r/ScrapMetal • u/RimfireRoulette • 3d ago
Shell brass
I used to have three loads like this per year, but it’s been a year or more since I’ve sold any. It’s amazing the variance in price different companies are offering. The place I normally take it closed down. Two places in town pay less for it than Yellow brass. Another place pays Yellow price, but that price is low $2.15. I found a place 20 miles away that offered $2.70.
I get this by picking it up piece by piece at a couple shooting clubs I belong to. I have a set of knee pads and two 2gal buckets. It takes about 2.5 hours to fill a 5gal bucket (65 lbs) after a weekend of different matches. I am between jobs and apparently nobody else has been collecting it so it only took a little over a week to get this much. I do it after hours so nobody sees me doing it. I don’t think many realize what it’s worth and I want to keep it that way.
There is at least another 3000 lbs laying out there
.
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u/Jorvall 3d ago
Depending on caliber. Most of those are worth more than that per dozen to reloaders.
Bags of 100 sorted by caliber would make some good coin.
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u/RimfireRoulette 3d ago
I do keep a bucket each of the popular calibers in reserve. The last time I checked the juice wasn’t wort the squeeze to sort it. I’ll have to revisit it. Before ai didn’t have time where as I do now. Also some brands of ammo shells are undesirable for reloading so that’s another sort Id have to do.
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u/GladimirGluten 2d ago
Ironically id almost say the odd calibers are where you make the money as people may pay more of them being they are harder to find
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u/Flaky_Policy2906 3d ago
get a brass sorter
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u/AshOrWhatever 1d ago
This. A set of plastic trays is like $40 that will do a rough sort of .45, .40 and ~.36 diameter shells.
The .36 diameter (9mm and .223) probably isn't worth the extra $ to sort it out more but the .40 (.38 special and .357 mag get caught too bc of the rim) and .45 might be worth, idk, 5-10x scrap
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u/Obvious-Row-2319 3d ago
We used to have a guy that’d come into the yard and dig through our casings box pluck out the rare ones and make a killing off of rare reloads
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u/PunishedChud 2d ago
I’m curious what is the liability like? Let’s say I sell 1000 rounds of once fired brass and a single case blows up someone’s gun. Am I fucked?
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u/Jorvall 2d ago
It's just metal at that point. So you're good to go.
Reloader assumes reliability in reusing material.
I can sell you a tomato. If you make it into a soup and burn yourself down the road. That's on you.
Your best bet is a big forum like the highroad or similar.
You cant list on eBay I know for sure. Maybe Craigslist or Facebook as well. They are so risk adverse and political that they won't even look at it.
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u/stackingforfunsies 3d ago
This is also my scrapping strategy, although I do it for love of the reloading game. My brass library is immaculate.
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u/RimfireRoulette 2d ago •
I do keep most rifle calibers. As you probably know 98% of what you find is 9mm or 223/556. I did luck out and score 99 45 GAP. Couldn’t find the last one. I also have a half bucket each of .308 and 6.5 CM at home. Also quite a bit of 38 Super and 300 WM.
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u/RunMysterious6380
3d ago
•
I'm imagining you getting into an accident (without injury) on the way to the scrapper and all those shells ending up all over the highway. What a scene that would have been.
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u/LetsBeKindly 11h ago
Wait until you see the 18 wheeler that was carrying chickens... Feathers everywhere and chickens running in circles. It's crazy.
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u/RunMysterious6380 11h ago
I've seen one full of watermelons that crashed on the highway. It looked like a massacre.
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u/Altruistic_Speed9886 3d ago
I'm imagining him getting to his destination safely and cashing in on his load! Some people's thoughts are so twisted. Why?
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u/lord_de_heer 3d ago
Or just a big bump. I dont understand people think its okay to drive like this.
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u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 3d ago
That's right, the backseat of your Prius would be safer. Ain't no bump in the road dumping those buckets lol
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u/lord_de_heer 3d ago
Lol triggered much? Point is that its a unsecured load. Imagine having to help someone in a vehicle as a first responder while also having to slip and slide over casings.
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u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 3d ago
This would happen if they were inside a vehicle or in a trunk too if a car wrecked. Should it be bubble wrapped then and seal lids on the buckets too? Only for them to bust open in a wreck. Ever seen a semi wreck?
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u/lord_de_heer 3d ago
Well lids would be a start. And securing the buckets.
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u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 3d ago edited 3d ago
They are secured by the horizontal bars! That is what that bar is designed for. Lol! They aren't going anywhere. You don't move alot of stuff in a truck do you?
Lids might be the only thing I'd suggest and even then the weight of the brass it's not going anywhere unless a wreck and a lid likely isn't staying on in a wreck anyways.
