Interesting things to do with spent casings?

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Other than reload them!

I have a lighter made from a 50 BMG case, and my dad has a lamp made from an artillery shell, and of course powder scoops are always favorites.

What else can you do with spent casings?

[nicholst55]

Make bullet jackets out of them. See the Swaging forum.

[GRUMPA]

Make bullet jackets out of them. See the Swaging forum.

+1 and also for the 223's I make 300 Blackout, 222 Rem, 221 Fireball, and the 7mm TCU is out for field trials at the moment.

Waste not want not.

[WILCO]

I've used a .223 case as a cigar punch.

[Kraschenbirn]

I've used a .223 case as a cigar punch.

Me, too...and, after sharpening the mouth with an RCBS deburring tool, as a leather punch for field repair of harness and pack gear.

Bill

[1Shirt]

Cut the heads off the appropriate cals and they make excellent cake cutters. Old process but cheap and effective.
1Shirt!:coffeecom:coffeecom:coffeecom

[runfiverun]

i have polished up nickel cases and some jaxketed boolits,and drilled out the primer hole, to make ends for bolo-ties.

[geargnasher]

CCI Stinger (nickel) .22 cases make excellent bolo and lace hatband ends as R5R mentioned.

One fellow is making a table out of them in the Special Projects section.

I made the bud base and leaves for a metal rose out of some split .45/90 cases:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/album.php?albumid=395&pictureid=3406

Gear

[L1A1Rocker]

I've got a tie tack made from the base of a 45 ACP.

[geargnasher]

I'm waiting to see if someone uses a .223 as a nose bone, you know somebody, somewhere has done that!

Gear

[popper]

.223 as a nose bone Really, Gear. I was going to make lamps from WWII 105 cases, wife didn't think much of the deccor so I trashed tha. Now I realize how much brass is worth, I lost about $50.

[blademasterii]

I did .22 magnum shells for nipple bars for a party. Forgot to take pictures though. Aren't you glad?

[dmize]

When I was a kid I came up with the idea to make flowers out of empty shotgun shells,yarn and a cotton ball

[cheese1566]

Nickel 45ACP casings for my cabinet knobs on my reloading bench.

[runfiverun]

this isn't brass cases but along the same theme.
my gun cabinet door latches are a shell holder and a blank sprue plate.

i have a coat rack in the kiitchen and there are some old 8mm lebel cases acra glassed on the pegs.
unfortunatly you can't see them as it's full of coats.
but it looked cool when i first made it.

[429421Cowboy]

I have made buttons for my hunting pants out of 16 ga shells, punch out primer and save, saw the head off at the rim, drill a hole sideways through the primer and sew on, i think they look neat!
Also drawer pulls out of shotgun shells, handles for different fly tying tools out of .270 cases fit the hand well. Pollished up nickle .45 Colt brass over a .410 shell makes a neat looking pipe tamper, if you smoke a pipe.
I made a coat rack out of high brass 12 gauge shells awhile back for my dad.
No brass is wasted here, if it is shootable it is labled and stored for trading if we don't have a gun for it, the rest goes in the scrap bucket, thats how brass becomes primers:bigsmyl2:

[woody1]

More handles for things.........drill out and thread the primer hole....screw in a cleaning brush for a case neck cleaner. I've also used 'em for repairing broken fuel lines and other such small hoses... ya know, the right size case, cut the head and mebe neck off and a couple of hose clamps........they make a pretty good stopper too like for when you've got to pull one end of that line off, to keep it from leaking..... I've also whittled a case head down to make sights and sight blanks.

Regards, Woody

[Sweetpea]

Believe it or not, I once rebuilt a toilet seat... I had bought a quality seat, with all metal hardware... but the cheap plastic hinge pins broke after about a month! IIRC, I cut down some 40 S&W and pressed them into the pockets, and cut the heads off some 357's for the pins... added a little grease, put it together, and presto! better than new!

[DSL1138]

I know one guy who uses his spent .44 Magnum cases as earplugs.

[Adam10mm]

.50 BMG brass makes good tap handles for kegerators. Epoxy a bullet in place if you don't have a die set. Sells well at gun shows.

I crush the neck on .223 brass a wee bit and keep one in the pistol grip to adjust the front sight post.

A spent .45 ACP casing pushes on the Dillon primer rod (the black thing) to add a bit of weight which ensures you don't get jammed primers in the primer feeder.

[just.don]

I made a really cool set of wind chimes from .50 BMG.
Polished up real pretty, lovely in a good breeze.

[Sasquatch-1]

I know one guy who uses his spent .44 Magnum cases as earplugs.

Must have big ear canals, I can only get .38's in mine.

