What to do with empty brass?

[drine]

First answer is NO, I won't send it to you. Seriously though, I don't reload yet, maybe a few shotshells before but never rifle or pistol. Anyhow, I'm keeping all I shoot or find right now. What should I do with it to store it? Does it need cleaning or depriming to keep it from deteriorating? Thanks, drine

[wonderwolf]

Send it to me







LOL


ok get yourself some 5 gal buckets....Clean the brass if its dirty at all...make sure its dry. Store in the buckets till needed. I have lots of brass for calibers I don't even own yet. Mostly 40S&W I have about 10,000 pcs or so of that around even after I sold a bunch a few months ago. I just make sure its dry and reasonably clean put it in the buckets and put them out of the way. The hard part is finding time to sit down and sort a 55 gal can of range pick up brass :wink:

[drine]

I know what I shoot isn't corrosive just wandered if the powder left over would eat away at the brass. Don't know when or if I'll reload. I'd probably buy another rifle or something before spending the money on a reload outfit.

[Reloader_26D]

drine, do like wonderwolf said... 5-gal bucket. They should be safe. Keep moisture from getting in bucket, and I'll refer to your earlier statement of non-corrosive. There WILL come a time when it will be most economical to reload. Up here we just got some SA surplus .308, and it's going for $105.00 FRN per battlepack. :eek:

[Jacobite]

Sell it for scrap and buy more ammo if you don't think you will ever reload.
I just got over $60 for a 5 gallon bucket full of brass cases I picked up from the range. Anything I don't reload gets scraped including .22 brass.

[Geilt]

Save the stuff that looks good and shows no signs of case head seperation. Scrap anything that either doesn't look heatlhy.

If you already have the tools needed, I'd deprime it and run them through a tumbler. Less crud in or on the cases help you later down the road. It will also slightly increase resale value if you ever decide to sell it off.

[drine]

Took the kids shooting at the public range the other day and ended up with 350 .40 cases, all good commercial brass also @100 9mm and several odds and ends. I shoot a SIG226 .40 so I was happy to get the brass. That may be my starting point.

[Optimus Prime]

If you do scrape them you may have to look around, some scrape places don't accept brass for safety reasons (don't want to send a loaded round through their machines I guess).

[drine]

I may, correction will get into loading later on. I couldn't see dumping them for a few bucks when someone needed them. DR

[pigpen]

I have seen miniture windchimes made out of different types of brass cases. It had a bullseye hanging from the bottom to catch the wind.
Never heard what it sounded like.

[robocop10mm]

If you plan on ever reloading, save it. Clean and polished in water/air tight container.

If you doubt you will ever reload it, sell it to a reloader. Please do not scrap it. There is a shrinking supply and I for one would like to see it reused and not sent to China or India as scrap.

I only scrap bad brass (cracked, Berdan, hopeless). When I come across brass in calibers I do not shoot (not many), I save it for trading fodder with friends.

[SteelCore]

Oh, I see you're talking abt later reloading it.

I've been collecting brass in various calibers, and I will check here woth you reloaders before we scrap it all. We shoot 762NATO, 762x54R, .30carbine, .357, .38special, 9mm, .45ACP, .40smith, .223 (556NATO), and 762x39....and collect any/all brass from it.
At the long range gun range, last time I went, someone had picked up allthe brass that used to just lay around, and 2 shooters there wanted our brass (we were shooting mostly steelcase that day, tho.

[okie shooter]

I was shooting at a pubic range a long while back and watch a man and his wife come out, with a two wheel cart, buckets and sives. I talked to him a little and he explained what he did.

He used the sives to collect and sort brass, the range was in sand, so he just shovled the sand thru his sives, the 22 fell thur to a finer sive, the larger cases stayed on top, and the sand hit the ground. He then used a magnet to seperate the steel from brass cases. He sold the 22 and any rifle and pistol brass too dammaged to reload. He resold or reloaded the rest of it. It took him a afternoon to go thru the range shooting points, but he said it was worth it, this was twenty years ago, with scrap prices very low, now I imagine theres good money in it, even just picking up 22 cases. Not sure how you would deal with aluminum mixed in, just guess by hand since a magnet wont seperate it.

[Geilt]

The range I go to sells brass at $0.05 per case. You can go through the buckets and search for the headstamps you prefer and examine them for signs of over pressure before you buy them.

My last trip out I grabbed probably 50 Lapua cases in 308, some Hornady 308 Match and a small bucket of Winchester also in 308. He threw in about 50 303 Brit cases for nothing.

If someone is looking for something specific just let me know and I'll keep an eye out for it.