone like Parabellum Research to load for you at a cost much lower than new production or commercial reloads.