I knew a guy who used the same 410/45acp idea to carry his black powder to the range. He cut down the .410 so that it held 70 grns and capped it with thw 45 acp. pop the 45 off and pour powder down the barrel. The 410 fit well in both his 50 cal and 54 cal rifles.

[375RUGER]

Pencil holder out of 50 BMG held together with the belt links.
Pencil holder with 12, 20 and 16ga hulls screwed to a piece of black walnut.
22 Hornet for bolo tie ends.
I've made lots of ceiling fan pull chains with everything from .357 to 12ga.
Cake cutters.
Hole punches.

Not brass but once I used a 7.62 FMJ and JB weld to make a check valve to prevent oil from back flowing in a system.

[Sasquatch-1]

Pencil holder out of 50 BMG held together with the belt links.
Pencil holder with 12, 20 and 16ga hulls screwed to a piece of black walnut.


You know the 12 ga shell (if cleaned extremely well) would make good toothbrush holders in the bathroom.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use to shoot with a guy who would use spent 45 acp cases as shooting ear protection...that can't work very good ?
He was retired army [20 years], and said that's where he learned that.

I make a fixed, double ended, BP powder measure for shooting the Old Army.
9mm luger on one side and 40 on the other.
one measured BP, the other measured cornmeal [as a filler]
Jon

[WILCO]

Believe it or not, I once rebuilt a toilet seat...

I believe it Sweetpea! [smilie=p:

[jhrosier]

I used a fired .303 cartridge with a new bullet seated as a pipe tamper.
It was kinda fun watching folks duck & hide if they didn't know it was inert.:-D

Jack

[Any Cal.]

.44 Mag brass made a nice bp measure for light loads.

.458 Win Mag case is my powder trickler.

Put a fired case over a screwdriver for an impromptu brass punch when you need to drift a sight.

[Chihuahua Floyd]

44 Mag brass and a lead bullet make a great pocke watch fob. I did fill the case with lead before seating the bullet. small eye bolt thru primer hole before filling.
CF

[a.squibload]

When I was a Boy Scout I made a neckerchief slide out ot some 9mm cases
wired together in a ring. The other kids thought it was cool...

[dagger dog]

You can make nice chonchos to adorne your pistol or cartridge belts, holsters, possibles pouch etc.

Just deprime cut off the cartridge heads, drill the primer holes so your rivets can fit,use a dry brush technique with black paint to make the headstamps stand out, polish with a fine emory paper taped to a pane of glass , then spray with a clear laquer , use a copper rivet with the head turned to fit the primer pocket, with a washer on the back side.

[Harter66]

Several drawer pulls. Assorted hose plugs. For several yr a 22-250 case was a drop tube/funnel for my 1st powder measure. 06' gets worked down the line all the way to GAP if I had 1 via x57,308,Savages,shouldered shot cases for the Colts BlackHawk,WinMag,Rowland etc. Most of the 223 gets traded off but the 9mm WinMag , and a couple of spare cylinders for another RBH have changed some of that.303s that I aquire become brass 410s then on down to GAP length cowboys. I've 2 or 3 strings of Christmas lights I made w/12ga cases. My grandfather had a 50BMG case that was made into a an actual match style benzine fueled lighter during the war. In a pinch 762-39 will make assorted 10mm/40 cases too . Wad cutters are a favorite of mine also the 50 Beowolf makes nice tight wad cards for 45/410. There's not much left when I get a piece of brass used up.

[JIMinPHX]

Back when our boys where over in Nam, it was not that uncommon to see flower vases that had been hand hammered out of 90mm shell casings, or even the big 105's. The same guys that sold them usually also carried sandals that had the soles cut from old tires & uppers that were cut from inner tubes. They weren't real comfortable, but they beat going barefoot by a long stretch, especially if bungi sticks were common in your area.

[Norbrat]

I was at the hardware store on Sunday and they always have a charity sausage sizzle out front on weekends.

This time it was the Vietnam Veterans Association and they also had a stall selling various souveniers and trinkets. I picked up this pen, made from a couple of .308 shells by one of their members.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/109145029bc6c661b1.jpg

I figured $20 was a good deal, especially as it will help these blokes.

I just gotta remember to not take it to the airport!

[462]

"The same guys that sold them usually also carried sandals that had the soles cut from old tires & uppers that were cut from inner tubes."

Ho Chi Mihn Trailblazers.

[Centaur 1]

Cut the rim off the case and solder to the head of a chicago screw. I put one on my leather slings, the caliber matches the rifle.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk248/mlschmall/IMG_5438.jpg

[WRideout]

I use 12 ga high brass shotgun hulls, top cut off, for drawer pulls on my shop cabinetry. Read that in a book a while ago.

