Brass from spent ammo casings

A

AZ Red

Joined
Oct 27, 2018
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24
Hey all,
I hope this is the appropriate forum for the thread, or if not, maybe a mod could move it…
So I’m sitting on a few thousand spent casings, and I’m not a reloader. So…
Q: Is there a safe way to smelt the brass into ingots? If so, how would I go about it?
Please understand that I know next to nothing about metallurgy.

Thanks, and may you never burn your bacon,

AZR
 
Your best bet is to go to a gun shop and sell the brass, or advertise it, by caliber, to gun enthusiasts.
If it's .22 caliber rimfire, it has no value for reloading, but you can sell it to a recycler.
Melting cartridge brass can be dangerous, as there could be a dud or unfired round-or even an unfired primer. You don't want that introduced into molten brass!
You would need an oxy/acetylene torch, a crucible, ingot moulds, and safety gear. By the time you acquired this, you would have been better off selling to a reloader or recycler.
 
I always heard it as never fry bacon naked. Cookie at the ranch was pretty big on that. What Bill said on the brass. You'd be surprised what they'd sell for.
 
Just to throw this out there…wouldn’t you need to deprime the brass first? I know with lead impurities float to the top but where would all those spent primers go?
 
You would definitely want to deprime the cases. Also I think most cases are alloyed, generally with zinc(?). Not sure if that impacts your ingot reveries.
 
Last edited:
As said by the others, the best way is to either sell them as cartridges or scrap. 1000 30-06 casings weighs around 30-35 pounds. Sounds like you have around 100pounds. It depends on who you sell to, but that is $259-300 .

If you want the procedure to melt cartridge brass:
*** You need proper safety gear - full face shield, casting apron, casting gloves, melting/casting proper crucibles and lifting tongs. Do outside and stand upwind so you don't breathe the fumes. For the amount you have, you will need to find a local blacksmith, foundry, or other group with a gas melting foundry/furnace. It needs to reach 1000°C/1800°F and have a graphite/clay crucible. Most 200-300$ hobby melting furnaces and cheaper online units only do up to 10-15#.
1) Deprime and clean.
2) Place in a gas fired melting/foundry furnace.
3) Flux and bring to heat of 950°C/1750°F, stirring with a carbon rod regularly.
4) Re-flux and stir.
5) Pour into an ingot mold, or casting mold of desired shape.

Just to point out the obvious - melting and pouring large quantities of metal is not something for the ill-equipped or untrained. The possible risks range from a bad fire, to getting burned horribly.
 
Sell it as once fired (I'm assuming) to reloaders. You'll get the most out of it that way. Smelting equipment isn't free. What cartridges do you have?
 
So the basic idea I’m getting is that it’s just a bad idea. I can deal with that, I’ll just have to purchase my brass bar stock.

Thanks for the advice,
AZR
 
Sorry for the late response, just tripped over this thread 🤣

Not so much a bad idea, as you need to understand the issues involved. If you have cases of .40 brass, can't sell it at gun shows, and have the time and interest to set up (safely) for casting... cool!

If you're new to casting, take a class (If you're in/near Tucson, Desert Metal Craft (no affiliation) is great). The hazards are real (and different from forging), zinc fumes are not good.

I do what you wondered about, built a furnace, have a crucible for brass (and one for aluminum... don't bother with soda cans, not worth the slag :rolleyes:, and one for nickle/silver, another for bronze. Keep them separate!)

Then there's the cast iron cornbread pans I use to make clean ingots (since its a pain to work the casings to a usable quantity of brass... you fill the crucible, and it melts to 1/2" at the bottom, add casings to the top, now its 3/4" after removing slag... spend 2-3 hours just getting a good melt, and make ingots for later...). Then making molds, and forms etc (even just to make bars or rods... and there are tricks to limiting porosity)

And it's probably not worth it for just the recycle value of the brass.

But if you just dig making stuff, go for it!
 
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