Once fired brass prices .38 special and 9mm

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Geno44

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I have more once fired .38 special RP brass and some once fired 9mm Federal brass than I need. Neither are mixed head stamps and all were off an indoor range and not weathered and once fired. I have tried to do comparisons on the net but many are mixed head stamps or old posts or out of stock or questionable number of firings. In the light of the present time, not 2012, anyone have any guesses as to the value of these. My guess is that .38's are worth more than 9's.By the way a medium USPS flat rate box would probably hold about 2000 cases at a cost of $15.05 shipping.
 
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It's hard to imagine my Club is different than most around the Country. I have never bought a piece of common Brass in my life! There are buckets and buckets of once fired Brass for the taking and some has even been carefully put back in the plastic holders & then reboxed! Of course I am talking about common calibers here such as 9mm, 223, 5.56, 45acp, 30-06, 30-30, 380acp, 38 spl, 357 mag. 32acp, 40 S&W, 10mm, etc. Calibers such as 45 Colt, 45-70, 38-55, 357 Sig etc. are of course some exceptions as many who shoot those calibers do reload.

I suppose there are some places that are not like I have it here and in those instances people might be inclined to buy once fired Brass.
 
Until recently, there was always plenty of good 38 Special and 9mm brass in the recycle bucket at my pistol club. Once in a great while I would find some 45 Colt too. Not any more!
I had several thousand mixed 38 Special that I couldn't give away or trade but recently sold most of it here in the forum classifieds. Priced them at $25 per 250 ct bag with shipping and gave a discount with multiple bags. I was surprised that it went as quick as it did.
To price it, I checked Midway and Cabelas for their new and once fired brass prices and asked a little less per case. While doing so, noted that most of the stuff they had was out of stock. We have certainly entered a new world of reality when 38 Special brass becomes near unobtainable.
OTOH, I've seen some odd caliber ammo being priced very reasonably at the local gun shows. Last week, at the Gettysburg show, I passed on a $15 box of nickel cased 32-20 reloads. I would have pulled the bullets and reloaded them to my own specs at that price but I have plenty on hand. I did buy 3 boxes of 32-40 Winchester from the same vendor. They were half reloads, half jacketed bullet factory loads. At $75, that was still a very resolvable price for the caliber.
OTOH again, saw lots of 9mm, 357 and 38 Special at $1/round and 22 bulk ammo for as high as $125/550 ct boxes!

John
 
In the Great Drought of '09-'10 .38 & .357 brass was gold. When I walked onto the firing line at the range I went to that was what I was looking for.

I actually bought 300 rounds of .357 "handloads of dubious origin" just to pull the bullets & use the brass. ;)

Right now Starline is showing "Out of stock/No backorders" on .357 Magnum and 9mm. :eek:
 
I too am well blessed with once fired .38 Special brass. A friend that owned his own shop would shoot only factory Remington and Federal ammo through his Model 14.

He knew I loaded and saved the brass for me. He's been retired and I haven't seen him in years, but I still have brass that I've not loaded.

Although I've owned a bunch of firearms chambered for it .357 Mag is a round that I've never enjoyed shooting. Last year I decided I needed to load some for HD. Finding brass for it was an adventure!

Between jumping on any I found at a reasonable price and backorders coming through I now have more than 1000 pieces of new .357 brass.

I posted about loading some .38 Special rounds to magnum velocities. I was shooting them from Ruger GP and Blawkhawk .357's.

I don't know what the life expectancy would be for the brass, but they held up fine for the two or three test I tried. No need for further testing now!

I've lived through a number of primer droughts and other scares, but I ain't ever seen components the way they are now.
 
Do a search on the Classified section for "brass" and see results of recent sales and what is still listed. You can get an idea of prices. Shipping has to be factored in. USPS flat rate boxes seem to be the norm. The small box is $8.00 and the medium box is $15 in lower 48. Small will hold about 200 pieces and medium will hold much more. Weight limit on medium boxes is 70lbs. When I sold some i packed in zip lock bags and taped them up with packing tape. Then used a lot of packing tape around the box. Got across the U.S. in less than a week.
 
Prices vary greatly depending on who is selling and how much they care about getting the highest price possible. Before the current situation 9mm could be found for $.02 to $.03. .38 Special could be found for around $.05. I think current prices are at least double if not triple that rate.
 
Local indoor range sells 4 pound bags or 9mm or .45 ACP Mixed Range Brass for $15.95 each 4 pound bag,The bag of .45 ACP I got had 5 small primer cases & 8 45 Colt Cases


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