Do scrap yards in your area re-sell brass

[donttellthewife]

Yesterday I went to a scrap yard in Portland OR. to turn in my no longer reloadable brass, about 40 lbs. After they weighed it the gentlman let me see were they keep the spent cases, it was a 6' x 6' bin 5' tall, full. I took a quick look at it and what I could see was that it was once fired rifle brass, at least on the top of the bin. I went into the office and asked if I could purchase any of it and was told they only will sell to founderys. I cried all the way home. I know all about liablity issues but as a reloder that's just a known risk. Given thier logic how can anybody sell spent brass for reloading. Of course now I am going to have to set my as a foundery. Has anybody else had this experience.

 

[kcoop9999]

One of my neighbors is in the recycling business. He gets most of his materials from Govt. auctions on millitary bases throughout the midwest. Over the years I have bought quite a bit of brass off him at market brass prices. 5.56-7.62-9mm-.45 and so-on. I even had a guy at work who would purchase quantities from me from time to time. He built a .50 BMG rifle and wasn't about to spend over a dollar each for cases to reload. So I sold him a 5 gal. bucket full for $50. He thought he was getting the deal of a lifetime. It's always fun to see what shows up down the road! Every time Steve-o hooks up to the trailer and heads out, you know he'll be back in a few days with something interesting.

 

[Fu-man Shoe]

There is a recycling place that I sell brass to, that will sell it right
back to you at a slightly higher price.

They sell it by the pound for about $1.50 as of last week.

Whenever I go there I will pick through the bin and look for what I
want, but it's kinda tough. There's so much of it, it's hard to find
what you want. The proverbial needle in a haystack.

Also, it's not a conducive environment for leisurely brass sorting.
It's an industrial environment. Very loud, forklifts going back and
forth, etc...

As I said, it's kinda tricky. You could convievably buy a bucket,
take it home, sort it, and bring it back to sell, but that could be
an expensive and time-wasting proposition.

A five gallon bucket of brass weighs about 100 lbs, give or take.

Do the math.

100 lbs x $1.50 a lb. = $150.00 to take home a five gallon bucket.

They will buy it back from you for $1.30 a lb.

Depending on how much brass you could use, you will be selling
back less than 100 lbs. Let's be generous, and say you recover
20 lbs of usable brass.

So, 80 lbs x $1.30 a lb. = $104.00 for the returned unusable brass.

Doing this, I would have just spent $46 to net 20 pounds of brass,
and spent several hours at the least sorting it all out, and driving
back and forth to the recycling place.

Now, depending on the calibers you want, and your luck, it may
be worthwhile. For me, not so much. I have found the vast majority
of spent brass in my local area is 9mm, .223, .45 ACP and .40 S&W,
in that order.

I reload none of those calibers, so finding a .38/.357 or .308 case
in all of that is a cause for celebration!

Now if you reloaded one of those calibers, you'd likely be happy as
a pig in mud!

Maybe I should take up reloading .223 ...in that case, it might be
worthwhile.

Anyway, YMMV. This has been my experience. I find it much more
profitable to "volunteer" to help clean up my local indoor range, and
keep the sweepings, take 'em home, pick out what you want and
sell the rest as scrap.

BTW...this year, for x-mas I gave my dad 70 lbs of spent .223 casings
recovered using the above method. 70 lbs of .223 works out to be
about 5000+ cases. Anyway, that should keep him busy for a while!

Fu-man Shoe