I was pointed to a website for Government Liquidation auctions. They have brass from 25lbs to thousands of pounds. I am just wondering if anyone on here has purchased brass in this manner and if it is a realistic way to get it. I have been thinking about trying to get some 9mm and 5.56 for reloading.

If anyone has used it, how many rounds would 25lbs be?

If memory serves me right....8000 hulls of 9mm is about 60-65 pounds.

And you thought you would never need algebra! Lol

(8000 / 65lbs) * 25lbs = approx 3076, I assume 3k would be a safe guess.

I've used mil brass extensively. You will not get more than 3-4 loads out of full sized rifle brass. Mil brass is more brittle, and after 3-4 loads you will start getting head separation. You can check by scraping a small sharp wire on the inside of the case, just above the bottom.
Pistol brass is OK.
All will have crimped primer pockets.

Hmmm....... I've got at least 8 reloads out of 5.56 brass. And I'm talking brass that was handed to me directly after it was fired on a military range and still hot. After 8-10 reloads on 5.56 I'll start seeing the necks crack. Now if it's brass that was fired thru a SAW you might have more problems. Have had real good luck with 240B brass too, kinda surprised by that.

One thing you must do is double check on the 9mm whether it has crimped primers or not, and decide whether you want to screw with it for 9mm, since there is plenty of non-crimped 9mm out there as well.

Count on the 223 being crimped, but it is worth taking the time to remove the crimps.

using the above information you get:

9mm.....117 to the lbs * 25lbs = 2925

.223.....73.5 to the lbs * 25lbs = 1837.5

This is why the price on govt. surplus brass has more than tripled in price. It's because everyone starts bidding on it when the auctions open.

Thank you all for the information. I appreciate it. I was in the right ballpark for the weight. I am not expecting to be able to use every piece, but we will see.

Another question that I thought of that maybe someone can help me with. I know that the difference between .223 and 5.56 is the pressure, so with that being said will I be able to use my .223 dies to resize and reload or will I need a 5.56 die?

Again I can't thank you all for the detailed information that I received.

Rodney

You could get a Small base die but standard .223/5.56 FL dies are one & the same.

Thank you for the info. My gunsmith set me up with an entire package and I know that the dies I got were all FL ones. I believe that he ordered all Redding dies.

How can you tell if it is crimped primers?

Top is military crimp...


Bottom is not....


It makes it really hard to insert a primer when the crimp is there.....They crimp the primers in so when running full auto the primers don't come out.





Here are some other styles.....





And this seems to be the latest style of crimp that has been popping up..

Fatalwishes gave good info on crimped primers. It is worth the extra work on the 223 brass to remove the crimps. I don't find it to be worth the work to remove crimps on 9mm brass, so I just scrap them, but to each their own.

fatalwishes and jdk,

Thank you for that information. I can tell the difference. I also have found some videos on Youtube about the military crimp and found they have a tool for removing that crimp, but I have to agree with jdk, that is a lot of hand work, so I do need to weigh the pros and cons. That is why I posted up on here, I am trying to learn all that I can.

You'd be better off buying processed brass.....that which has been de-primed and had the crimp knocked out.

They have big machines out there that process this stuff.....I would rather buy it already done. It doesn't hurt to keep a tool to knock out the primer crimps from range brass and stuff. I usually build up a 100 or so in a pile then go through them all at once.

For around 120.00 you can get 1000 pieces not only de-primed and no crimp, they will be sized, cleaned and trimmed...

http://www.rvow.com/server/index.php/brass

Fatalwishes,

Thanks again for the information and the website. I see that it may be a little more, but if it saves a step or two then it is worth the money.

Rodney

If it is FREE take all you can get, never know these days what is going to happen.

I just sent them an email to see how much i can get. I have everything except for brass and its killing me!