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Need some advice regarding brass collecting


Ezra Hawthorne

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  A month ago I took a trip to Home Depot and got myself a picking tool, a rectangle of metal grating, and i've gathered some stuff from the garage including empty laundry powder buckets, gloves, cloth bags, and various empty containers. For the past couple of weeks i've gone up to the outdoor gun ranges and spent a few hours a day collecting all the spent brass and lead I can find. I bring it home, dump handfuls onto the grating to sift out the rocks/dirt/sticks and sort them according to caliber.

  I'd like to ask for advice here on which ones to keep for people to clean and reload, and which to take to the recycling center for cash. I think i've found a grand total of eight .38 special so far and most of them are nickel (I tossed the aluminum ones), one single .44 magnum, i've got a coffee can full of .45 ACP and another coffee can full of lead. In one separate container I saved a handful of .308 and 7.62 I found the other day, and one 6.5 Creedmore. The rest are all 9mm, .40, .223, .380 and other rounds all mixed together in buckets to sell. I did find a few 10mm but I don't know whether or not to keep them. If you all can share your advice for what would net me the best profit please let me know here, if there's a specific caliber that is desirable i'll keep an eye out for it and save it if people want to buy it.

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My advice?  Make sure you're not stealing.  Many ranges have arrangements or contracts with people who remove and reuse the brass.  Shotgun ranges even recycle the spent shot.  Have permission from the owner, if applicable.

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I would keep what you can use then go ask some local gun stores if they know anyone that would be interested in the cases you don’t want. 
 

I had 2 gallons of .380 brass that I couldn’t use do I took it to my LGS. A guy there wanted all of it for his Dad. He asked what I wanted for it but I told him just to keep it for free. 
That gesture has netted me some pretty decent customer service there since. 

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6 hours ago, Joke 'um said:

My advice?  Make sure you're not stealing.  Many ranges have arrangements or contracts with people who remove and reuse the brass.  Shotgun ranges even recycle the spent shot.  Have permission from the owner, if applicable.


Got permission already, thanks.

 

6 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I would keep what you can use then go ask some local gun stores if they know anyone that would be interested in the cases you don’t want. 
 

I had 2 gallons of .380 brass that I couldn’t use do I took it to my LGS. A guy there wanted all of it for his Dad. He asked what I wanted for it but I told him just to keep it for free. 
That gesture has netted me some pretty decent customer service there since. 


The indoor ranges don't buy used brass, they recycle what people leave at the same place. Also not looking to give everything away, wanting to earn money to buy my cowboy guns.

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If I had oodles and gobs of brass I would check with some of the online brass buyers and see what they offer. A year ago they were all out and crying for brass.

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7 hours ago, Ezra Hawthorne said:

The indoor ranges don't buy used brass, they recycle what people leave at the same place. Also not looking to give everything away, wanting to earn money to buy my cowboy guns.

LGS = Local Gun Store

Reread what I said - I was offered money for it. I declined. 

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Download the MeWe app, it is like facebook but you can sell firearms and related things.  There is a page called Everything Reloading components and people buy and sell brass on there constantly.  I have both bought and sold.  That will also tell you what it is selling for and you can decide if you want to sell un-processed or if you want to deprime, resize, and clean.  Another tip, Midway USA sells a set of "sifters" that you pour range brass through and it sorts brass by size/caliber.  If you are doing a lot of range pickup this will make sorting faster. 

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For the best profit, I would;

 

- Separate into appropriate calibers as it appears that you already have.

- Clean the brass so that it looks new. Clean brass sells for double (mol) what dirty brass sells for.

- Make sure that there is no obviously bad brass, aluminum/steel cases and especially .22 shells hidden inside the brass. No one likes replacing decap pins.

- The most popular sizes will sell quick but make it worth the customer's money, wait to sell in bulk. Selling 100 rounds of 45 acp brass isn't going to be worth the shipping costs for example. Be patient, collect and amass.

- Get a SASS membership and you can sell here. Earlier this year, I sold a BUNCH of various caliber brass. It all sold and the buyers were happy with their brass.

- The commercial online brass buyers are looking for tens of thousands of rounds, not small (by they're standards) amounts like you likely have.

- Be aware that brass is not gold and you're not going to get rich by selling 1X fired brass.

 

Good luck in your quest to purchase guns to compete with. Go to the local matches at least 10 times before deciding on what guns to buy. Talk with the shooters, help out with some posse duties and you'll likely have shooters loan you guns to try out. Be gracious and offer to pay for the ammo used, they won't accept it but it at least you tried.

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