Not finding brass like I used to
- Thread starter CoalCrackerAl
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I'm finding just the opposite. Getting more and more brass each week for about the past 2 months. Pulled half a five gallon bucket last night. Notable brass: 5 500 S&W, about 60 each 6.5 CM and 308Win, shiny and new. And of course a couple thousand 9mm, 2-300 5.56/223.
Blkhrt13
Member
I’ve read most of these posts and many come to the same conclusions. I think because the prices are so high on ammo the people shooting are reloaders who stocked up on ammo supplies before prices on components went up with ammo cost. Plus you have the scroungers who either sell casings or scrap weight. But that’s the thing. I bought a certain amount of ammo over time, until recently didn’t have reloading equipment and I am still having troubles finding things like powders and primers locally. Being a single income household I can’t see affording the added cost of hazmat from online purchases. I am going to have to call around and see who has primers and powder soon.
CQB45ACP
Member
It’s not just the cost of ammo that limits one’s shooting it’s the toll on my old hands AND it’s a catch 22.
If I shoot at least once/week, my hands get conditioned to comfortably shoot 200 or more 45ACP per trip. If I can only shoot every two weeks my hands can only take one hundred 45ACP per trip. That doubles the cost per trip.
But it’s the PIA factor that really bothers me. Schlepping 50 miles round trip to shoot only 100 rounds in itself isn’t great fun.
On the other hand what a blessing it is to be alive!
Don't be too mad. I scrap my club brass. 95% of what I scrap is worn out scrap or steel empties. I do see some new .270 brass but the club has a lifetime supply already. For the past year competition shooters and the police are keeping their own shells. At least at my club, most shooters sweep the stuff up for me to collect.
ballman6711
Member
Just this morning I saw 45 Colt for $50/50 rounds. Haven't seen any in quite a while, but I left it there since I load it. 9mm is getting cheap again, but I haven't shot it in years. And I honestly don't know how much I could afford to shoot if I had to buy factory ammo.
However, on my last two or three range trips I have found about fifty 308 cases, some 223/556 and 9mm, a few 45acp and 10mm, and a single 40sw.
I think it was late last year (might have been early this year) that I was there shooting and a guy rolled up in his truck. He opened the tailgate and pulled out a five gallon bucket, a "grabbing stick", and started picking up brass. When I asked him for my brass that he had picked up, he gave it too me along with all the other 223 and 45acp brass he had picked up along with an apology. He was nice enough, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't there to shoot, just collect brass. Last summer and before that you could find all the brass you could carry and then some.
chris
barnfrog
Member
I am immensely grateful that I don't have to scrounge brass to sell in order to make ends meet.
every panic, tens of thousands of people say "thats it!" I'm reloading.....
They buy up the equipment, all the components, they hoard everything the can find at any price... "just in case". - Funny, I know people who will pay $12.00 for a box of primers they'll never use and be thankful for the opportunity. But will absolutely refuse to pay $3.50 for that box when the market slows.
They'll never setup that loader, and their hoard will be that estate find we hear so many talk about 20 years from now.
This is about the 15th time I've seen it. This is only the second time I've seen these people also stock up on range brass.... "just in case".
With the component shortage, some of the local shops are paying for range pickups from private parties. So the range brass is still there, its just 10 miles away at $10/100.
Also, the Catalytic converter oversight laws making scrap yards and methheads more anxious, and there will be a push for legitimate scrap, more than before.
Also as noted, the only people shooting are mostly reloaders.
Even new shooters blowing factory ammo are saving their brass...."just in case". -though I do encourage them to. New shooter enthusiasm is way more likely to lead to actual reloaders instead of hoarders.
Ask the people you see picking up brass, especially the young ones with plastic guns. You'll see its much more common these days for new shooters to realize they have the option.
When I started, reloading was something the 75+ crowd who sat on barstools at the gunshops talked about while pointing at ancient, long out of production press setups with missing parts on display, covered in dust, in shops so dusty the sunlight made the air sparkle. No information.... no resources.... Who knows where to start?
Nowadays, there's ****ty metal music and guys wearing undersized shirts with too much hair gel raving about the excitement and ease of reloading all over the internet.
We have THR and the others trying to keep the culture going.
So the natural side affect will be near everyone who actually likes to shoot saving their brass.
Eventually the hoarders will sell their stuff off. Just don't pay what they think its worth.
They buy up the equipment, all the components, they hoard everything the can find at any price... "just in case". - Funny, I know people who will pay $12.00 for a box of primers they'll never use and be thankful for the opportunity. But will absolutely refuse to pay $3.50 for that box when the market slows.
They'll never setup that loader, and their hoard will be that estate find we hear so many talk about 20 years from now.
This is about the 15th time I've seen it. This is only the second time I've seen these people also stock up on range brass.... "just in case".
With the component shortage, some of the local shops are paying for range pickups from private parties. So the range brass is still there, its just 10 miles away at $10/100.
