Hoarding Brass

[Char-Gar]

I remember those days also! I had a 310 tool to load my rifle cartridges and a "C" press to load the revolver stuff. Also some 310 dies for revolver. Than I got into PPC and bought a Dillon 450. I still have the 450 but have gone back to the single station and the 310 for the majority of my reloading. Occasionally, I will use the 450 or one of my brothers progressives to load up a bunch (500!) of ammo. My shooting has also decreased. I generally go out with maybe 10 rifle rounds and 2 or 3 cylinders worth of reloads.

But I still have buckets of brass for some cartridges, 38 Special and 22 WCF for example. Not so much for the 44 Colt or the 50-70. 45 ACP, well, who doesn't have a couple hundred pounds of that?

I still load handgun ammo with a 310 tool and a trio of old Pacific C presses. I load rifle on a RCBS A2. I took a flyer into progressive reloading and bought a Dillon some years back. You could really crank out ammo on one of those machines, but an overcharge in a fine old 1931 Colt Officers Model 38 Special soured me on them. No damage was done to the handgun, but the Dillon was sold down river, pretty quick you betcha. I don't need to load ammo that fast.

[fredj338]

I shoot two calibers. I currently have 200 or more of about eight. If i decide to ever shoot 45 (more so if the wife let's me) I'll have at least 500 of that ready to go! Its not hoarding, it's hoping to shoot them in the future!

500 isn't even a good start! If you get into some form of competition like IDPA or USPSA, you can often score 1000s in just a couple trips. This month I started shooting 40 minor vs 45acp. In just two matches & have already picked up 500rds above what I shot. I am amazed how many still shoot factory ammo.

[John Allen]

Hello, My name is John and I am a brass and lead hoarder. I am planning on doing nothing about it except continuing the addiction.

[nagantguy]

Hello, My name is John and I am a brass and lead hoarder. I am planning on doing nothing about it except continuing the addiction.

Hello Jon, my name is Steve. I first realized I had a problem when I couldn't just physically could not trade off some .44 brass.

[Blackwater]

It's part of every real reloader's DNA to salvage brass at every opportunity, and those of us who are getting a bit long in the tooth have a plenty! I'm humbled too, to be so blessed with raw products to keep me going. I've even taken to saving spent primers in a big 2 lb. coffee can. With the price of brass, fluctuating, ya' just never know what you might get for a big can of near solid brass, ya' know? "Waste not, want not," as the old timers used to say. I just hate to see things squandered, and committing something recyclable to a local dump just offends my delicate country boy sensibilities. If that makes me peculiar, so be it. I've been called a lot worse, I assure you.

[blackthorn]

When it comes to accumulating brass---I have a terminal case of selective OCD!!!

[Boyscout]

There is a store close to town that sells loose brass and everytime I stopped in I would buy 25-50 35 Remington Cartridges, one time I needed to round up an internet order to make the freight worthwhile and I bought 100 more of the same. I felt quilty buying it when I really didn't "need" it. Now, I can't even find loaded 35 Remington ammunition. I am glad I "hoarded" and I won't be hurting for brass to reload for awhile.

I shortened 12 cases to comply with State law and felt quilty, but it was the only way I could use my rifle. My son also has a 35 Remington T/C. He will appreciate my hoarding when he inherits my reloading stuff. Shooting my first cast bullet deer last week made the mutilation of brass a little more palatable. I'm am going to hold off doing much more until Indiana makes a ruling on using high power rifles.

[bangerjim]

Hoarding......that's not hoarding!


I have over 1,400# of brass and AlBronze barstock (1/8-6") stored in my machine shops. Now that's hoarding! Bought a lot of it when it was $0.75-1.00/#.

Lost count on the # of pistol and rifle brass castings. Always come home with more than I go with!

banger

[Frank46]

At one time before the crazyness with reloading components and ammo shortages I started picking up spent brass. Over a period of a couple years I had over ten 5 gallon buckets full of just about any caliber you could name except the older ones. I had guys asking if they could get certain calibers and was happy to do it. Got tired of tripping over the buckets in the garage. Off to the scrap yard. 459 pounds of brass almost filled a 55 gallon drum. Had a buddy who did CCW handgun courses he had so much brass from the classes he'd hand me the broom and said have at it. 40mm cans full of 38 special, 40S&W,45 acp. Don't even pick any up at all now. Frank

[fal_762x51]

The wife always gives me the look when I come home with a 5 gal bucket full. The one who dies with the most stuff wins.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Hoarding???? Not. waste not want not!!!!

[jonk]

I know a guy in his 60s who has been shooting for about 50 years. When last we spoke, he had:
700,000 loaded rounds of .45 ACP, and about 1.2 million more cases;
2 million loaded rounds of 9mm, but not so many empties
100,000 each of loaded 30-06, .308, 5.56, plus 250,000 or so empties total, 100k each of the 30s and 50k of the .223
Plus several million loaded rounds in various other calibers
18,000lb of lead
Over 1000 guns
More powder and primers than are legal to have in the house
God knows how many jacketed bullets

Basically his entire basement was filled, stack floor to ceiling with pallets full of loaded ammo, all of which he had done himself. Attic was filled with guns. Lead stacked in 50lb pigs in his back yard. Brass in 55 gallon drums in his double car garage, again completely full.

