Value of Mil-surp 5.56 brass?

[stratomole]

Hey guys,

I'm a bit curious about the value of 5.56 brass. I don't reload ammunition and I sold my Ruger Mini-14 beforing PCSing to the UK. I work at the APO on RAF Lakenheath, UK. We shred any 2nd class mail that doesn't match the box holders name and number. Its my job to haul a couple hundred pounds of shredded paper to the base recycling center every few days. Anyway while unloading another load of paper today I noticed they had a pallet stacked full of wooden ammo boxes. The British contractors there are pretty nice about letting us take home any of Uncle Sam's throwaways so I thought I had scored some sturdy storage boxes. Upon closer inspection I found the boxes were full of fired 5.56 cases. The pallet of boxes was 6x6 deep stacked 5 high, so a total of 180 boxes chock full of used brass. There was 2 pallets there that I noticed. I asked the contractor there if they sold the brass to reloaders, a pretty dumb question on my part. There isn't a very active shooting communtity here, even in the farmlands of East Anglia. Instead they sell it as scrap to a foundry, but he wouldn't tell me for how much. The few cases I looked at had a headstamp of LC 01 with the NATO circle-cross. How much more do fired cases sell for than scrap brass? I briefly entertained the idea of taking the brass and mailing it back home. Not sure about the legality of that, besides shipping costs would be pretty high.

Regards.

 

[dmftoy1]

I think the last batch of military once fired that I bought in 5.56 (last august) I paid $35 for 1k. Not a screaming deal, but I didn't get ripped off either. (once fired, tumbled, but no primer crimp removed either)

Regards,
Dave

 

[Ben Shepherd]

I snapped up a bunch at $20/1000 a few years back. Same condition as dmftoy1, tumbled, but not sized or de-capped.

 

[3rdpig]

For once fired LC military 5.56 brass, not decapped or cleaned, right off the firing line, I'd give $20 to $30 per 1000 depending on condition (how filthy, how many have been stepped on, etc, etc).

If it's cleaned, decapped, sized, swaged, trimmed and deburred, I'd pay $50 per 1000. Maybe even $60 as that saves me a heck of a lot of work. I hate trimming and deburring.

I have to admit I don't buy much brass, at my local range I can usually leave with a couple of hundred more than I went in with. Last range day I didn't even take a 5.56 rifle and walked out with 470 empty RG 5.56 cases. Almost everyone at the range I go to shoots it, very few pick up their brass and the RM's don't seem to care if a member picks it up and takes it. They probably consider it less work for them despite the fact that they make some money selling it.

 

[Bullet]

You might check here -

http://www.brassmanbrass.com/inventory-001.html

 

[stratomole]

Thanks for the replies

 

[whofan]

It isn't worth anything. You can ship it to me and I will gladly dispose of it.

 

[redneck2]

e-bay

 

[Zero_DgZ]

Worst case, sell it as scrap brass...

 

[joneb]

Scrap yards in my area are paying a 1.20/LBS for brass, that works out to about 1.7 cents per .223 shell caseing.