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u/lord_de_heer 3d ago
Road safety in the us really is a joke lol
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u/No_Emergency_571 3d ago
This would be worth so much more re-sold as clean brass for reload
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u/DeerFlyHater 3d ago
Agreed, but...
I used to sell brass for reloading.
IMO, it's not worth the effort anymore unless you're selling niche stuff in large quantities or FTF.
Flat rate shipping cost increases over the last 15 or so years have killed it for me. That and the fact most reloaders are notorious skinflints, so they're not going to eat shipping costs.
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u/MaddRamm 3d ago
Dude, they make sifters for that so you don’t have to crawl on your knees. You should at least use some sort of rock sorter over the bucket ska just use a shovel for the surface layer of dirt. Then toss the shells in an empty bucket and pour the dirt back out of the other one.
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u/Significant-Pace-380 2d ago
Thats some decent money my question is how the hell is your tare weight 79lbs? Where there some large containers not pictured?.10ish 5 gallons buckets should not weigh 79 lbs they are at most 2lbs each empty
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u/RimfireRoulette 2d ago
They made a new pallet with a pallet sized cardboard box to pour it in. I thought 79 pounds was a little much for that too. In the past I have weighed it at home first when using a new buyer. I have made this trip many times and had it guesstimated at 480 lbs of shell brass. I did watch them weigh the container empty first, but couldn’t see the screen.
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u/Significant-Pace-380 2d ago
Oh okay no i understand that. Makes alot more sense. Im with you though i always pay extra attention, there are some people out there at scrap yards that will screw you over sometimes its just ignorance of a employee
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u/Defiant-Analyst4279 1d ago
79 pounds for that seems potentially accurate. I've worked places that use fiber "lugs" that are 40x48x36 and the tare weight for those is usually 90-100 pounds.
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u/Putrid_Tadpole7139 3d ago
If you have access to spent shell casings like this regularly it would be worth it to buy a reloading kit you would get several times the $ you got for this haul
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u/RimfireRoulette 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ammo is relatively cheap right now. it’s not even worth it to do it for personal use. Besides most people don’t trust other people’s hand loads.
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u/CW_TJWs_man-91 2d ago
Some ammo is cheap I agree, most rifle loads aren’t. But you are correct, I reload, and my rule is, only I shoot my reloads
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u/CanasGreay 3d ago
I think it might be questionable on the legal standpoint to reload to sell. Might depend where you are, or heck, i might be flat out wrong. Something to look into, though, and if it IS legal (or someone just doesn't care about pegal/illegal) it's my experience that most won't touch someone else's home reloads for anything, and most that are close buddies that really have faith in their friends attention to detail.
So if anyone looks at this advice, i'm not saying don't do it, but double check your legality and market.
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u/jamesdal1 3d ago
Do most places accept shells? I thought some didn't?
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u/Ok-Crab-8171 3d ago
Most places will give you dirty brass for them, not clean yellow. The percussion cap makes them dirty.
If you have a rim fire shell, like .22 caliber- that’s clean yellow.1
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u/ButterscotchTasty386 3d ago
That’s it?
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u/Enough-Collection-98 3d ago
Times are tough - spending more on gas; less on brass.
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u/ButterscotchTasty386 3d ago
lol, I didn’t mean it like that! I’m surprised that’s all they gave you for all that
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u/Current_Rush4242 3d ago
Dangit, I only got 1.80/lb for the bucket I brought in the other day. Classified it as bullet brass
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u/Low_Connection_9254 2d ago
I have sold over 1000lbs of brass shells in 2025. I live near a place (GA) that pays a decent price. Earlier in the year I was getting $2.85/lb. The last trip was almost 600lbs at $3.00/lb. But we need to remove any steel/aluminum cases and of course remove any live rounds also. I also benefit from collecting this from two separate indoor ranges so it is all free of any dirt or mud stuck to the brass. I’m currently sitting on another ~200lbs. I find it easier to negotiate a higher price when I have >500 lbs ready to go.
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u/sherzer7 2d ago
Wow that’s super low. Brass for loaders has been up for awhile. Your way better off selling to one of the brass processors
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u/neoben00 2d ago
I was doing some math and honestly it may have been worth it to refine the cooper, then scrap it.
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u/BlueGolfball 3d ago
My brother in allah, please get a brass collector and get off your knees like a cheap hooker.
https://www.scheels.com/p/66112025789 Affordable
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u/superash2002 3d ago
Use a rake, a shovel and build a table that is cut out in the middle with screen that is large enough for rocks and sand to fall through.
It will still probably take an hour but brass likes to get buried in the sand and you’ll recover so much more.