Pistol reloaders......where do you get your brass?

[reloader7.62]

About 95% of all my brass is free range pickup form all the years when I visited the public range,back then ammo was plentiful and people just left it lying when they left. It was about an hours drive from my house so I made a day trip of the range visit not only to shoot but just to hang out help new shooter,talk reloading and pick up all that free brass.

I have more 9mm than I will ever ware out and convert some of it to 9 x 18 Mak. for my PA-63. The only caliber that never show up much was 300 Sav. so I took all the Win. .308 brass and made 300 Sav. brass from it. Other brass like .357 or 38 Spec. I swapped out brass I couldn't use for those. 7.62 x 54r and X39 reloadable brass was hard to find at the range as well,for those I pretty much had to buy that but I've gotten good deals on those two calibers over the years.

 

[SMSgt]

When I acquire a new caliber, I'll usually get a couple boxes of commercial ammo for testing, but then it all range ammo after that. I use it for all shooting purposes and have never had an issue with using it. Clean it and inspect closely, culling out any that's too damaged to be reused.

 

[Maximumbob54]

I bought a 50-cartridge box of MFS Hungarian-made .38 special and was going to save the brass but the LGS owner said he can't reload because it's European ammo and the brass can't be reused. He was busy and couldn't quite explain why -- at least to my satisfaction. Something about "berdan" I think vs. American-made, which goes by another term or word. Any clarification?

Look in the bottom of the inside of the case. If you see two very small holes then it's a Berdan primed case where the case itself requires the use of Berdan primers. That style of primer cannot be punched out in a die. It requires a claw sort of tool to pry them out.

Boxer primers are what you normally reload with and if you look into the bottom of the inside of the case you should see a roughly 1/16" flash hole dead center. Any ordinary sizing and depriming die will punch those out.

Oddly enough I've read that Boxer primers are a Euro invention and Bedan primers are a US invention and for whatever reason along the line we adopted each others primers. We made out the best though.

 

[Joewisc]

Look in the bottom of the inside of the case. If you see two very small holes then it's a Berdan primed case where the case itself requires the use of Berdan primers. That style of primer cannot be punched out in a die. It requires a claw sort of tool to pry them out.

Boxer primers are what you normally reload with and if you look into the bottom of the inside of the case you should see a roughly 1/16" flash hole dead center. Any ordinary sizing and depriming die will punch those out.

Oddly enough I've read that Boxer primers are a Euro invention and Bedan primers are a US invention and for whatever reason along the line we adopted each others primers. We made out the best though.

Left is MFS cartridge (bedan), right is from Wisconsin Cartridge Corp. (boxer) (don't think they're in business any more). I don't see any difference between the bottoms.

 

[Skip Sackett]

Left is MFS cartridge (bedan), right is from Wisconsin Cartridge Corp. (boxer) (don't think they're in business any more). I don't see any difference between the bottoms.

Um.......inside the case. It is really hard to reload any case until it is empty....

Just sayin'!

 

[Joewisc]

Um.......inside the case. It is really hard to reload any case until it is empty....

Just sayin'!

I didn't shoot any of the MFS yet so had no basis for comparison. But do see the small hole referenced by MaxBob in the Federal. Stupid me.

 

[Rudi Z]

I get mine from shooting factory ammo and from friends.

 

[dswancutt]

I bought a 50-cartridge box of MFS Hungarian-made .38 special and was going to save the brass but the LGS owner said he can't reload because it's European ammo and the brass can't be reused. He was busy and couldn't quite explain why -- at least to my satisfaction. Something about "berdan" I think vs. American-made, which goes by another term or word. Any clarification?

Unless they have recently changed, MFS is boxer primed. I just checked my stash of brass and the 38 Special MFS I have is boxer primed.

 

[novalty]

I found Skip's house on the side of the road, and just pilfer his while he is casting.

 

[Joewisc]

Unless they have recently changed, MFS is boxer primed. I just checked my stash of brass and the 38 Special MFS I have is boxer primed.

I'm saving my MFS for now. Is it decent ammo? I got a box of 50 at a discount price of $18. Been sitting on the LGS shelf for a long time.

 

[blujax01]

I've been blessed to have a range that doesn't mind if I pick up a little extra. If you folks let me know what the most needed is, I'll box up some and have another free raffle. The 40 cal I gave away on January brought some interest but the 9mm I gave away last week only gathered a few responses.

 

[spad124]

I buy new factory ammo, shoot it and reload. With some calibers new ammo didn't used to be much more than new unfired Remington or Starline brass. That's changed. Also, I used to buy some "once-fired" at gun shows--but that's changed also. Right now, I'm just waiting for the panic buying to wear itself out and reloading what I already have.

 

[Black_Sheep]

I saved brass for 20 years before I began reloading. Even now, friends and family save their brass for me so it adds up fast. I resize/deprime and tumble in batches then store it in food storage bags 'til I get around to reloading it.

 

[kennyb]

i am a member of a heavily used range...soooo...i find it there all the time in many calibers....the range owner has probably 50 or so 5gal.buckets of brass at any one time...i can take a bucket home,sort thru,pull what i want and buy by the pound (cheap) of course i save my own brass and on occasion buy the oddball brass that i do not find,such as 41 magnum from either winchester or starline

 

[Culina]

I hate picking up brass, especially in the mud, so I buy it once fired in bulk. 40 S&W is easy to find and cheap. 223/5.56 was easy to find and cheap before recent events. Basically I keep a stockpile on hand and only buy more when the price is right. Brassman Brass was a good place but last time I checked, he was cleaned out

 

[sarge1967]

I buy mine. Usually Starline brass.

 

[rwsmith]

One advantage to buying brass.

If I buy new brass I have enough to make decent sized batches of ammo with the same manufacturer and lot. I still have mixed used brass that I don't mind plinking with, but I'm trying to refine my loading methods, keeping track of number of times fired and the like. With the price of .357 factory ammo, I don't count on being able to get a lot of brass just by saving it.

 

[venomballistics]

I bought a 50-cartridge box of MFS Hungarian-made .38 special and was going to save the brass but the LGS owner said he can't reload because it's European ammo and the brass can't be reused. He was busy and couldn't quite explain why -- at least to my satisfaction. Something about "berdan" I think vs. American-made, which goes by another term or word. Any clarification?

berdan priming is a different setup from out more familiar boxer primed system.
in our boxer type, the anvil is in the primer and the flash hole is center of the case web.
Berdan the anvil is integrated into the primer pocket and the flash holes are offset to the sides of this anvil.
Berdan can be reloaded, however without an easy way of depriming due to the hole arrangement, there is very little interest in doing so. you can load 4 - 8 boxer primed cases in the time it would take you to reload a single berdan ... assuming that you have managed to source the appropriate primers and tools to do so.

 

[Nick B]

I'm a member at a private gun glub . Very few reloaders so I'm drowning in 9 mm and 45acp once fired brass .

 

[Poodle Soup]

I have over 1000 9mm brass casings, now I just need reloading equipment!