Saving shell casings?

[clearcut]

If I get a hold of any brass that I don't reload I send it out on the ( pay it forward thread)in amo and reloading.
CC

 

[JSH1]

I scrape up any that hits the ground that another shooter leaves behind. Rifle, pistol; brass, aluminum or steel. It just gets sorted out between what I reload, scrap (damaged) brass, etc.

I did the same thing when I was shooting at a public range. It got to the point I didn't bother to go on weekends so I would go after work during the week when I had the range to myself. I would start by sweeping up all the empty casings around my shooting bench and the two on either side. Why? I can't stand the litter and it makes my casings much easier to find.

I would then sort out the brass and recycle the aluminum and steel casing in the mixed metal bin and work. I would say that during the week about 90% of the casings were steel or 22 LR

 

[BobWright]

Most of the ranges where I shoot have a policy that ammunition bought at the range, or left by the previous shooter, remains at the range. They collect it and sell it to re-manufacturers, the profit of that being turned back into the range for repairs, upkeep, etc.

Brass as scrap brings about .35 cents a pound. Sorted and boxed it will bring maybe $5.00 ~$6.00/ per fifty.

I save my own cases for reloading, plus my empty .22 cases, and spent primer cups and anvils. I keep a coffee "can" for split cases that are no longer usable. When my scrap reaches about three or four cans, the weight is enough for about $35.00 as scrap brass.

Spent primers add weight pretty quick, as do empty .22s.

Bob Wright

 

[Sheepdog1968]

rc is correct on all counts. I pick up all brass ... true brass casings that are reloadable. These have personal value to me both functionally and monetarily.

The rest, steel and Aluminum, are not worth squatting down for. They do have value in terms of scrap, but the amount I'd have to collect to make it worth my time and effort is far more than I'd want to even try and pick up.

If you have a flat magnet attached onto a broom type handle makes picking up steel cases a sinch. At our trap range we use such a set up to pick up the shotgun shells as most are just plated steel bases.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I may look into Freedom munitions. I've been saving brass for years expecting to get into reloading, but still haven't a darned place to do so. I've probably got 200 lbs or more sitting around in boxes.

I think I'll keep my 460, 454, and 45 Colt ammo though. I want to play with those when I do start shooting.

I traded away my Buckmark a few years ago. Now I shoot a Ruger SP101 in 22. So when I empty the cylinder, I eject the casings into a an empty Tidy Cat, litter bucket. I figure when it's full, I'll just sell it for scrap and buy ammo. Gonna take quite awhile to fill it though.....

 

[375supermag]

Hi...

I save my brass and pick up whatever others leave at the gun club.

Very seldom see any rifle brass, but pistol brass is always laying around the bench at the outdoor handgun range.

I even pick up some calibers I don't shoot for.

Just last weekend I bought a S&W M&P 40 on a whim. My first tupperware handgun. Never owned or shot a .40S&W before, but I have several hundred pieces of brass that has been tumbled and washed. All free and all found on the ground at my gun club. Once I buy and shoot a few hundred rounds of factory ammo to break this new pistol in, I will have well over 500 pieces of brass to start reloading for .40S&W.

Yesterday, while I was off work due to the latest snowstorm, I went online and ordered a Redding carbide bulge buster die, a Hornady taper crimp die and a Wilson case gauge for 40S&W among some other reloading trinkets from Midway and Brownell's.

I'll most probably buy an RCBS carbide die set from a LGS, this week or next. I prefer to buy local when I can, but I have yet to see a Wilson case gauge, Hornady taper crimp die or a bulge buster die in any gun shop anywhere.