philster

Just curious.

100 9mm remington unfired cases = 21 to 24 bucks

100 PMC rounds = 24 to 28 bucks

I understand PMC is made in Korea but I've got some that are on reload #6 with no primer leaks, bulging, or anything! Why would you buy brass?

koorbloh

I buy loads and make my own empty brass out of it :)

deadshot2

Of the thousands and thousands of pieces of brass I have I have only purchased a fraction of it in one form or another. Most of my brass comes from "volunteering to sweep up brass" around other shooters. Have also cleaned up after some police groups have qualified.

In 9mm, if you can buy inexpensive loaded ammo go for it. Most 9mm brass is just fine to reload although some military loads have crimped primer pockets and need swaging before reloading.

I have several thousand PMC cases in 9mm. They load and shoot just like the rest.

If you want to save some bucks, go to the Kenmore Range and buy 9mm range brass for $4/lb. This works out to about $3.50 per hundred pieces of brass. Sure it's range brass but a lot of it is new. For some reason there are a lot of shooters that turn up their noses at reloading 9mm. A lot of the shooters on the pistol range during the weekend are non-members and also non-reloaders. They bring boxes of new ammo with them that's just swept up.

If you only kept 1/5th of it you'd still be ahead.

The price for the PMC ammo you mentioned works out to about "two-bits" per round. I reload 9mm for right at $0.10/round using my cases. Add 3-4 cents per round for a piece once fired brass and it's still cheap. Buying new brass, unless you are assembling something special like SD ammo, can really run the cost up.

philster

Yeah. I kind of still remember the dire warnings about brass that has gone through glocks. Don't know if that was an old wives tale, but a lot of the brass I see on the ground is bulging near the base. That scares me. But yeah, I guess you're right. If I only use a fraction of what I sort through I would be ahead.

Funny you should mention people not wanting to load 9mm. Lots of folks will tell you 9mm and 223 are the worst to load. I haven't loaded 223 (only 30-30, 308, and 30-06) I have loaded enough 9mm to have found it's no big deal. Is it harder to set the taper crimp than on a 45? you have to be a little more precise because everything is smaller, but it's no big deal!

I have only used brass I've shot so far. I have about 500 cases at any one time, and rarely shoot more than 75 out of the 9mm at any one session. Mainly because my M&P isn't a target gun. I spend more time with my 22s for precision shooting. But that is about to change as I get into competition.

GixxerPete

When Mig got his reloading press, I bought I think 4000 pieces of 9mm brass, thinking we'd need it to 'get started'. It's still sitting in Mig's garage in reserve, we've got plenty of brass just from shooting factory stuff with new guns, ranges where adjacent shooters offer up their brass as well, shooting with friends that buy factory and don't care about brass, etc etc.

So the answer would be, yes bought some once, but didn't really need to.

bigggbbruce

I've bought very few factory loads...

I have also collected enough OPB(other peoples brass) to reload for years to come...

to reload my 44 mag alone I save nearly $30 a box of 50... my choice..NO BRAINER...

deadshot2

I'm tempted to leave those who think 9mm and .223 brass is too big a problem in their state of ignorance. Leaves more brass for me.

I have found it the least problematic of all the brass I load. 9mm brass loads so many times I get tired of looking at it before I see any case splitting. .223 brass, if it's military, just needs to have the primer pocket swaged. For less than a box of once fired brass one can buy the tool from Dillon (the others are a pain) and have buckets of brass that others turn up their nose at.

As for "Glocked Brass" it's mostly .45 and .40 S&W that gets the bulge. 9mm is a "tapered" case and is stronger near the head than these others. Lee and others make a "Bulge Buster" die. The cases are pushed through the die from below, similar to a sizing die for cast bullets, and it irons out the bulge. If I reloaded for those calibers I'd be more than happy to pick up all the Glock Brass that others leave behind. Free is a great price and even if only some is salvageable, it's actually better than free. You can sell the unusable cases for scrap and put some $$ in the "kitty".

migxdm

u bought 3000 ;) and i bought some too. we had to buy 380 as well i believe... but i dont remember.... and we bought at least 2000 223's maybe closer to 4000.... never bought 45, and we prolly have about 5000 of those :P and i gotta have a couple thou in .40 but i dont reload that... yet

Fossilman

I do both,plus police up brass after hunters and shooters........Usually horse trade the brass I don't reload or use at all........