Also, the Catalytic converter oversight laws making scrap yards and methheads more anxious, and there will be a push for legitimate scrap, more than before.
Also as noted, the only people shooting are mostly reloaders.
Even new shooters blowing factory ammo are saving their brass...."just in case". -though I do encourage them to. New shooter enthusiasm is way more likely to lead to actual reloaders instead of hoarders.
Ask the people you see picking up brass, especially the young ones with plastic guns. You'll see its much more common these days for new shooters to realize they have the option.
When I started, reloading was something the 75+ crowd who sat on barstools at the gunshops talked about while pointing at ancient, long out of production press setups with missing parts on display, covered in dust, in shops so dusty the sunlight made the air sparkle. No information.... no resources.... Who knows where to start?
Nowadays, there's ****ty metal music and guys wearing undersized shirts with too much hair gel raving about the excitement and ease of reloading all over the internet.
We have THR and the others trying to keep the culture going.
So the natural side affect will be near everyone who actually likes to shoot saving their brass.
Eventually the hoarders will sell their stuff off. Just don't pay what they think its worth.
ballman6711
Member
These people ^^^^ are not reloaders or even future reloaders. These people are trying to hedge their bets, thinking they will reload at some point in time. They won't. I know people like this, and they won't ever change. I've even asked coworkers who shoot and don't reload to save me their brass, and they don't. Always some excuse why they didn't. One even shoots in his back yard, and still hasn't given me any brass after almost two years of asking for it.
I do still find brass at the range, and a lot of steel cases and shotgun hulls. I believe at some point it will change and brass will once again be found in abundance.
chris
doubleh
Member
Brass has been scarce at my range for a couple of years now. The only way to find any is get there well before daylight and hunt it with a flashlight. I used to pick it up when it was just laying there but there are too many brass scroungers that go very late or very early to pick it up and sell it at the local metal recycler for me to run across any now. I usually get to the range during the hot months in the morning when it is barely light enough to get set up and I still have to wait for better light to start shooting. My reasons are twofold, it's cool and the least windy part of the day. There is always someone there with flashlight and bucket picking up brass.
I will never run out of brass in the time I have left to shoot so I don't worry about range pickups anymore.
I will never run out of brass in the time I have left to shoot so I don't worry about range pickups anymore.
OP
OP
CoalCrackerAl
Member
I also noticed no aluminum casings lately too.
Mark_Mark
Member
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that’s because brass 9 mm is back down to $15~$1 for range stuff. And a case is about $300. STOCK UP PEOPLE! don’t get catch like in 2021… Yes! it will happen again
CoalTrain49
Member
There's a silver lining in every cloud. These days we don't have to pick up the brass people used to leave in the gravel pits. Just the garbage and the steel cases. But even the steel cases are fewer now with the sanctions on Rooskies.
GeoDudeFlorida
Member
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Why stock up on blammo-crappo shelf ammo? We’re handloaders. We don’t need any stinking cheap crap box stuff.
Riomouse911
Member
Some ranges schedule range closure/maintenance and arrange for scrap lead removal from the impact berms based on estimates derived from round counts.
Obviously its a rough guess because some folks put down any numbers they want, but some do it this way anyway.
Stay safe.
Your absolutely right.
That won't stop me from trying to push them over the edge though. If you going to get addicted, you may as well have the fun.
I make a standing offer to demo anyone interested, and if they do buy in, to come over, setup their equipment, and go over it with them, as well as provide at least enough components to get started (when I had them anyway).
But so far, I have had a few takers. I'll call it success.
Seeing a guy buy a 45-70, a loader, and all the stuff, but then complaining they "don't have room" to set up a 2'x2' load station in an almost empty apartment, I just don't get.
Seeing a guy go all out to load 9mm luger and .223, and save about $3.00/box, and actually do it? That's always a real win.
AJC1
Member
The 45-70 guy could use the Lee loader. It's not like that's a high round count chambering.
Palladan44
Member
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It's hunting season?
OP
OP
CoalCrackerAl
Member
Small game and archery/ml season is in here. I think monday im going to sit for tree rats.
Mark_Mark
Member
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I still see the value in cheap 9mm ball stuff. I shot plenty before buying a press and it worked every time. Stuff like Blazzer Brass, Winchester white box! goes bang and shoots straight
times are tough and people are not shooting for recreation as much. Grocery bills alone are killing the middle class.
my kids have been shooting mostly airguns and 22lr. I spend most the range time just watching/supervising them so I dont shoot much centerfire right now. Its more important to me that they get to shoot than myself.
my kids have been shooting mostly airguns and 22lr. I spend most the range time just watching/supervising them so I dont shoot much centerfire right now. Its more important to me that they get to shoot than myself.
CQB45ACP
Member
I was there. You shoulda seen the look on the guy who swept them up when he came back to get em.
Catpop
Member
Yeap, 38 spc once most common of all, is becoming harder to find in the wild.
Ironically, 38 spc is becoming MY most reloaded range round
Coming full circle at 71 I guess.
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