.303 brass value?

evilgrin

evilgrin

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I have about 200 pieces of once fired .303 british brass. Most of it is Winchester and Federal. There are about 40 pieces of Canadian surplus brass in there as well that it I remember correctly is from the 1940's. I don't need this brass and am looking to unload it. They have not been cleaned or de-primed.

Any idea of what I should ask for it on the EE?
 
I normally pay on average .20 each. Some people pay more, but if your not in a hurry the right price always pops up. In Canada the price of the brass is not a real concern, it's the price of the outragous shipping charges that one faces. If you can find out a decent shipping charge and let people know what it is ahead of time, you have better barginning power over the brass price, as the buyer can see quickly what the final price is going to be.
 
the surp brass likely won't be worth as much to a reloader, I think those are berdan primed and require some conversion to be reloaded. I don't really know what it is worth but I'd take it off you, I make some dummy bullets just for stripper clips and demonstrations and such, the surp brass would be perfect for that.

probably valued in around 10-20 cents per case ish. I know I bought a bunch of .303 brass at 10 cents a pop..
 
That makes sense. I'll have to pack and weigh it all to get a better idea. Most of it is still in the plastic holder that come in the box. Do people usually want those as well or just the loose brass? I'm new to the whole reloading part of this and am not sure what people want. Thanks for the help!
 
canadina surplus brass is boxer primed its british stuff thats berdan

if its been fired out of a lee enfield its not really going to have any sort of life left i turn once fired into dummy rounds or .410 brass i use the oring trick for a reason it stops brass stretching fired without this it only last about 3 loadings

also you guys got to stop firing canadian and brit surplus (even some of the older ammo) at this point .303 surplus near extinct
 
The only time 1x fired 303 brass has any value is if it was shot out of a Ruger #1 or an Enfield without headspace issues.
 
antiqueguy said:
canadina surplus brass is boxer primed its british stuff thats berdan

All .303" ammo made by Dominion Arsenal in Canada c1896-1953 was Berdan primed.
Military .303" made by Defence Industries, Dominion Cartridge Company and IVI was Boxer primed.
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I pay about a dollar a pound usually, some places charge two or three dollars a pound depending on the scrap price at the time.
 
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I have been getting lots of interest in this brass since I started this thread. I really don't know much about reloading or what to look for with the brass. I looked inside the surplus cases and there is only one hole for the primer. I'm assuming that means it is boxer primed? Berdan primed has two holes right? All of this was shot out of my Enfield No.4 mk1.

I noticed that the brass does appear to be slightly stretched at the base right near the rim. There is a narrow band that goes around them that is very slightly concave. The unfired ammo I have does not have this. What does this all mean and is the brass still ok to reload? I don't want to sell someone a pile of scrap if that's what I have.
 
evilgrin said:
I have been getting lots of interest in this brass since I started this thread. I really don't know much about reloading or what to look for with the brass. I looked inside the surplus cases and there is only one hole for the primer. I'm assuming that means it is boxer primed? Berdan primed has two holes right? All of this was shot out of my Enfield No.4 mk1.

I noticed that the brass does appear to be slightly stretched at the base right near the rim. There is a narrow band that goes around them that is very slightly concave. The unfired ammo I have does not have this. What does this all mean and is the brass still ok to reload? I don't want to sell someone a pile of scrap if that's what I have.
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it will last aout 2 or 3 loadings i resize most of once fired and seat a ullet and make dummy rounds or it gets annealed,primed,powder,cream of weat,wax cap and then put into a .410 and fire formed into .410 brass
 
When ever a person buys used brass, they throw caution to the wind. Over the years I have bought and received some brass that was shot out of certain rifles that sererated the case on the top 1/2 and I just couldn't clean them up. That kind of thing happens once in awhile but for me 99 % of the brass that I have bought, I have gotten my monies worth out of them. On your primer holes, yes, 1 hole is boxer 2 holes are berdan, so what you have is useable. And the stretching of the case is bound to happen if the rifle has a slighlty big (sloppy) chamber and the brass stretched to conform to it. Most people would resize it and fireform it to their rifle and from then on neck size it , which is common is rifles like old Enfields. My Ross is much tighter then my Enfield, so my Ross gest first crack at the brass, that way I get the most use out of the brass. Go ahead and sell them , you have told everyone what you have and nothing is being hidden.
 
