Bucket of 45 ACP Brass

[Boyscout]

I've been collecting 45 ACP brass since 1983 and I decided to sort by headstamp for processing. I had 32 lbs of empty cartridges or an estimated 2645 pieces of 45 ACP Brass. I found two military headstamps with 42 and 43 on them. My top three by volume were Winchester, Sellior & Belloit, and Federal. The weights of my sample set ranged from 80.9 gns-87.3 gns. I will lose a few after cleaning but I think it should keep me busy awhile.

I don't hoard anything else except brass. I just can't leave a piece of boxer primed brass on the ground.

[historicfirearms]

Nice stockpile. That should keep you busy a while. I too am a brass fiend, sometimes I spend more time looking for that last casing in the grass than I probably should.

[ReloaderFred]

I recently bought some lead from a guy who made a purchase at an "end of life sale" (estate sale). When he delivered the lead, he said I also had to take the brass, which of course I agreed to. There were 18 coffee cans of once fired .45 acp brass, 4 coffee cans of once fired .38 Spl. brass, and 3 coffee cans of primed .38 Spl. brass. I got about 200 pounds of lead for $100.00, and the brass was free. Oh, and there were miscellaneous jacketed bullets and primers in another box that amounted to about another 40 pounds of "stuff". I didn't even know Herters primers were made in Japan, but I now have a brick of them with "Made in Japan" printed in bold letters.....

Hope this helps.

Fred

[junkpile]

I have 2 boys. One of them is almost 4 years old now. I take him with me to the range to "give the wife a break". I think we spend more time looking for brass and lead than shooting, but he loves it. He knows the difference between brass, steel, and aluminum casings. And we had a good discussion on the difference between bullets and boolits. He's gotten pretty good at pointing out the difference.

Of course, we can't leave the range without doing a bunch of shooting. He'd be disappointed. Keeping hearing protection on him is sometimes a challenge, so I prefer to pick brass and lead as much as possible. He just loves seeing people shoot.

Anyway, I gather all kinds of brass, too. I don't even own a 9mm or a 40 cal. I pick it up anyway. My brother in law owns both. I may pass it off to him.

[Boyscout]

An elderly gentleman at church, who used to shoot competively, gave me 1000 165 gn. Sierra Match Kings, 8 lb. of IMR 4320, 800 rounds of National Match 308, 44 Rem Mag carbide RCBS dies, 308 Win Lyman reloading dies, 300 Win Mag Lyman dies and some dies for 7mm Weatherby Magnum. His grand kids to whom he gave his 40+ rifles and handguns didn't want anything to do with the reloading. On the thank you card I sent him, I glued a 1/2 MOA group my son shot from with his 30/06 using the components and powder he gave us.

I think he bought some of his guns just to have them. He had an unfired 6" S&W Model 29 in a presentation box and a couple M1 Gaurands which he competed with.

I doubt I will ever stumble upon this kind of deal again.

[enfieldphile]

My best received gift of brass was the smallest amount by numbers, but meant the most. I had got a 30/06, dies, primers, a pound of 4064, a box of Speer 150 grain bullets...but NO brass!

A friend, Rick, gave me 20 once-fired LC66 GI cases, still in the little cardboard box.

About those Herters primers. A shooting buddy had some of those in the late 1980's. IIRC, he said they were from the 70's?

[Wayne Smith]

Boyscout, if you don't have one you will need a way to standardize primer pockets. All those S&B cases have a tight primer pocket - I have broken a Lee hand primer seater on them. I got the Lyman primer uniformer and chucked it in my drill motor. Only have to do it once to each case. I'm still using those S&B cases.

[bob208]

i never counted it but i have 3 no.10 cans full. 2 .50 cal ammo cans full. one loaded one empty. just found a large juice can full of sized and primed emptys.and have boxes of once fired mil. that was fired and put back in the box.

one time i was at a shooting match on a range that the state police used also. this was back when they went to 9mm. there were so many emptys laying there i could not pick them all up. i gave it a good try though.

i have a large can full of .40 cal brass i picked up. now i don't have a .40 i son't even have dies for a .40. but i just can not let a pice of brass lay.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The fact that you have a stock pile of .45 ACP brass is the best reason I can think of to buy a .45 ACP pistol. That's what I did.

The good thing about .45 ACP is it is a lo-pressure round and the brass lasts virtually indefinitely.

I stopped sorting by headstamp. I just mix it all together and only cull the aluminum , steel , and small primered ones out.

You've got nearly a lifetime supply and there is plenty more where they came from.

Randy

[Boyscout]

I sorted them by headstamp because I have run into trouble with tight primer pockets on S&B and Winchester. I have broken decapping pins on Fiocchi from off-center holes. I figured if I separated them at first I could address the issues with each brand one time and be done with it. I normally mix it all up but I thought I might try to clean some of it up and trade.

[km101]

This project should keep you busy for a good while. I've never had problems with tight primer pockets on Win brass, but I have had off-center flash holes on S&B and PMC brass. And I have run across a lot of S&B brass that is dead soft! I cull out both brands and recycle them. I haven't seen any Fiocchi brass since the 80's, but I never had any problems with it.

[Boyscout]

Fiocchi seems to be fairly common around here although I have never purchased anything but 16 ga. shotgun shells. Shot my first Magtech ammo last week. I swear the stuff made more smoke than 50/50 Alox or LLA at the indoor range. I've always liked S&B in my Ruger P97 and the price is right. Mostly I shoot Lee 200 gn SWC though our 1911's with 5.4-5.7 gn Win 231. Our guns don't seem to care which brass we use; most of the issues are on the first reload.