BLdtylry

I'll buy Once-Fired brass if I can find it for cheap. Otherwise I'll pick up the brass from indoor ranges, outdoor ranges, or anywhere I can find them. Just recently my boys and I picked up some brass from out in the woods near the house and Wet Tumbled it in Stainless Steel Media.

Before:


After:

Senior Dragon

Bought a bag of 38 special brass this past week end at a gun show,for $11.00. 308 rounds. After going through the tumbler, I only discarded 2 rounds. Good buy.

deadshot2

That Stainless media is great. I chuckle when I read or hear that one can do just as good a job with "their mix" of corncob and walnut shell. To bad they can't clean the primer pockets and inside as well, and all at the same time.

The best thing to happen to reloading since someone discovered the rock tumbler.

richardlpalmer

Well, I've only reloaded once (today) but I find this topic interesting. I was 100% planning on buying new brass -- and using it in addition to whatever I already had or got at the range.

Before I mentioned this to anyone the fellow who was teaching me what to do brought up the subject. I liked his take on this being RE-loading, not manufacturing. Point being it's loading something again, not manufacturing it for the first use.

I also didn't know anything about "bulging" cases used in Glocks. We primarily shoot .45 through a Glock 21 or 1911s. Luckily one of the things we did to prep our cases was a sizing die (with a decapping unit). It seems that would be sufficient to bring the cases back to their original dimensions, right?

sunofnun

reloading is tried and true.. my dad probably has shell cases that he's reloaded for 15-20 yrs?

M67

I reload everything i can, so i do not buy new.

I tend to stay away from any brass, that is not made by remington, winchester or federal. And i prefer there military brass most of all, even though it takes a bit more work, before i can load it.

I know that other manufacturers, may have very good quality brass, but i have never had a problem with the three i mentioned.

There is so many places manufacturing ammunition anymore and i do not trust the quality control of a bunch of them.

moose

I've never bought factory ammo for my 243Win, I can make stuff better and cheaper than anything one can buy.

I exclusively reload 30-06, 300RUM and 45ACP too.

Mark W

I don't as a general rule buy any ammo but .22 and shotgun. When I buy a firearm I will maybe buy a box or two of factory ammo just so I can shoot the thing.

My sources of brass have been my own factory ammo purchases, Buying new brass, Buying once fired brass from private sources and resellers, picking up or sorting out maybe thousands of rounds of various brass at the gun club, Garage Sales, Gun Shows Swap meets and Gifts.

I been reloading for 44 years since I was 11.

I reload

pistol .25ACP .30M1 .380ACP 9mm .38spl .357mag .40SW .44spl .44mag .45ACP

Rifle .223 .22-250 .243 .30M1 .30-30 .30-40 .30-06

I have hundreds of cases in all calibers and in some thousands.

Mauser

The common stuff is easy to find free brass for. However, I do purchase new for the harder to locate chamberings that I load for like the 250 Savage, 6.5X284 Norma and the 6.5X55.

MadManx

I just buy cases, don't care about recovering the brass either.

richardlpalmer

I've recently started recovering brass. Not sure if I'll ever reload it or just bequeath it to someone that will. But I figure there's some value in it for someone... ;)

Unknown Soldier

I found that 7.62x54r is cheaper to buy the PPU round at .73 cents that to buy the cases at .76 each.
I bought 540, 500 are tucked away, the 40 get 175gr SMKs, and are reloaded over and over again. Until they crack. Every 5 reloads, I anneal them.

Mark W

Bought some as new brass
Bought some as factory ammo
Bought some as Once Fired from outfits on the net to buddies to ads on some forum
Picked up 1000's of rounds at the Gun Club
Picked up 100's at places people go shooting in the woods
Bought a few thousand at various garage sales over the years.
Bought a few thousand at various gunshows and swap meets over the years
Had bags of brass given to me some to be kept some to end up traded away.
Received some with a firearm purchase.

xlsbob

Mostly buy as used except buying new starline brass for my revolvers. Lucked into a couple good deals on a lot of unfired nos 25-06 brass. Basically if it's a good deal new or used I'll probably buy it.