This has been an interesting thread to read, thanks to all the contributors! I am a new .303 shooter, collecting my used brass, and I don't roll my own. I think I'll take Antiqueguy's advice and hang on to my milsurp ammo - sounds like a good tip! So, I'm wondering what is a reasonable amount of brass to put up for sale? and would that be best listed by the pound or the piece - or does that depend intuitively on the estimated amount? I don't have much used up yet (<100 pcs), but it would be nice to have an idea for down the road. Thanks again for the knowledge-sharing. :)
 
HIGHRPM said:
When ever a person buys used brass, they throw caution to the wind. Over the years I have bought and received some brass that was shot out of certain rifles that sererated the case on the top 1/2 and I just couldn't clean them up. That kind of thing happens once in awhile but for me 99 % of the brass that I have bought, I have gotten my monies worth out of them. On your primer holes, yes, 1 hole is boxer 2 holes are berdan, so what you have is useable. And the stretching of the case is bound to happen if the rifle has a slighlty big (sloppy) chamber and the brass stretched to conform to it. Most people would resize it and fireform it to their rifle and from then on neck size it , which is common is rifles like old Enfields. My Ross is much tighter then my Enfield, so my Ross gest first crack at the brass, that way I get the most use out of the brass. Go ahead and sell them , you have told everyone what you have and nothing is being hidden.
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if it was fired once without a oring its not going to last long you have to fire form with the oring to get lot of loads out of your brass ive gotten close to 30 loadings out of someof my brass neck sizing annealing every few firings and doing the oring trick first shot
 
Sea Monkey said:
This has been an interesting thread to read, thanks to all the contributors! I am a new .303 shooter, collecting my used brass, and I don't roll my own. I think I'll take Antiqueguy's advice and hang on to my milsurp ammo - sounds like a good tip! So, I'm wondering what is a reasonable amount of brass to put up for sale? and would that be best listed by the pound or the piece - or does that depend intuitively on the estimated amount? I don't have much used up yet (<100 pcs), but it would be nice to have an idea for down the road. Thanks again for the knowledge-sharing. :)
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yes mil surp ammo is not as common as it used to be save it anyway british stuff dose not always go bang even back in the day when it was new canadian stuff was better but its almost dried up. if its south african or pakistani ammo witch is newer but id still say dont shoot it unless you like split cases bad primers and possable bullets stuck in the barrel i pulled the bullets on the paki dumped the powder poped the primers and made dummy rounds
 
lol! Antiqueguy, you described exactly what happened to me last week; so I bought a small batch of milsurp ammo a little while back (gotta check origin), and some of the projectiles are at different depths into the cases...I thought maybe reloads because they look like lead ball (very rounded - not typical mil pointy), and there are two or three groves around the projectile. Against what I know better NOT to do now, I tried to fire a couple: the first one went like this click...re-####...click...wait...eject. Next one was click/pop, eject, ramrod bullet from barrel. Thankfully, there were only a dozen or so of those, but now they stay in the no-shoot collection.

So, how can I tell if I'm buying someone's reloads? All these have two tiny crimp-like mark on the side of the casing (across from each other), and the bullets look like what I'd imagine home-made lead would look like (not pointy or jacketed). I can try to post pics if needed. Last week I found some more milsurp .303 rounds that had the same crimp marks, but what I'd call "standard" bullets (pointy, jacketed) (and the seller assured me they were not reloaded), so i'm not sure what these crimp marks are from, because not all my milsurp ammo has them. Any help or advice would be appreciated a lot!
 
Sea Monkey said:
lol! Antiqueguy, you described exactly what happened to me last week; so I bought a small batch of milsurp ammo a little while back (gotta check origin), and some of the projectiles are at different depths into the cases...I thought maybe reloads because they look like lead ball (very rounded - not typical mil pointy), and there are two or three groves around the projectile. Against what I know better NOT to do now, I tried to fire a couple: the first one went like this click...re-####...click...wait...eject. Next one was click/pop, eject, ramrod bullet from barrel. Thankfully, there were only a dozen or so of those, but now they stay in the no-shoot collection.

So, how can I tell if I'm buying someone's reloads? All these have two tiny crimp-like mark on the side of the casing (across from each other), and the bullets look like what I'd imagine home-made lead would look like (not pointy or jacketed). I can try to post pics if needed. Last week I found some more milsurp .303 rounds that had the same crimp marks, but what I'd call "standard" bullets (pointy, jacketed) (and the seller assured me they were not reloaded), so i'm not sure what these crimp marks are from, because not all my milsurp ammo has them. Any help or advice would be appreciated a lot!
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early mk7 ball bullets are a silverish color these where made with cupro nickel also was it a spitzer bullet if not you tried to shoot really early round nose thats about as rare as hens teeth pics would be cool
 
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