How much brass do you collect?

[kokanee king]

I started out with just the calibers I shoot but now I find I will collect and keep any once fired brass caliber. I have well over 100 lbs of tumbled and sorted brass in my reloading room. Are there others here that collect brass like an obsession?

got any .45acp in your treasure

 

[Johnn Peterson]

OK, I have 850 .500 S&W and 450 .338 RUM brass alone, is that excessive for those calibers? Most of the common calibers I have 11.7 litre tubs full.

With some of the scarcer stuff like 500 S&W (Starline), 7x57R, 308 Norma Mag and for my latest acquisition, a 348 Winchester, I grab what I can get when I can get it. '06, 25-06, 444, 45-70, 7x57, 44 Mag, 357 Mag and some of the more common easily obtainable 'stuff', I keep three or four boxes on the go, in the same lot if possible, and another three or four boxes on the ready line for when needed. For another vintage little 'goodie' like my 219 Donaldson Wasp, I fire form from 30-30 brass but 'try' and start with a few boxes of the same lot.

 

[730win94]

anything centerfire and boxer primed
recently strated saving my spent 22lr to hopefully swage into some .224 projectiles some day

 

[Johnn Peterson]

anything centerfire and boxer primed
recently strated saving my spent 22lr to hopefully swage into some .224 projectiles some day

A while back, I picked up an out of print book, Twenty Two Caliber Varmint Rifles, to go along with my 'vintage' Winchester High Wall in 219 Donaldson Wasp. In it there is mention made of that process and some the required equipment available then. Sounds interesting, but, I think I'll probably stick with Sierra Blitzkings and Hornady V-MAX.

 

[TheTooner]

Collecting brass in a calibre you don't have a gun for does mean you have a psychological problem. Fortunately, if you can't stop, there is the solution explained above by DMcFaul.

 

[ipscgraz]

I used to tumble it, bag it and put it on the prize table in batches at club matches.

Used to.

Now its mine.


Mine mine mine mine mine mine

 

[bclinehand]

probably 400 plus pounds sorted and boxed ready to reload here.....(looked again probably low by a couple of hundred)

 

[Ranman]

How do you know the difference between brass thats once fired and brass that has been fired ten times??

 

[ipscgraz]

How do you know the difference between brass thats once fired and brass that has been fired ten times??

If you look down the open mouth of the case you will see a little discoloration. This will be black after a couple of firings.

There will quite often be a mark on the rim from the extractor; this shows how many times it has been cycled & fired.

 

[beretta boy]

For me, only 800 - 1000 rounds of brass for the 4 rifles I have, plus a mini-collection of handgun & rifle brass from 17 HRM to 50 BMG.

My soft-spot however was once-fired "AA"'s in all 4 gauges ... the "old" stuff, not the newer HS. Maybe 15,000 12 gauge and 8,000 or so 20 gauge (all deprimed, sized and stored in 45 gallon plastic drums) - and a couple thousand each of 28 & 410. Nope ... not parting with any of it.

 

[ajayofcanada]

I was recently in contact with the Regina Police Service range officer, my local police shoot Glock 22's and thus use 40 S&W, he told me they sell the brass to a local metal recycling plant, I paid a visit to this metal shop and I couldn't believe my eyes, they had 2 tupperware garbage cans full to the top with Speer once used brass. He said each can weighed 200 pounds of empty brass, that comes out to approx 44,000 empty brass in my caliber of choice.

He told me to stop by whenever I wanted some.