How do you typically buy your brass?

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When you buy brass, what do you look for?

Just the way it comes out of the ejection port?
Quicky tumbled?
De-capped and de-crimped?
Sized and trimmed, ready to prime?

I know some folks will want to perform each step themselves, while others may have more money than time.
Doing a little poking around, I found that the average price of .223/5.56 brass with just a light cleaning to be @ $65-$70/1000 while fully prepped ready to prime goes for @ $150/1000. There was also some decapped and decrimped stuff going somewhere in the middle.

I have some brass that I am going to be listing in the classifieds. It's winter and football is almost over which will leave me with some time on my hands, if I can turn that into a couple of bucks, so much the better.

I was thinking about listing different options in the ad, but I'd rather have them ready to go in whatever stage of completion I list them in.
 
I prefer to process it myself, especially if I can't check it first. I'd hate to buy a bunch of brass and find out that someone sized it wrong.
 
I process mine myself. I don't think many people will go through all the steps I do just to sell it. My rifle brass is always loaded for competition even if I just plink with it. I like tight groups even if it's in a golf ball or a piece of paper.
 
For straight wall pistol brass I've bought/traded for used brass when I felt the deal was right no matter the condition, including uncounted prior reloads of .38 special, .45 ACP, or other similars.

There are only a few people I would trust to process my rifle brass, same as shooting reloads. If you do it wrong you might be wasting money. I mean that rather than bumping the shoulder a few thousandths, it was bottomed out on the shell plate and trimmed back extra far - no thanks. The other thing to consider is that a lot of times, bottoming it out on the shell plate will make the headspace length shorter than the SAAMI min length and not everyone that does this is aware of the finer details.

Not that I make a habbit of buying brass that head-spaces on the shoulder (vs rim), but if I did I would only buy "virgin" aka once fired. Tumbled/deprimed is fine but anything else I would not even consider the deal.
 
I bought some brass for a couple members on here when I first started, but haven't bought any since. There's plenty around if you're getting out to the range and it recycles a decent number of times. Even steel will survive 3-5 reloads.

I process it all myself, I also would not want to find out it was improperly sized or trimmed.
 
I usually save my own and when I need to buy some, I'll buy once fired stuff. I like processing it myself. Not that I don't think anyone else can do it well, it's just fun for me.
 
Only brass I bought new was 44 mag and 7.62x25 Tokarev. But I've bought once fired 44 mag and 30-06 too. Everything else was from loaded factory ammo.
 
If I was going to buy used brass, it would only be if it was lightly cleaned (so that the seller could inspect the brass) and that's it. If it deprimed or sized, I'd pass at any price.
 
Deprimed and nothing else unless it is .556, then I want to do it all myself. I can toss any with loose pockets before popping one out and jamming the trigger group.
 
You can't really trust anyone to size the brass correctly, can you?
I have bought brass 223/556 a few times because the prices was right. Once fired LC 2009 and PPU. I bought the LC of a ar15 forum member ppu locally from a club member. It was rough cleaned. No dirt or cig butts. Great brass. Both deals.
I paid 5 cents each. I wanted a good amount of same headstamp/lot.
There where a few people processing your brass for a fee but they have seemed to vanish or stop doing it. I won't buy mixed brass.....I can get that for free at the range.
http://brassprocessing.net/services.html?m. Here is place that does,process for 100$/2400+ cases?
 
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I guess the main reason I ask, is because I have a lot of once fired lake city that still have the crimped primers in them. I have a case prep center so it is pretty easy for me to remove the crimp. Having done them by hand previously, I know what a PITA it can be to remove a thousand crimps manually.

That led to me thinking about offering them for sale with the depriming/decrimping already done, which then got me thinking about offering them fully prepped. But I can also see the value of selling them as is, since the crimped primers will verify that they are once fired.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts
 
Buy brass?

Ha. You beat me to it.

The only brass I've ever bought was for my .460 S&W.

If you shoot .223, 9mm, or 45 ACP, just join a gun club inside 128. The members at those clubs have too much money and generally don't reload.

I swear I've scored more than 3x as much in brass as I've paid in dues. My best day came when I scored almost 100 rounds of .308 Lapua brass while shooting a match.

Don
 
If I was going to buy used brass, it would only be if it was lightly cleaned (so that the seller could inspect the brass) and that's it. If it deprimed or sized, I'd pass at any price.

Why the distain for deprived/sized brass?
Curious minds want to know.
 
Probably because he wants it resized to his specs and wants to know that its really only once reloaded.

I would care about those things for rifle brass, but wouldn't care about pistol brass, where my tolerances are much greater.
 
The main reason for not buying sized rifle brass is that the shoulder will be pushed back too far. Just like anything else, tolerances are involved. You know how the die manufacturer tells you to touch the shellholder, raise the ram and turn another quarter turn? At least half of my bottlenek case sizing dies are set not to hit the shellholder. Reason? It pushes the shoulder back too far. Add in a long chamber on your rifle and you're good to go for a case separation.
 
Have any of you guys ever taken a class at an outdoor range at Sig?

Its AMAZING. Brass on the ground as far as the eye can see. Most shooters there are from some agency and could not care less about picking it up.

The last class I took I asked if they cared if I picked some up during lunch; nobody cared.

I got a 6 gal taping bucket of .223 with mixed .308 in one lunch break
 
Have any of you guys ever taken a class at an outdoor range at Sig?

Its AMAZING. Brass on the ground as far as the eye can see. Most shooters there are from some agency and could not care less about picking it up.

The last class I took I asked if they cared if I picked some up during lunch; nobody cared.

I got a 6 gal taping bucket of .223 with mixed .308 in one lunch break

The only established 'range' that I use (out here you just go find a nice spot in the woods) is a co-op between several agencies. Always easy brass to be had. Once fired NATO LC 5.56 and .40S&W for days. Sometimes a good bit of .45ACP. Actually, now that I'm starting to load .45, I need to make a trip up there...
 
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