He was still buying more of everything as fast as he could. And yes, while having a modest enough house, you wouldn't know he's a millionaire.

Lest you think this is 'a friend of a friend of a cousin's wife', I did see this hoard myself once.

Now to be fair, he does shoot about 100,000 rounds a year, he has his own range on site, and shoots pretty much every day.

THAT is a hoard. A 5 gallon bucket of brass? Wise set aside for a rainy day.

[RayinNH]

I know a guy in his 60s who has been shooting for about 50 years. When last we spoke, he had:
700,000 loaded rounds of .45 ACP, and about 1.2 million more cases;
2 million loaded rounds of 9mm, but not so many empties
100,000 each of loaded 30-06, .308, 5.56, plus 250,000 or so empties total, 100k each of the 30s and 50k of the .223
Plus several million loaded rounds in various other calibers
18,000lb of lead
Over 1000 guns
More powder and primers than are legal to have in the house
God knows how many jacketed bullets

Basically his entire basement was filled, stack floor to ceiling with pallets full of loaded ammo, all of which he had done himself. Attic was filled with guns. Lead stacked in 50lb pigs in his back yard. Brass in 55 gallon drums in his double car garage, again completely full.

He was still buying more of everything as fast as he could. And yes, while having a modest enough house, you wouldn't know he's a millionaire.

Lest you think this is 'a friend of a friend of a cousin's wife', I did see this hoard myself once.

Now to be fair, he does shoot about 100,000 rounds a year, he has his own range on site, and shoots pretty much every day.

THAT is a hoard. A 5 gallon bucket of brass? Wise set aside for a rainy day.

.

[Shiloh]

Hoarding? No, just a frugal man makng sure he takes care of his future needs.

I pick up any brass I find on the ground. Why? Because it seems wasteful not to. I use what I can and scrap the rest.

Lifetime supply? At 48 I'm not prepared to make that call yet. For some cartridges I'm sure I'm there, for others I'm not so sure. I suppose it will be up to my estate to determine how my supply stacks up as "lifetime ".

Guilty here as well. I'm a brass monkey. It gets harder to stoop over to pick it up though.

Shiloh

[W.R.Buchanan]

If you're going to pick up brass and you are older and not as flexible as before then I would suggest one of these devices. It's called a "Nut Wizard" and you guessed it,,,it was originally designed to pick up nuts.

I sweep ranges after my shooting events and usually come home with a lot more than I left with. I seldom come home from my home range with less than 100 once fired .223's usually LC's. It amazes me that people just leave the stuff laying there, but everytime I go there is a new supply just laying there.

Even if you don't reload you can always recycle, plus it is good etiquette to clean up after yourself.

Randy

[62chevy]

I feel totally inadequate with my small stash of brass and lead.

[EDG]

I recently found a new rifle laying in the floor of the closet in the form of large quantity of hard to locate brass for which I have no rifle. So now if I sell the brass and buy the rifle. I will have to find some more of that brass. It is something like working on your glasses. You really need another pair of glasses.

[mdi]

One time I wondered why I looked for a 30-06 case that had been flung hither and yon by my Garand, mebbe 5-10 minutes before I found it. I figgered I look would for a shiny new dime (or quarter) so why not a case?

BTW; I do not own a .40 S&W handgun and I have never shot one, but I have about 300 cases I "found" at the local "shootin' spot". I don't think I'll ever own a .40, but who knows? I may make some jacketed .44 Mag. bullets outta those cases...

[rondog]

If you're going to pick up brass and you are older and not as flexible as before then I would suggest one of these devices. It's called a "Nut Wizard" and you guessed it,,,it was originally designed to pick up nuts.

I sweep ranges after my shooting events and usually come home with a lot more than I left with. I seldom come home from my home range with less than 100 once fired .223's usually LC's. It amazes me that people just leave the stuff laying there, but everytime I go there is a new supply just laying there.

Even if you don't reload you can always recycle, plus it is good etiquette to clean up after yourself.

Randy

Absolutely! I have one called a Brass Mower, same thing as a Nut Wizard but made for brass, just a little different in size is all. But man, what a wonderful tool for picking up brass! I heartily recommend these things.

[ravelode]

I'll go to the local casual shooting area (it's) less than 1mile from my house and pick up any brass, lead and misc. stuff people leave behind, in one 5month period I found a couple thousand pieces of reloadable brass, a full AK 47 mag, one AR15 mag, one Ruger 10-22 mag, three boxes of factory 12 gauge ammo, and more unfired ammo in various calibers than I cared to count god bless those careless (drunken nighttime) plinkers