223 uses

Clean and polish the brass, sell it, and buy a shed to put out back for more 'magpie like behavior.'

Me: I would clean, polish and sell it and turn it into lead.

But if you have the skills you talked about that would be much cooler.

Sody82 said:

Ok here goes...
I am a scavenger. I will take anything and save it. This magpie like behavior has my reloading cabinet packed full and i just started loading brass lol. My Ars are all ar 10 platform. I have over 65 long guns and 11 pistols. What can i turn this 223 brass into to be of some use to me? I tossed the idea around of milling a 1911 reciever out of them but i dont really need any more wall hangers.

P.s. sorry for my attrocious punctuation. Im on my phone.

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If you are going to melt it and cast it... brass knuckles!

1911 grips (be sure to leave non-completely melted headstamps at the grip screw holes with the grip screws going through the primer holes)!

Knife handles (same head stamp trick)!

Hmmm.... maybe it would be easier to cut the head stamps off 4 cartridges, mill pockets in the cast grips then solder the head stamps in? They would have to be Lake City head stamps of course. Make sure the brass going into the grips is all military brass for a coolness factor... or at least claim it was all military brass when you are done.

Please post a picture when you finish the grips!

Magazine bottom plates.

Cast some brass .308 bullets.

A brass 10/22 receiver or AR 10 lower would be cool and functional.

Got any interest in the 9x23 Win handgun cartridge? https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/181533-9x23-winshester-making-my-own-cases-from-223/

Sody82 said:

Ok here goes...
I am a scavenger. I will take anything and save it. This magpie like behavior has my reloading cabinet packed full and i just started loading brass lol. My Ars are all ar 10 platform. I have over 65 long guns and 11 pistols. What can i turn this 223 brass into to be of some use to me? I tossed the idea around of milling a 1911 reciever out of them but i dont really need any more wall hangers.

P.s. sorry for my attrocious punctuation. Im on my phone.

Click to expand...

65 longs.....you need 66.

One of the most fun, trouble-free, easiest to maintain, and best looking .223's in my small collection is this:

Sody82 said:

Ok here goes...
I am a scavenger. I will take anything and save it. This magpie like behavior has my reloading cabinet packed full and i just started loading brass lol. My Ars are all ar 10 platform. I have over 65 long guns and 11 pistols. What can i turn this 223 brass into to be of some use to me? I tossed the idea around of milling a 1911 reciever out of them but i dont really need any more wall hangers.

Click to expand...

Lots of brass? You like AR10s?

Sody82 said:

I am a scavenger

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Me too.

If I do not need it, I Pay It Forward after, decapping, cleaning and swaging, (if needed).
Gives me something to do.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/...96&gclid=CL6WkfKKzOECFW6HxQIdi2kN6g&gclsrc=ds
Copy this, the Red Eye Wiggler (not the eppinger copy) and Swedish pimple. Sell for slightly less than the originals. You'll have a ready market in the Great Lakes and Canada. Hard to find a proper brass spoon these days. Most of the companies have switched to steel and the action underwater is not the same. The originals were cast, hammered and ground, not stamped, and are my favorite for fishing but they draw collector prices these days. The modern stamped ones don't have a deep enough cup, not enough "thump" to anger the pike and lake trout I like to catch.

I've made a few from a flat casting heated and hammered over a steel form. Effective on fish, but so labor intensive (would be less if I had a proper melting furnace) I'm afraid to lose them fishing so I tend to baby them and avoid the heavy cover.

What can i turn this 223 brass into to be of some use to me?

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That’s a tough question to answer not knowing you. I think the most common thing .223 brass is turned into, besides money, would be the 300 blk.

The most useful for me has been .380 shot rounds.

GW Staar said:

65 longs.....you need 66.

One of the most fun, trouble-free, easiest to maintain, and best looking .223's in my small collection is this:

View attachment 836126

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Well.... Would you look at that!
It's the despised Mini 14.
You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that, even if I put you inside the barn! LOL

I love my Mini 14. I've had it for over 30 years and it was several years old when I got it.

I vote for buying the Mini 14.
That would put the brass to good use.