Wayne

[375RUGER]

Cut the rim off the case and solder to the head of a chicago screw. I put one on my leather slings, the caliber matches the rifle.



Now I've got something to do.

[ErikO]

Way back in the day, I used the last 12 gauge spent shell I fired for my Rifle and Shotgun merit badge to make a neckerchief slide.

[flydoc]

I took some old deprimed cases, polished them up, loaded a projectile in them, soldered a brass eyelet in the primer pocket,sprayed them with clear lacquer , then tied a little paracord in the eye. and it hangs from my rearview mirror for all to see. My buddies liked it so much I made them one in their favorite calibers. I also took some red and green plastic shotgun hulls and made them my cord pulls for a ceiling fan in the man-cave. I also used them to make a string of Christmas lights for the mantle.

[Edub]

I make whistle duck calls out of shotshells. I take two 12ga shotshells; one high one low brass, deprime, heat them up, remove all the plastic, expand the high brass and insert the low brass into the high brass. Push together and there you have it.

[ilcop22]

I'm hording .22 and damaged/spent cases to melt down for either sale or special projects.

[Longwood]

I made a really cool set of wind chimes from .50 BMG.
Polished up real pretty, lovely in a good breeze.

A de-primed and cut off 44 case, will fit the mouth of the BMG case. Soldered in, they make a good support method so the fifty cases, hang straight.
I have cut off the necks, soldered in a short 44 brass then cut the fifty case again, to a length that I want, too make little brass tinkle bells for doors etc.
They work great on handle bars of mountain bikes, to warn the, so easily spooked horses, that you are coming.

[Big Boomer]

Some years back I made a "companion" knife for a .30-06 rifle out of a file. Took a lot of grinding, shaping and polishing to get the blade just right.

My son had outgrown a small, green colored fiberglass bow from which I made the handles for the knife. The heads of the '06 cases were cut off and, using a wood bit, I drilled holes in the fiberglass handles just the right size opposite each other and epoxied them in the holes with the extractor rim above the surface of the knife handles.

I took live primers from which I removed the anvil and brisance and seated them in the case heads prior to installation into the handles. Then I took the remains of the '06 cases and squeezed them flat in a vice, soldered them together, polished them and cut a hole in them so as to make the knife hilt. I still have that knife and keep it in my "shooting" box. Since the blade was once a file, when sharpened it really holds a good edge. 'Tuck (as in Kentuck)

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I make whistle duck calls out of shotshells. I take two 12ga shotshells; one high one low brass, deprime, heat them up, remove all the plastic, expand the high brass and insert the low brass into the high brass. Push together and there you have it.


Some years back I made a "companion" knife for a .30-06 rifle out of a file. Took a lot of grinding, shaping and polishing to get the blade just right.

My son had outgrown a small, green colored fiberglass bow from which I made the handles for the knife. The heads of the '06 cases were cut off and, using a wood bit, I drilled holes in the fiberglass handles just the right size opposite each other and epoxied them in the holes with the extractor rim above the surface of the knife handles.

I took live primers from which I removed the anvil and brisance and seated them in the case heads prior to installation into the handles. Then I took the remains of the '06 cases and squeezed them flat in a vice, soldered them together, polished them and cut a hole in them so as to make the knife hilt. I still have that knife and keep it in my "shooting" box. Since the blade was once a file, when sharpened it really holds a good edge. 'Tuck (as in Kentuck)

We need some pictures of these!

[fatelk]

I think I've got a unique one: when I was in high school I made a pan flute out of assorted cases, IIRC a .50BMG on one end and a .22 on the other. I carefully whistled, selected, and tuned each case, then glued them together with hot glue. As I recall we had a white elephant gift exchange that year (small school) and the principal ended up with the flute. A friend I stay in touch with is still friends with the principal's daughter. She said that he still has it as decoration on a shelf, on the opposite coast (they moved), two decades later.

I can just see it: a century from now it will be on Antique Roadshow: family heirloom- late 20th century folk art- worth $500! Wow, enough for two gallons of gas!:)

Geargnasher, I just looked at your photo of the rose. That's some impressive workmanship!

[Edub]

We need some pictures of these!

Here's my Youtube video on how to make them: http://youtu.be/vP1vC4zwmrw

[JIMinPHX]

Some years back I made a "companion" knife for a .30-06 rifle out of a file.

I tried that a while back. The file steel turned out to be a bit on the brittle side. I later had much better luck when I started with a dull blade out of an industrial reciprocating saw. The original blade was about 1.5" wide x 16" long. It was made by Lenox. After I got the teeth ground off of it, There was still enough hard area left to hold a good edge. The rest of the steel was spring tempered for flex. It was a good combination.