How much is brass worth?

Yup. The brass is the most expensive part of the cartridge. Look online at brass prices and you will see.

warnerwh said:

Yup. The brass is the most expensive part of the cartridge. Look online at brass prices and you will see.

Click to expand...

I always thought the bullets were the most expensive part

I always thought the bullets were the most expensive part

Click to expand...

For some hunting ammo probably, but for WWB or similar the case is the most. Now reloaders will tell you that the bullet is the most expensive part because they reuse their brass.

shotgunjoel said:

For some hunting ammo probably, but for WWB or similar the case is the most. Now reloaders will tell you that the bullet is the most expensive part because they reuse their brass.

Click to expand...

Well if you reuse brass then yeah, the price per shot goes down because you're reusing it, bullets are sort of a one time thing.

Well, if you don't want them ship them to me. I'll even pay postage.

Brass is the only part of reloading where you may re-use materials. Exverything else is "used up" unless you have a bullet trap and can capture your lead for re-use.

You probably could sell your brass if you wanted to. If you are picking it up anyway, then there is only the selling part left. If not, and you are not considered littering, you are spending a fair amount of time retrieving materials for which you have no use. If you're shooting at a range, more than likely, your brass will bet picked up by someone who will put it to use. So. why bother...?

Last year I turned in 5, 5gallon buckets and got $160 for my brass. It was mostly 7.62x54r.
I pick up anything larger than a rimfire. What I don't reload for gets thown into a bucket.

hey new guy here haha

at the range here in gander we keep all our brass and sell it to pay for new gear

The range here actually sweeps up all the brass and sells it to the local recycling plant.
They also dig out the lead from the berms and sell that off too.

Brass is about $1.40 a pound as scrap. Takes 116 9mm per pound. Do the math.

I look at it like this- if I came across a sandy patch in the woods where people dumped thousands of pennies and nickles and dimes on the ground, would I bother picking them up?

If you are the kind of person who wouldn't pick up a penny they found in the street, you won't bother picking up brass.

Picking up brass is tedious and time consuming and your back and knees will not be happy especially as you get older.

If you reload, it's worth it.

I've sold it to recycling yards for the "contaminated brass" price. It is "contaminated" because there are still spent primers as well as some of it being nickel plated. Could I have gotten a little more money by decapping the primers? Probably, but my time is worth money and I work hard enough as it is.

Gun range makes us pick up our brass. So I should keep my brass and who could I sell it to? the gun range/gun shop/reloaders? How do I tell if its reloadable does it say?

What about old surplus corrosive ammo for 7.62x54R any of that stuff reloadable?

Thank you budiceman

Zack,
Berdan and Boxer primed ammo (almost 100% of what is sold) are both reloadable. Berdan is more difficult because it has two flash holes, but, you can reload it.

As to selling, you listed the most common ones and don't forget the scrap metal folks.

How much could I get for 100 7.62x39, 100 7.62x54r 100 shotgun 12g or 20g? I do not know the pricing.

I sold somewhere between 500 and 600 7.62x51mm brass casings to a gun store for $30. They'll probably turn around and sell it to someone for $40 or $50. I really need to get setup for reloading 7.62, with my M1A it's not even hard to pick up. That rifle ejects the brass in a nice little pile almost within arms reach of me. Wish I could say the same of my Sig 556.

I've also got around 1,000 casings of 9x19mm and probably 500 to 700 45 ACP casings sorted in ammo cans in the closet. I'll get the reloading equipment and knowledge for those calibers eventually or I'll just sell the brass. Unless you're rich or really in a hurry, why not pick up your brass? Heck, I keep empty Crown Royal bags (the little ones that the whiskey bottles come in) in my range bag for putting brass in. My range charges by the year, not by the hour. I'm pretty sure they sell the brass that shooters don't pick up.

General rule of thumb, pistol brass is worth approx. 5 cents each, rifle brass about a dime.

I started saving all of my brass from rifle and pistol (common calibers) and am open to trading it to reloaders for $ or what have you...

Our indoor range will let you pick up your own brass if you want. But otherwise, all brass is eventually (end of day) swept up by them and used to reload their "range ammo" which they sell to shooters who arrive without ammo or enough ammo ... or who are renting a weapon and ammo to shoot for the day. Anything beyond those needs gets reloaded for resale at local gun shows. It all helps keep costs down. Works out great for everyone.