Range Brass?!?!?

Don Doucette

Don Doucette

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I have been trying to purchase some brass on the EE forum and as always there is plenty of range brass for sale and most time it's listed as once fired!?

If a guy is collecting range brass for resale how the heck does he know that it was only fired once? What if I reloaded a casing 3 times and decided to leave my brass at the range and some guy picked it up and tries to sell it a 1F?

Sorry I am not buying!

Don
 
Most of the time, the brass left behind is not from a reloader, it is left by people that buy store bought ammo. usually you can tell by looking at the primers, most new stuff has a red,blue or green sealant around the primer.
 
I bought 100 .308 brass at a show, supposed to be once fired. About half did'nt have the original primers, so they'd been reloaded at least once.
It did'nt really bother me as brass can stand a lot of reloading if it's not overworked or loaded real hot.
Most of my brass comes from the range garbage cans! Once I have enough of a particular calibre, the I buy a gun for it!
 
I believe a reloader should be sure aboot their components.
Who else is going to suffer the ignorance. Maybe, the person next to you. Or better yet, the fella thats gunna try your load, cause "I loaded it", sure as hell "it" is good, range brass is good, num num, I know what Im doing.
I can go on for a long ways, but, Ill shut-up. Point given.+
Dwayner
 
Not trying to be an advocate or anything, just thinking aloud:

I don't know a reloader who reloads only once before discarding brass; for pistol.
Everyone makes a mark on their brass' headstamp with a particular color pen to make it easier to pick their own brass and prevent ppl from mistaking it for theirs.
So, if the brass is still on the floor and has marks, I know it's been reloaded and most likely a few times = trash.
 
XF Brass

Well I'd say you guys have it all figured out for sure. Don't try to use any brass you simply find lying at the range and don't buy brass off the EE especially if it is offered at a real good price and ,,particularly if its 45 ACP, 38 Super, .338 LM, or .223 R.

No sir, don't you boys touch #### like that, leave it for the suckers :D.
 
i shoot for accuracy, so i dont really bother with other ppls used brass. but if i were to load volume, i guess all i can say is to be sure that you inspect your cases, get the proper guages, and take your time. there may be a reason these guys left this junk at the range.
 
"...how the heck does he know..." He doesn't. That's the biggest problem with 'range brass'. You have no idea how many times it has been loaded or what load was used. Unless you saw the guy take it out of a box of commercial ammo.
"...may be a reason..." Usually guys who think their mommy's will be along to clean up their mess. Some can be berdan primed too.
 
sunray said:
"...how the heck does he know..." He doesn't. That's the biggest problem with 'range brass'. You have no idea how many times it has been loaded or what load was used. Unless you saw the guy take it out of a box of commercial ammo.
"...may be a reason..." Usually guys who think their mommy's will be along to clean up their mess. Some can be berdan primed too.
Click to expand...

Not that I could care less who buys what on the EE, (judging by trader ratings thats not a concern here anyway), but this thread is a real education for me. It seems everything I've learned about identifying pressure signs and characteristic failure indicators in brass just went out the window as has any use for the various gauges RCBS and other manufacturers sell as an aid to brass assessment.

All you gotta know, apparently, is that said brass wound up on a range at some point and you didn't put it there. "Outstanding", this is gonna save a lot of time. "The pox on those who navigate the murky waters of XF brass and the sellers who love them :D.
 
Yep, that's right, you guys should stay away from that range brass. All the competition for this stuff makes it tough on guys that use it all the time.

Funny thing, Phil Sharpe's book - Complete Guide to Handloading speaks of using 30-06 brass for 50 reloadings using reasonable charges. I guess they just don't make brass like they used to.
 
When my brass has been resized and reused enough times that I need to get rid of it, I take it home with me and throw it in the garbage. I dont want it blowing up for someone else.
 
Dang,
I have been doing this for close to 30 years now. I have only bought new brass once. Nov for my Wife's new 243 when I bought it for her. everything else has been *GASP* range brass *oh the horror*. I always just picked it up, tumbled it at home, inspected it, separated it, bagged it and whn I had a bag of 50, I'd use it. Man, have I been wrong! Oh BTW, I hunt. That's it. No squeezing out the last ft/s and loading up to the max. And I can still drop a moose at 600 yds if I had to with "range brass". Sorry. I have been in error all these years and still have all my parts.

Hey, anyone got any .243 or .308 "range brass" they want to get rid of now, since we have all been informed that is it trash? I'll take it, just for the brass salvage of course. I mean brass is $.90 per pound. That's why I even pick up the 22 stuff at the range. I guess I'll just throw the rest in the salvage heap as well. Then I'll use the money to buy GOOD brass. Maybe Norma would be satisfactory.
 
Well since some of you decided NOT to read what I wrote I'll get out the crayons and draw you a picture...

OK simply put...

Guy advertises brass 1F, how does he know????
It's F'n range brass it could be 200F?!?!?!
Yeah yeah blah blah blah, I should know this and a reloader should know that... hey dim wit, you don't have the brass in your hand yet do you??? So you can't look at or measure SQUAT!!!! :jerkit:

So you buy the range brass advertised at 1F, find most of it is useless, now what? you may have got a good deal but... You can polish a turd...

One other thing... apparently some of you don't shoot a semi auto handgun like a glock do you... I wouldn't touch 9x19 range brass with a 10 foot pole for fear it came from a glock with a stock barrel... I reload my 9mm but then my glock has an aftermarket barrel now that is a lot kinder to the brass.
Also for accuracy sake, and I'm not in the .25MOA group, I like to fire form my rifle brass.

I wouldn't have a problem using range brass but only if I collect it and inspect it myself, buying someones interpretation of 1F brass does not seem wise to me.

Thanks for your time.

Don
 
I find it pretty simple actually. If it is once fired by me, or I had the good fortune to be at the range when a few LEO are there practising, it's 1x fired. Anything other is range brass which has been sorted through......I'd never sell anything that I wouldn't put in my own firearms.

I've loaded some hot loads, and they get a black X on the headstamp, which doesn't matter to anyone else because I drag all brass home. Glock brass works fine for reloading.

Did someone sell you some #### brass?? You sure seem to have formed quite the opinion.
 
Well, you know its once fired if you pick it up after an organised LEO range visit. Those guys don't stand at the regular firing line. They walk out into the range and spray beautiful 223 and 308 brass every five yards. Gotta love it. :)
 
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