Brass Source

[SteveWag]

OK, FWIW, my brother has a passing acquaintance with the local non-ferrous scrap dealer. Yesterday morning he bought $100 of nickel-plated brass. It had been segregated from plain brass because of the coating. I was always afraid to buy scrap cases because I thought it might have been reloaded and worked till it was unusable. So far I have 4500 once fired 40 S&W Speer cases, about 150 9mm and 200 38 Spl. and about 2” to go in the bucket. What is interesting is 200+ 7mm-08 once fired. Very little 380, 38 Mag. Very interesting are 10 FA-TEST head stamped 30-06, five unidentified cases that have threaded primer pockets (indicating that they were stuck and pulled from a resizing die) less than 10 each 45 Gap, 380, 38 Mag. There were 20+ 22-250 that had been reloaded with cracked necks.
Steve

[Flash]

OK, FWIW, my brother has a passing acquaintance with the local non-ferrous scrap dealer. Yesterday morning he bought $100 of nickel-plated brass. It had been segregated from plain brass because of the coating. I was always afraid to buy scrap cases because I thought it might have been reloaded and worked till it was unusable. So far I have 4500 once fired 40 S&W Speer cases, about 150 9mm and 200 38 Spl. and about 2” to go in the bucket. What is interesting is 200+ 7mm-08 once fired. Very little 380, 38 Mag. Very interesting are 10 FA-TEST head stamped 30-06, five unidentified cases that have threaded primer pockets (indicating that they were stuck and pulled from a resizing die) less than 10 each 45 Gap, 380, 38 Mag. There were 20+ 22-250 that had been reloaded with cracked necks.
Steve

Buying other people's brass is usually a "pig in a poke" sort of thing. Unless I am able to determine it has not ever been reloaded,, I generally won't go for it. If it has been reloaded, you still don't know how/how many times it has been down that road.

But if you are sure it is sound brass and the price is good, well..........

Just "caveat emptor", most all of the time.

Flash

[Farbmeister]

For a straight walled pistol its a no brainier... as long as its in spec (primer pocket, head etc use it.

For shouldered cases I see a lot of people get really crazy and upset and I'm not sure why. Other than machine gun fired brass (which I really don't believe is a huge issue and never completely agreed with the 'possible head separation due to loose chamber spec') unless the brass is visible cracked why not reload it?

You could anneal it if you think its to brittle (and how would you test its brittleness in the first place)?

Competition shooter use the same brass dozens of time (although in a much more controlled way) but what are the odds that you are getting brass from a chamber that is SO out of spec that it would physically damage brass?

Lastly, not THAT many people reload. Period. Yeah you know a lot of re-loaders, but rocket scientists know a lot of other rocket scientists... of the two dozen plus people that I know that shoot, only 3 reload. And they take pretty good care of their brass and never throw out brass till its cracked/split.

So, why am I supposed to be concerned about reloaded 'found' brass??

[SteveWag]

I finally cleaned out the bucket, ended up with 4800 40S&W once-fired, orig. primers, round firing pin strike. Also 250 45ACP, equally split between large and small primers, some 250-3000 and some Boxer primed 8x60mm (DWM). I’m very happy and shall buy the 55 gallon drums of brass cases.
Steve

[SteveWag]

Bump XXXXXXX

[cephas]

You could anneal it if you think its to brittle (and how would you test its brittleness in the first place)?

For rifle brass one indication is how the brass shaves off while being trimmed."A very hard neck gives short shavings which come off line filings, whereas a soft case gives nice long fuzz." From Ed Harris over at the CBA site. Found that to be good advice.
Another test for rifle bass comes to mind that has been mentioned in just about every manual I've read. That's straightening out a paper clip, sharpen and put a small 90 degree bend on one end. Then run it up and down inside the case. Any fault, especially above the belt or rim, can be detected.
For me unknown brass is designated for plinkers.

[tabasco_joe]

OK, FWIW, my brother has a passing acquaintance with the local non-ferrous scrap dealer. Yesterday morning he bought $100 of nickel-plated brass. It had been segregated from plain brass because of the coating. I was always afraid to buy scrap cases because I thought it might have been reloaded and worked till it was unusable. So far I have 4500 once fired 40 S&W Speer cases, about 150 9mm and 200 38 Spl. and about 2” to go in the bucket. What is interesting is 200+ 7mm-08 once fired. Very little 380, 38 Mag. Very interesting are 10 FA-TEST head stamped 30-06, five unidentified cases that have threaded primer pockets (indicating that they were stuck and pulled from a resizing die) less than 10 each 45 Gap, 380, 38 Mag. There were 20+ 22-250 that had been reloaded with cracked necks.
Steve

Are you sure the threaded cases were stuck cases and not Hornady cases used for their bullet seating gauge?

[SteveWag]

The threads were to rough, not centered. I have some Hornady and they are much nicer. I bumped because of my other thread.
Steve

[Trucker76]

I'll be getting in touch with you this weekend Steve. Will you be around Sat?

BTW read an article, forget where, in a mag that did a test on handgun brass. The guy reloaded a .38 special brass 144 times before it showed signs of wear and had to be pitched.

[IntenseImage]

once-fired, orig. primers

How did you determine this?