Photobucket ruined it but the first photos that are not there anymore were turned cases and I wound up making an insert for a Lee powder die that forms them per post #17. The roll crimp is with a 45 ACP RN bullet seat die.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/380-shot-shell.808896/

You could machine out some brass shotgun slugs that look like pellets. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/09/11/ballistic-machinist-start-selling-shotgun-slugs/ I watched some early videos of that guy developing that slug, and it was very impressive.

https://www.amazon.com/Antique-Copp...eampunk+pens&qid=1555168558&s=gateway&sr=8-63
These would be pretty cool.

dredd said:

Well.... Would you look at that!
It's the despised Mini 14.
You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that, even if I put you inside the barn! LOL

I love my Mini 14. I've had it for over 30 years and it was several years old when I got it.

I vote for buying the Mini 14.
That would put the brass to good use.

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bootiful ain't it? Coyotes around here despise it too. Specially the ones caught on a hill and have no where to go but up......trying to outrun the bullets tracking behind them. Great fun for me.....reloads are cheap.... On the range, accuracy is ......AKish. Good enough for what it's for. Dependability is also AKish.....certainly nothing wrong with that.

Speaking of AKish......my son-in-law bought me a "sculpture" at a truck stop of a jet fighter made of AK cases brazed together......you could do that with the cases.

GW Staar said:

65 longs.....you need 66.

One of the most fun, trouble-free, easiest to maintain, and best looking .223's in my small collection is this:

View attachment 836126

Click to expand...

That was my solution to thousands of pieces of range brass that I accumulated. I also sold some of it but I still have thousands of cases. It's really hard to use that much brass with a bolt rifle. I'm working on it with my Mini 14.

jmorris said:

The most useful for me has been .380 shot rounds.

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Ok, what?

I know of 45ACP shotshells, and I make 45 Colt rice-shotshells, but .380ACP? How do you size the reduced portion forward of the chamber mouth? Recipe?

If you want an accurate rifle in 223 a bolt action CZ 527 would fit the bill. OR a Mini 14 Ranch Rifle of recent manufacture. They are waaay more accurate than the older versions. The last two SS ones I bought are as accurate as an entry level AR---------Or just buy an AR!!! They are a good deal these days and you have many choices as to quality/accuracy. Familiarity with a platform you already have is priceless.

edwardware said:

Ok, what?

I know of 45ACP shotshells, and I make 45 Colt rice-shotshells, but .380ACP? How do you size the reduced portion forward of the chamber mouth? Recipe?

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I machined a section of 3/4” cold rolled steel to form the “neck”. 60 grains of #12 shot with under/over shot cards from plastic and a charge of N310. Roll crimp with a 45 ACP RN bullet seat die.

The barstock was machined to drop into an Lee powder die. That takes most of the work out of the project. This is it on the left, the washers take up the extra room.

For info on making 300 blackout brass http://www.300blktalk.com/forum/index.php under the reloading section.
Sort the brass by the recommended makers, then cut to length with the HF mini chop saw. Using a holder like this makes it easier. https://www.zepreloading.com/store/p3/300_AAC_Blackout_case_cutting_jig.html
Next anneal, followed by sizing with 300 AAC dies. Trim and check with a slotted Sheridan gauge. https://www.sheridanengineering.com/index-2.htm

You can also make 223 TCM brass. Info on that at 22tcm.net. Site is still there, but management has departed. If you find info there, download before it becomes cosmic space particles.

Another option is to sell so others can hoard it, too.

I just recently contemplated about another use for .223 brass too, after reading a Walkalong post about having 5 gal buckets of it stacked up in his shed, and seeing it ankle deep at every range I go to.
Held one next to a 9mm case and thought about cutting a .223 case to 9mm length, expand it bigger than 9mm all the way to the web with a DIY expander, then re-sizing it with a 9mm sizer die, yeh that might just work.
After thinking some more I contemplated the wall thickness might be too thick necessitating neck turning, or even too thin, plus the rim might be just undersize enough that a 9mm extractor would skip over it when fired, and it might need to be anneal it too.
More thought and I realized it would be a lot of work to remake the most range available scrap(.223) into the 2nd most available scrap(9mm), that's when I stopped thinking about it .
whew,
Wait, yeh, what about .380...might work, I'll have to think about it...damn you jmorris
edit: Seeing the fishing lure reminded me of making a compound stamping die to stamp out a "spoon" lure from strip stock and another contour die to form the cup/spoon shape, as a project in Trade school.