How Many .223 Cases Is This?

peeplwtchr said:

Wow! 42.1 lbs including the bucket. Based on the weight stats. in the first table, I should have around 3096, minus the bucket. Not shabby, but I did pay for most of it the first time. Glad I eventually started keeping it.

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I was close, within 10%. I went a touch conservative. Your measuring helped because that container is 14.75”. So it because a matter of comparing to a 5 gal bucket of 223.

That’s a lot! Only gotta pay for brass once... for awhile.

Kingcreek said:

If it's about the same size as a 5 gal bucket its around 3k or a little more.
Years ago, a friend and I got two! 55gal barrels full of once fired range brass. We spent almost 3 weeks of evenings sorting and cleaning it. We sold everything we didn't want and deprimed and sized everything we kept for ourselves. I still have plenty.

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I have a friend (a fellow shooter) in the metal recycling business, and on occasion he gets range brass turned in. Several times in the past 6 months I have gone to his place to pick up some brass. I pay him what he gets for the brass when he sells it. The first time I went down there, I took my sorting trays and sorted brass for ~ 2 hours, taking all the large stuff (leaving the 9mm and 223). The last time I went, I just took 5 buckets and a shovel - 300 lbs total. I, too, have started selling what I don't want and keeping the rest. Some I sell raw, some I sell decapped and cleaned.

It all helps keep me busy during my Covid stay-at-home days. (Which are getting fewer and fewer).

As far as processing 223, it is one of my least favorite things. One thing I do now, mainly for plinking ammo, is that I don't chamfer or debur after trimming. I do my final wet-tumbling after sizing-trimming, mainly to wash off the lube. The wet tumbling seems to do a nice enough job of knocking the burrs off the case mouth. I do a very slight flare, with a Lee universal expander, as part of my loading process on my progressive press. The expander is in station 1, instead of a sizing die.

peeplwtchr said:

Hi All-

Anyone else ever had a 35lb. cat litter container of .223? If so, how many do you think are in here?

Thanks!

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It's so coincidental that you posted this as I just finished nearly filling the exact same cat litter container with .223 cases that I tumbled, sized and decapped, trimmed, chamfered, deburred, tumbled again with SS pins and primed. There are exactly 2,350 cases in the container that are now ready for powder and projectile. I did them all on a Lee Turret Press and a Lee Deluxe trimmer with the drill attachment. It took me two 5-hours days to get them to this point. It seemed like an impossible amount of work when I started, but now that I'm done it wasn't bad at all. BTW they are filled up to about 3" from the brim of the container.

3,843

I know how much space 800 takes and that's a good 3 times as much. Probably 2500-2600

GunnyUSMC said:

I could fill up a couple of those.

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Me three! (Also)