How many 22lr spent cases in a 55 gallon drum?

[OnceFired]

Hey all

I need this little bit of trivia answered. I found a bunch of resources that are guessing at how many spent 22LR cases would fill a 55 gallon drum, but I want a reasonable real world number.

I found this from BT Sniper:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...brass-for-sale!

But that's not a full barrel, either. Judging from the ring on the outside of the barrel, and the fact that the top has been cut off, I am guessing that is just over 2/3 full? As I said, just a guess so BT if you can chime in that'd be great.

I also found this one:
http://www.coloradooncefiredbrass.co.../22l250000.htm
These seem full, and they've done it a bunch.

Any other references?

OF

[varmint243]

according to master Google there are 231 cubic inches in a gallon
figure out how many 22LR cases fit in a cubic inch, add a margin for error, and you have your estimate

[bullet maker 57]

There are approx. 700 cases per pound.

[Petrol & Powder]

A lot

[Zbench]

The formula is simple. Weigh the drum, subtract 32# for the drum to get the net weight of the brass. Each case weighs 10 grains. Multiply the net weight by 7000 and divide the product by 10. That will be pretty close to the real number assuming there isn't a
lot of dirt and all the cases are 22 LR. I bet it's within 10% of the real number.

[OnceFired]

Ah, I should have mentioned...

I don't personally HAVE a drum filled with 22LR empty cases. If I had that at the moment I'd have weighed it and calculated from there.

A volume based comparison came up what I believe is absurdly high...

Volume of a circular cylinder:

V = pi x radius squared x height

22LR
V1 = 3.14159 x 0.113 inches x 0.113 inches x 0.613 inches = 0.024590 cubic inches

Drum
V2 = 3.14159 x 11.25 inches x 11.25 inches x 33.5 inches = 13319 cubic inches

V2/V1 = number of cases per drum

V2/V1 = 541,000

Source of lengths was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Long when using base diameter to calculate radius.

That seems off by a factor of roughly 2x which is a lot to be off. Hence the interest in real world experience.

Yes, I could use the diameter of the rim, but that'd be off a bit too and the margin of error is likely pretty small overall for that especially considering the delta is only an extra 2.6 hundredths of an inch for radius.

[varmint243]

Your 0.024590 cubic inch sample size is too small
The closer the sample size to the drum the less margin for error you will have

>>>>>
22LR
V1 = 3.14159 x 0.113 inches x 0.113 inches x 0.613 inches = 0.024590 cubic inches
<<<<<

[Hardcast416taylor]

About 30 years back that was what a club I belonged to had from many years of indoor small bore shooting. The steel barrel was loaded into a pickup and taken to a scrap dealer. If memory serves me the barrel weighed in at 155 lbs. The level of cases was about 3-4" below the top rim.Robert