Sorry guys - I thought it was in my profile. I live in Australia. Brass is around $0.40c each at the moment. The idea of picking up someone else's brass at the range would probably get me a black eye.
I guess it comes down to supply and demand. Not as much demand here in Australia, so the price goes up.
I just looked up the customs import regulations. Does customs consider empty cases as ammuntion? It was not clear on the DIBP website.
Taking a break from social media.
Ouch. If it was "someone else's brass" I was picking up, I wouldn't be picking it up. At any given match at my local club, there are 60+ shooters, probably 40 of which are shooting 9mm, and *maybe* 10 of us bother to pick it up at the end of the match. I'm just making use of something that other people are abandoning. Same situation at practice sessions; it's quite common for me to run into people who don't reload. Quite often, they ask me if I want their brass. My response is usually something like "You don't reload? Sure, I'll take it, and thank you."Originally Posted by -ad-
Brass is around $0.40c each at the moment. The idea of picking up someone else's brass at the range would probably get me a black eye.
For my practice .45ACP and 9mm reloads, I don't keep track of the number of times a case has been reloaded. I just pitch them individually when they get case neck cracks.
Back in the 1980's, Remington .45 brass was thinner than most others. This would allow the bullet to set-back into the case when feeding. Rick Miller had been given a big bunch of once-fired Remington brass, so he bought a tool (from C-H as I recall) to roll a cannelure into the cases where the bullet base would end up. Several of us shot with Rick (and still do) and fired brass tends to get mixed up. To this day, I still encounter one of Rick's cannelured Remington cases from the 1980's in my practice brass. These things have been reloaded dozens of times.
An issue that will arise with brass that has been reloaded an obscene amount of times is that the rim will get beat up from repeated extractions. The whole case head will peen out a bit and increase in diameter slightly. This can cause misfeeds with improperly relieved and tensioned extractors or if the cut on the breechface, that the casehead must ride up in feeding, is a little undersized. The stoppage looks like a typical three-point feedway stoppage. I have a Commander that about drove me nuts on this. It would run fine with factory ammo, but it would suffer intermittent stoppages with my practice reloads. I finally discovered that the breechface cut was a few thousandths undersize (probably tool wear at Colt). Opening this up a wee bit fixed the problem.
I've been told that the South African IPSC shooters, during the embargo years, would chuck their battered cases in a lathe and touch up the rims.
Rosco
Must be that and/or export restrictions & import duties, or folks would be making a killing shipping brass from the US to Australia.
From https://www.border.gov.au/Busi/Impo/...ions-magazines
Components of ammunition include projectiles, cartridge casings, whether new or spent, and primers designed or adapted for use in ammunition are also controlled under the Regulations and require permission to import prior to importation.
Additionally, I've struggled to find a shop in the US that has Australia as a shipping option for brass, and wonder what freight would end up being even if I could. If I could find a shop willing to export to Australia, as well as something where freight wasn't prohibitively expensive, I'd try for an import permit, and be buying by the bucket loads.
Last edited by -ad-; 07-28-2016 at 05:58 PM.
I'm in Aussieland, NWQLD.
https://www.facebook.com/dave.bateman.311
kimbers have more issues than time magazine.
The Australian side is pretty straight forward, you just apply for an import permit. They are free and take week or so to get issued.
The US side is a bit more of a pain, plus you need an export licence.
Last edited by dbateman; 07-28-2016 at 06:33 PM.
https://www.facebook.com/dave.bateman.311
kimbers have more issues than time magazine.
Oh - so the USA also considers Brass a controlled export item?
Looks like I'll stick to counting my brass at this stage...
Yeah, I did some searching, and it looks like you have to first register as someone who wants to do ITAR/ACEA exporting ($2250/year, ouch) and then apply for an export permit (unknown cost, but almost certainly non-zero). The profit margin after those expenses is probably poor enough to make it not worthwhile. Seems silly, given that cartridge cases are manufactured in many countries around the world. It's not like you'd be exporting some sort of secret tech that enemies of the USA couldn't otherwise get their hands on.
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