How much is too much?

[MR45]

I love the 45 ACP I have about 10 5 gallon pails of brass am I crazy
The scrap dealer will give me two dollars a pound. What do you think I should do?

[ascast]

offer it for sale here

[BLAHUT]

I love the 45 ACP I have about 10 5 gallon pails of brass am I crazy
The scrap dealer will give me two dollars a pound. What do you think I should do?

Put on here to sell to people who need some; If you can find the components ? load some and have on hand ? Won't be long and they will be worth there weight in gold ? Anti's do not think you should have any of this.......

[dverna]

You should be able to sell it for more than $2/lb if you want to get rid of some. Seems silly to sell it for scrap price when it should fetch over $75/1000. (1000 cases weigh about 13 lbs so over $5.50/lb)

How much to sell depends on your age, and how much you expect to shoot a year. You should get over a dozen reloads per case and assume a 5% loss at the range.

[Bigslug]

No better time to sell than when when we've got a gun-ban sponsoring Democrat in the White House. Nobody seems to stock up during a friendly administration when things are plentiful & cheap. If you've been a good ant, nothing wrong with passing the screwing on to the grasshoppers at reasonable discount from current market prices for new. Like Verna says, .45 brass is pretty much forever, so your main discount points would be mismatched head stamps or the possibility of mixed small and large primer pockets.

Sell local if you can, though I'd expect parceling out 50 gallons might saturate the local market quickly. I'd weigh a counted quantity of cases and then save my sanity by packaging by weight/approximate quantity. Add half a handful so nobody feels jipped if they end up five cases short. If you're gonna ship, substitute a USPS flat rate box for the baggie and factor that rate into your pricing.

[Winger Ed.]

Sell it here.
Make a few folks happy, and add a few bucks to the 'Keep MR45 from starving to death this week fund'.:bigsmyl2:

[kevin c]

You could do what I did.

Many years ago I started collecting 45 ACP brass in anticipation of buying my first 1911. I eventually had so much I sold just part of it to reloaders and used the proceeds to buy a NIB 1911. Still had plenty of brass to load for my new acquisition.

Definitely, your buckets are worth much more to reloaders as usable cartridge brass than as scrap, where you’ll get only a fraction of the metal’s retail price (scrapper, processor and retailer each hike the price to take their profit).

[elmacgyver0]

At some point in time, it will not be made anymore.
Eons in the future archeologists will dig them up and wonder about them.

[dondiego]

Load it all up and shoot it........then do it again..........and again.............

[WRideout]

Sometimes 45 shooters have a strong preference for small or large primer brass. If you are up to it, you could probably sell a quantity sorted by primer size.

Wayne

[firefly1957]

Sort our the small primer brass and sell it to the scrapper !

I hate that stuff every now and then I get one in my Progressive press OH BOTHER as Chuck says!

I did add a Small pistol primer to a few to test load was 5 grains red dot under 200 grain cast bullet they averaged 30 f/s less but had much lower velocity spread . Looking the cases over the SP primed cases were one make the others were every make including military cases.

[Dusty Bannister]

For a new shooter, the small pistol primers are the only primers readily available. May be a few large pistol primers, but too many rifle shooters use them for mid range loads IF they can find them. At least you will have something to shoot if you need it.

[35 Rem]

You could always pour them out into a large bin and dive around into it the way Scrooge McDuck did with his money! Seriously, that's a lot of 45 ACP brass. Maybe even I might sell a few buckets full, but I doubt it. Unless you need the money what's to be gained by trading off something so useful for a few hundred dollars? Now if you turn around and buy powder or primers with the cash then it all makes sense again.

[JimB..]

I was there some years back. I gave a free bucket to any reloader that would sort a bucket for me. There are brands I don’t prefer and of course needed to get rid of the SPP brass. They didn’t do a great job, and a couple disappeared with a bucket, but it was worth it.

I have no problem leaving 9mm on the ground, but I find it hard to pass up 45 and bigger.

[Bigslug]

Or. . .

Buy a Thompson.:mrgreen:

[nicholst55]

I wouldn't scrap the SPP brass, personally. There for a long time, you just DID. NOT. See. large pistol primers for sale at any price. In fact, I BOUGHT some SPP .45 brass so I could load them and then replace the primers locally. I had to dispose of all my powder and primers when I went overseas from 2016-2021. I still haven't been able to restock completely.

I would separate the brass by primer size, and bag a few groups of approximately 1,000+, and see what I could sell it for. Price the brass shipped by US Priority Mail. If the first few lots sell, continue until I've sold all that I plan to. An inexpensive postal scale will cut down on manually counting brass, but you'll still need to sort it by primer size.

[Baltimoreed]

Most of the brass that I scrap is damaged or split but I do scrap brass 38 spcl, 40 and 9mm that I pick up but don’t reload. I would never scrap good 45acp.

[fredj338]

You will make far more $$ selling it to a reloader. I never understood people selling good range brass as as scrap. Even lowly 9mm is worth 3c each. Sure garbage or damaged brass, but good reloadable brass is worth more than scrap.

[Sig556r]

As the saying goes…if you have to ask, you ain’t got enough.
Try firing off a PCC & you’ll regret not keeping as much.

[Dusty Bannister]

You will make far more $$ selling it to a reloader. I never understood people selling good range brass as as scrap. Even lowly 9mm is worth 3c each. Sure garbage or damaged brass, but good reloadable brass is worth more than scrap.

In the S&S 3K of 9MM just sold at .016 per piece. Posted 9/17 and marked sold today 10/9.
Maybe your prices are in your specific location, but not mine either.

[WILCO]

or. . .

Buy a thompson.:mrgreen:

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GhostHawk]

I have most of a 25 lb box left and felt like I have more than I really need.

I would agree with those who said offer some for sale here.
Figure out how much will go in a large flat rate box and charge a reasonable price with shipping included.

Even half a dozen flat rate boxes will empty at least a few of those buckets.
And no harm in sorting out enough of a single brand to keep you in brass for the foreseeable future.
All depends on how much your willing to invest time for return.

[alamogunr]

Several years ago I got the idea that if I had all the small primer .45 ACP I could accumulate I would never have to change the Dillon 550 since all I reloaded on it was .45 ACP, 38/.357 and 9mm. and only occasionally .40 S&W. I hated to change primer size. I still use large primer brass but only rarely. BTW. someday my sons will be selling small primer brass since I probably won't live long enough to use it all. Sorry but a good quantity won't be Once Fired.

If you sort the brass, there may be another foggy thinker out there that wants it badly. You will have to endure the ire of others if you let it go mixed. I admit that I sometimes ran into a large primer case but you know immediately.

[ioon44]

I use a lot of small primer .45 ACP as I have more small primers than larger primers and I can use small rifle primers if I shoot them out of a 1911 or PCC.

[fredj338]

In the S&S 3K of 9MM just sold at .016 per piece. Posted 9/17 and marked sold today 10/9.
Maybe your prices are in your specific location, but not mine either.
IF you look at sites for once fired, 3c is about the going rate for sorted/cleaned brass, shipped. There is 9mm brass & there is 9mm brass. I throw away about 1000rds of garbage 9mm a year. Always check shipping, it matter, sometimes a lot. I dont buy service caliber brass. It is pretty much free for the picking at the couple ranges I go to every month.

[groovy mike]

Never scrap good brass! It is worth FAR more to reloaders!

[farmbif]

I'm in the never scrap good reloadable brass camp. If I had excess like that I would fill flat rate box, weigh it and offer it to people who want to reload for $2lb or maybe a bit more for your trouble.