I’ve periodically picked up bulk range brass when I find it at a good price. I’ve got a good supplier who sells to me at a decent price, and I always seem to get more than what I ordered. When all is de-primed, cleaned, and sorted by headstamp, I have a good solid amount of a few headstamps, with the “extra” I received ending up in the form of a small bag full of singles and small lots (one CBC, three Hornady, five PMC, etc…) So the amount I paid for generally produces that amount of good usable bulk brass. The extras normally end up in a zip lock marked “various headstamps”, and I use them for all sorts of things beside bulk reloads. I’ve bought a few lots of 1000 in the past, as I use it for .223, and forming .300 AAC and 7TCU at the moment.
Through all of this, I’ve come to notice a few things, especially with .223 / 5.56 brass processing:
1) There are tons of headstamps I’ve never heard of or personally seen before. Every time I do this, I find something “new” (at least to me). Last time, it was PERFECTA and GECO. This time, it was PSD. Federal (FC), Lake City (LC) and Remington (RP) have usually been the bulk of what I end up getting in bulk. Sometimes, I’ll get a bunch of Winchester as well.
2) Headstamps seem to “congregate”. Might be total coincidence, but I’m going through a batch of 500 pieces. I’m sorting them into buckets by headstamp, and will go through FC, FC, FC, FC, LC, LC, FC… for a long time, never coming across anything else. Suddenly, I find a PMC, and the next four will be PMC’s. Then I don’t see another PMC for another 50 + pieces. It’s odd that four of them were all in a row. Like I said – it’s odd, but they seem to “congregate by headstamp”. I have to laugh at that assertion myself, but I’ve seen it too many times that I can’t help notice it when it happens.
3) There is nothing that looks like a Remington (RP) base in .223, besides Remington. It stands out on it’s own. I don’t even have to read it. I know a RP headstamped base right away.
4) My NESCO food dehydrator holds exactly 500 pieces of .223 / 5.56 sized brass, and a half-hour run in it guarantees every piece is bone dry. Why not just set it in the sun you ask? Dogs. Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Two of them. About 90 lbs each. They like shiny stuff, and I guarantee someone in my family will “forget” and let them outside when my brass is out there drying. Dog slobber is almost harder to clean off than fired gunpowder sometimes.
5) Stainless pin cleaners are SO much nicer than the way I first did this task – which was a sonic cleaner followed by a tumble in corn cob media with polish. I’ve done a bunch of batches of brass with this one (It’s the Frankford Arsenal one), and I really love the way my brass comes out. Ultra clean, and extremely shiny.
Dirty Brass:
500 pieces of clean brass, stacked on 4 levels (about 125 on each level) for 30 minutes – Nice and dry:
Clean, dry and ready to sort:
All sorted:
Through all of this, I’ve come to notice a few things, especially with .223 / 5.56 brass processing:
1) There are tons of headstamps I’ve never heard of or personally seen before. Every time I do this, I find something “new” (at least to me). Last time, it was PERFECTA and GECO. This time, it was PSD. Federal (FC), Lake City (LC) and Remington (RP) have usually been the bulk of what I end up getting in bulk. Sometimes, I’ll get a bunch of Winchester as well.
2) Headstamps seem to “congregate”. Might be total coincidence, but I’m going through a batch of 500 pieces. I’m sorting them into buckets by headstamp, and will go through FC, FC, FC, FC, LC, LC, FC… for a long time, never coming across anything else. Suddenly, I find a PMC, and the next four will be PMC’s. Then I don’t see another PMC for another 50 + pieces. It’s odd that four of them were all in a row. Like I said – it’s odd, but they seem to “congregate by headstamp”. I have to laugh at that assertion myself, but I’ve seen it too many times that I can’t help notice it when it happens.
3) There is nothing that looks like a Remington (RP) base in .223, besides Remington. It stands out on it’s own. I don’t even have to read it. I know a RP headstamped base right away.
4) My NESCO food dehydrator holds exactly 500 pieces of .223 / 5.56 sized brass, and a half-hour run in it guarantees every piece is bone dry. Why not just set it in the sun you ask? Dogs. Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Two of them. About 90 lbs each. They like shiny stuff, and I guarantee someone in my family will “forget” and let them outside when my brass is out there drying. Dog slobber is almost harder to clean off than fired gunpowder sometimes.
5) Stainless pin cleaners are SO much nicer than the way I first did this task – which was a sonic cleaner followed by a tumble in corn cob media with polish. I’ve done a bunch of batches of brass with this one (It’s the Frankford Arsenal one), and I really love the way my brass comes out. Ultra clean, and extremely shiny.
Dirty Brass:
500 pieces of clean brass, stacked on 4 levels (about 125 on each level) for 30 minutes – Nice and dry:
Clean, dry and ready to sort:
All sorted:
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