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

[scattershot]

I scrounge mine wherever I can, but if I need to buy some, I get it from T J Convera. You can't tell his processed brass from new.

 

[reloader7.62]

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.

Hydraulic depriming of berdan primed cases is fairly easy,you just fill the case with water,place it in it's appropriate shell holder for the caliber resting on a block of wood and use a nut driver handles that fits fairly snug in the case and give it a whack with a mallet,berdan primer pops right out. If your nut driver is just a little loose and your not getting enough hydraulic pressure a strip of plastic cut from a zip lock storage bag placed over the case mouth before the tool is inserted will do the trick.

I have about 1K Lapua berdan primed 7.62 x 39 cases that will get reloaded one day as soon as I order some .217 berdan primers. If I have to pay hazmat and shipping I'm going to make it worth my wild.

 

[ChuckS1]

Berdan was an American whose priming system became the European standard. Boxer was an Englishman whose system became the American standard. Something got mixed along the way, apparently.

 

[TAROMAN]

After you have been shooting for years, brass comes from everywhere:
range pickups.
new brass purchased (Starline, as stated above)
new ammo fired (usually WWB breaking in a new bototm feeder)
gifted from friends
local trader lists (got a huge cache of .44 special there)
LGS that sells lots of once-fired brass (or used to, anyhow)

 

[rwsmith]

One way to find out

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.

One sure and easy way to tell if a cartridge is berdan primed is to break the decapping pin on your resizer. Somehow one got into my 30-06 brass and I was really getting steamed because the case wouldn't go through the die.

 

[Weatherby4me]

Except for a few hundred that I managed to save from factory loads that I have shot, all of my pistol brass is range pickup brass. I load .45 ACP, traditionally a low pressure round and as such, the brass tends to last for a LONG time. Therefore, it doesn't bother me to pick it up, tumble it, and use it without much worry. I have even started using those Federal cases with the small primer pockets. Works fine.

 

[oberon]

1. pick up my brass from factory rounds.
2. pick up my brass from reloads.
3. pick up orphan brass from shooting area.
4. buy once fired brass when cheap and available.
5. buy factory brass.
Usually in that order of priority.

 

[vince_ross]

I've been getting my brass (.40 S&W) from Gunbroker, friends and I bought some brass online. Bullets and primers on the other hand have been a little more difficult to find at times. Just a matter of time before they start showing back in stock though.

 

[indiandave]

I get a lot of brass dumpster diving at the range. I once had a range officer who saved all the .38/.357 brass at the range and would sell it to me at a very cheap price. Also I get brass from friends who shoot but don't reload. Right now I have a lot of brass!

 

[Malpasowildlifer]

I had great luck dumpster diving at the local range back home but not here; too small of an area.

Only range pick-up I can get is twice a year at our quals. Sometimes there area a lot of goodies left over from others and sometimes not. I save the .223 and some .40 from our quals.

Only brass I've had to buy is .357, .38 Super and 10mm

 

[dg101win]

In the case of 38,357 and 45acp I am using brass that I purchased new,once fired,what I purchased as factory ammo or scrounged at the range.
In the case of 44spl,44mag and 45colt I am using Starline brass I purchased new at gunshows or direct from them. My 44spl and 45 colt have never seen factory ammo.

 

[FishingPilot]

I get it from https://shop.southernbellebrass.com/

but they have shutdown the online store since they are out of EVERYTHING!

 

[WheelGunSpartan]

Cradle to the grave for me. It is always new or factory loaded round's brass that i load. I like to know what my brass has been through and the exact number of loads they have. Just got some Lapua brass that is pretty stout and all that was available. Have had good luck with Magtech brass of all things even over Remington/Winchester/Starline.

 

[Frank46]

When I first started shooting 45acp I had a grand total of about 1100 empty cases. So I would scrounge around in the grass and weeds for lost cases. In about two years time I managed to get enough 45acp cases to fill a fourty mike mike ammo can full of 45 brass. And am still shooting those 1100 cases. A buddy of mine gave the concealed carry classes and since most of the shooters shot 36 spl and we helped clean them up he'd always gave us some usually a gallon freezer bag at a time. yep another 40mm ammo can full of basically once fired 38 special brass, same thing on the 40 S&W another can full. And this is only pistol brass. If it was US military it got picked up 9mm, 30 carbine,308, 3006. In a period of about two years I filled 10 5 gallon cans with brass. If someone needed 7.62x51 brass I'd go thhrough the cans and dig him up a couple hundered. Took the ten cans to the junk yard and filled a 55 gallon drum I got $150 for all that brass. Frank

 

[shield]

Right now, I'm saving 9mm brass from the factory rounds I shoot, plus some extras I pick up from the range. New to reloading, waiting for equipment to arrive.

 

[blujax01]

.... I like to know what my brass has been through and the exact number of loads they have. ....

Do you stop after a certain number of reuses or run it until it fails?

I'm reading a book written in 1937 and the author (Phil Sharpes) did the same thing with 50 pieces of rifle brass. He segregated them into groups of 10 and used the same powders each time he reloaded them. As of the writing, he had been reloading the same brass for 10 years and still had 49 of 50 pieces left. He blamed the loss of the one on his own incompetence, assuming he had made a hot load.

I use range brass over and over and over. The only failures I have are nickel plated .38 or .357 and it is my fault because they got weak when I over-belled them!

 

[WheelGunSpartan]

It depends blujax. Magnums ,both hand gun and rifle, I usually retire between 5-8 times. I really noticed my .300 Win Mag gets finicky after 5 reloads but I blame that on how short of a head space the .300WMR design has in general and my love of heavy bullets for it. Got about 11 reloads on some .40S&W, .44 specials and .38 specials and don't plan on tossing them soon. Agreed on the plated brass I stay away it is heck on dies IMO. Use to use plated for my .38+p to differentiate when I was a rookie loader but that only lasted a few times.

 

[glider1]

I clean and inspect my brass before I load it, as long as it looks ok it gets loaded. I don't keep track of how many times I've loaded it but 45acp will last a long time. I've got alot of 38 and 357 nickel, it was free, I wouldn't buy nickel but I'm not pitching what I have either. I seldom load hot and I don't work the case mouth any more than needed so brass last me a long time. If you used the same brass on the same revolver I'm not sure you would need to resize it, never tried that. Well it's the case mouth that goes away and you'd still need to bell and crimp so I guess it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

[blujax01]

Hey, we're "green"!

Saving the earth by recycling brass - one case at a time!

The libs would be so proud...

 

[jtcarm]

My handgun brass is mostly new bulk, 500 rd purchases.

Sometimes buy 1x fired, but not much. If I find a really good buy on a bunch of factory ammo at a gun show, at least 100 rounds rifle or 300 handgun, I'll buy it. I keep my brass sorted by headstamp & # of firings, so small lots just aren't worth my time.

I'm currently waiting on some PRVI ammo for my "new" 91/30 Nagant. The loaded rounds are cheaper than most new brass