9mm and 5.56 brass

[fatelk]

I was in a gun shop and they had some buckets of brass, seemed like a fairly good deal.

50 pound bucket of 9mm, label said 6,000 pieces (does this sound right, 50lbs=6,000pcs? I'm not going to count them.) for $100. That's less than 2cents each, all supposedly 1x Winchester.

Another bucket the same size full of 5.56, 2,500pcs for $70. That's just under 3cents each for 1x 70's USGI, polished with primers and crimp removed.

I have absolutely no use for this much brass myself, but the thought went through my head that with the scarcity and increasing cost of this stuff, I could probably break it into smaller lots and sell it on ebay or something. Might be worth the trouble, don't know.

 

[nitesite]

If the USGI 5.56mm hasn't been shot out of M249 SAWs or other machine guns, it's a darn good price!

 

[fatelk]

Is there an easy way to tell if it is machine gun brass? It looks like it has been polished and deprimed with the crimp removed, but not sized or trimmed.

I don't know if there is a way to know if it is for sure once fired after the crimp has been removed. It looks good to me but I'm a little unsure.

 

[cdrt]

When I was selling 9mm brass on eBay, I could get around 3,000 empty cases in a USPS flat rate box, which weighed in at about 27 pounds, so their estimate of 6,000 cases is right on.

I'm sure you'll get other opinions, but the 5.56 brass is a good deal no matter where it came from. Guys will complain that the brass stretches too much being shot from a machine gun vice an M16, but LC brass stretches big time from my M1 that is chambered for .308. If they're clean and decrimped, go for it.

 

[cheygriz]

Even iffired from a M249, it's still good, once fired brass.

And if it's processed, i.e., deprimed, pocket swaged etc, it's a great deal.