Will a scrap yard buy used brass?

[X-Man]

ErSwnn; I'd like to know how you make out. I've collected a bit of brass and would like to locate a buyer. I'm also living in Bucks county. A PM is Ok.


In years past I would go to the PAGC rifle range on Monday morning and clean up the left over brass. Oh, those were the days....cheap ammo, plentiful brass, crates of SKS rifles dripping in cosmoline. I'm getting old.

[Warpt762x39]

I couldnt even count how many once fired 9mm, 45 acp, and .223 ive thrown away. What was i thinking someone should slap me lol.

However, 22 rimfire is a scrapyard proposition, except for the very, very, VERY few reloaders who will swage the 22 case into a jacket for a small-caliber bullet. Yes, Virginia. There are people who did just that during WWII, when bullets were not at all available for the civilian market, and some die-hard reloaders (Vernon Speer comes to mind) actually did make bullets out of old fired 22RF cases. It was not too economical then, and that is still the case today, but to prove a point - it CAN be done.

Flash

I've seen the setups to do that. It's for making bullets for the .223 sized rounds. It's kind of a neat process but not something I'd ever have the patience for. Lol.

[Dragracer_Art]

I've probably got 100-200lbs of used pistol brass at my shop.

Any idea what it might be worth ?

I'd like to put an ad in the classifieds section, but honestly don't know what it's worth. I thought about going to a recycler with it, but would rather see it go to a reloader instead.

[Warpt762x39]

I've probably got 100-200lbs of used pistol brass at my shop.

Any idea what it might be worth ?

I'd like to put an ad in the classifieds section, but honestly don't know what it's worth. I thought about going to a recycler with it, but would rather see it go to a reloader instead.

What caliber is it?

[Mootness]

Would you have to pop out old primers or are they made of brass too.

I wouldn't bother. That's just among the terms when you bargain to decide the value.

If you get an extra $10, would you feel it was worth your time to deprime all of that stuff?

The reloaders will resize anyway, and generally speaking we still have the decapping pins in our resizing dies.

The only benefit might be in tumbling it, but again, I wouldn't bother with cleaning it either.

Just put it in ziplock bags, sell by weight or "all that fits in this Quart/gallon bag, approximately xx pieces give or take" and put it in the classifieds.

ETA: We don't want .22 lr or any other non-reloadable rim fire cartridge (that's already been fired) because it's ... well... non-reloadable by nature.

[mauser]

To answer your question directly and simply, yes a scrap yard will buy used brass, but maybe not all scrap yards. As has already been said, all reloadable brass will be worth more to a reloader than a scrap yard. Now you may ask how to tell if the brass is reloadable or not.
Generally speaking, centerfire brass cases with one flash hole in the center are easily reloadable. It's possible to reload centerfire cases with 2 flash holes but I don't know of anyone who does it.

Steel cases are actually reloadable too, but again I don't know anyone who actually does it. (I did reload about 100 steel .223 just to see how it works and it does work just fine. I've heard that it's hard on the dies and you obviously won't get as many reloads out of each case, but it can be done.)
The scrapyard doesn't really want the steel cases either, they'll take them but they don't pay much at all for steel.
If you want to know a ballpark price to sell your used brass for to reloaders just search the Internet for "once fired brass", you'll find businesses that sell it. Some sell it cleaned, polished, deprimed, sized, you name it, others sell lower "grades" that have just been sorted and the damaged and tarnished ones removed. The few times I had brass for sale I tumbled it to clean it and advertised it for about ½ to ⅔ of what the lower grades of brass were selling for, depending on availability. I was pleasantly surprised at how much it was worth and how quickly it sold.

[ErSwnn]

ErSwnn; I'd like to know how you make out. I've collected a bit of brass and would like to locate a buyer. I'm also living in Bucks county. A PM is Ok.


In years past I would go to the PAGC rifle range on Monday morning and clean up the left over brass. Oh, those were the days....cheap ammo, plentiful brass, crates of SKS rifles dripping in cosmoline. I'm getting old.

I'll post the current price when I return today, most any metal recycler will buy it. I use Franklin Metals on Rt 13 in Andualusia. Been doing business there for 15 years, we trust each other...a valubale thing when selling scrap. Or anything else in life.

I discovered "brassin" when I discovered the old quarry/dump/shooting spot in the Everglades back in 1980. 2-3 buckets was an hour's work. We'd trade it to an old hole in the wall gunsmith shop for fresh ammo.

[Dragracer_Art]

What caliber is it?

It's leftover stuff from the indoor range, so it's a mixed lot of everything.

[mauser]

It's leftover stuff from the indoor range, so it's a mixed lot of everything.

It's worth your time to sort it, get an approximate count and sell it in the classified forum here. I'd guess that you have a pretty fair amount of 9mm and probably some .45 ACP, those seem to be 2 of the better selling calibers.

[ar15jules]

My scrap yard has a price set for brass and another set for brass casings. I have seen it as low as $0.15 per pound. Call ahead and ask if they take it, and what the current rate is.
Jules