Used 40S&W brass

W

Waylan Kisor

Guest
I am trying to help my son-in-law do some reloading. He has a 40 S&W rifle-one of those assault looking rifles- and wants to take his boys out and let them blaze away. I do not care for these weapons but the boys will have fun, but will probably lose half the brass every time they go shoot. He is looking for sources for bulk quantities of brass and I'm thinking once fired, range brass would do the trick. I found some at Powder valley and at one time I had some other sources but unfortunately have lost them, could you guys give me some input? I have dies, press, priming tools and loading manuals.
Thanks.
 
Google "once fired .40 S&W brass" you will get a bunch of sources. Some cheap some not so cheap.
Be aware that a lot of the range pickup brass was fired in Glock pistols. The Glock has what they call an "unsupported chamber" which causes them to bulge in one spot just above the web. Normal sizing dies will not take this bulge out. To make those cases usable again you have to use a push through sizer, Redding makes one and it is not cheap. Look on Midway USA and you can find it.
 
To which I'll add....................

here is a great introduction to handloading for those boys::)

I wouldn't use that brass more than once (You may set your own limit). I'd have the boys sit down and help sort through that brass, putting those cases into their own small bucket. Then, that brass is segregated, reloaded, and fired, separately. :)

Their Father might want to have them fire that ammo first, picking that brass up, then firing the other, and picking that up, too.:confused:
The segregated brass, on its second firing can be consigned to the scrap can, and redeemed for a college fund. The good brass can be taken home, or to your house to be reloaded again. This will instill in them not to be "trash shooters". :eek:
The entire sequence can teach them that ALL brass has value in one way or another. I like to repeat a statement made by a friend many years ago, when a female had commented on how reloaders were carefully scouring the area, and would congratulate each other on the discovery of some usable cases. "You'd think they were prospecting for gold, for God's sake.":rolleyes: To which he replied, "Its more precious than gold, its.....its BRASS!";):D

:cool:
 
Waylan
I don't have bulk quantities, but I do have about 250 to 300 pieces of 40 S&W of various manufacture.
Since they are for the kids, cost will be some good karma sent my way, plus whatever the shipping is.
lemme know.
paul
 
Brian, thanks for your reply, my sentiments exactly. I have not loaded any quantities for handgun, just for my own 10MM Glock and 357 mag., but have loaded thousands of rifle rounds for my PPC's, 6 and 22BR's and a few more custom chambers. My eldest grandson was eight when I let him load some 223 for his "deer gun". I started with fired cases, walked him through resizing, pocket reaming, priming, charge weighing and dropping and seating. He did ten rounds, with me looking on, for hunting and last hunting season killed his first deer with one of the rounds he loaded.
He was very excited and the envy of his little friends, because he had "made his own bullets", Pop was kinda proud also.
 
Waylan
I don't have bulk quantities, but I do have about 250 to 300 pieces of 40 S&W of various manufacture.
Since they are for the kids, cost will be some good karma sent my way, plus whatever the shipping is.
lemme know.
paul
Please email me at wckthreads@aol.com and I will get the info, thanks.
 
Hey, Waylon, no joke, that..................

is REALLY good to hear!! I have a friend whose daughter was growing up, I first saw her when she was nine, she came along late in their lives. He always worked any run, and any condition that paid some more $$$, he always thought more money was the answer....I told him, "They want YOU, not the money." And he NEVER had any time. I kept telling him, "Hey, you ain't getting any younger.......and neither IS SHE. Cut back a bit and spend more time with her, six, seven more years, she'll be gone." She hit 12-14, I guess, he couldn't get her to go. I told him, "She's gone now, she's still living with you, but she's unavailable now." Now, he has the time; he still works, but he's done the things he should have done, 6-7 years ago. However, she's away at school.

I know another guy, and his granddaughter would sit on his knee at three, and help with the reloading chores. Then when she was 10, he moved about 50 miles away, and her father hasn't done anything with her, and she's getting her learner's permit, so, she'll be lost, too.

Most people have no idea what they're doing. They fail to realize that involvement with the shooting sports produces better scholars (I forget where I read that.) Its rare that you have a problem with children that are raised around guns turning out "bad" or getting into trouble with guns. And, if you raise a girl right, around guns, she will likely not wind up abused, sexually assaulted, or kidnapped and killed. Because her legacy has made her a survivor, a survivor because she knew the lay of the land long before a threat came her way.
I have told some of my friends that have daughters and granddaughters, "You NEED to spend some time with her and teaching her to shoot; because if you don't, and something happens to her......how will you ever forgive yourself??" In some cases it worked, and those have come back and told me they thought about that a LOT, then did something about it. They also said they've never had such a good time, or such a meaningful time with their family.
(And it kinda irks me, the way politicians want to take those possibilities away, with no thought, or CARE, at the consequences.)

Some fathers? Well....some......well, you know...
 
Last edited:
I was lucky, I was raised with guns and my dad made sure I knew how to use them. My son and daughter were raised around guns and both are good with guns. My daughter can outshoot me with a handgun. She shoots all guns mostly hunts deer, ducks and dove. She has two boys 7 and 9 and they are the ones I was looking for brass. My son in law is an avid hunter and takes the boys with him. My son shoots sporting clays and BR and anything anything else he can get his hands on. He got me started in BR and I love it although I do not shoot competition, I just enjoy shooting.He has one daughter 10, a step daughter and two step sons and he has bought guns for all of them, taken them hunting and taught all of them how to shoot. All my kids and grandkids are super people and I am very proud of them, if you don't believe me just ask me about them lol...I appreciate your comments...I brag on my chilluns too much..
 
No, you aren't..............

bragging, its straight. I am very glad to hear family tradition like that, there are so many who have no idea of the disservice they're doing their children by NOT teaching them these things. I believe that more children have gone down the right path because they were friends with another youngster whose parents were shooters, the child gets interested, then some parents have gotten interested. I've known some shooters who've gotten new hunting and shooting buddies through their children's association.

I always like to hear the family life, like you've shared. Thanks a bunch, Waylan.
 
An update on the 40 S&W brass. First of all let me thank all the people who responded and I got a ton of brass. I loaded about 500 rounds for my grandson who turned seven in September. His dad has taken him our many times shooting since then and evidently the practice paid off. He took his first deer last Saturday.
 
Hey, Waylan, glad to hear..................

that. I now have a guy closer to you that has a bunch of .40, but he's decent, and the $$$ won't be too much when you need some more, he's one of us, and this may be processed; I know he processes .45, don't know about .40.

Make sure you watch out for the stuff fired in Glocks, not necessarily a way to tell how MANY times its been fired.

Well, I guess Christmas shopping will be a little easier now, make sure you give each one of those "kids" (even the big ones) 1-2k of PRIMERS wrapped up, under the tree. ;)
 
I got a 1,000 mixed once-fired from www.luckygunner.com for $40. Actually well over a 1000 usable brass. About 3% culls with a few aluminum blazers in the batch. I got a great price on Hornady cosmetic 2nd. I think the 155s JHP were $11.41/100. I loaded up. My 11 yr help me load up a 500 44 mags a couple of weekends ago. He did the sizing and added powder with a Chargemaster (he just likes using it --- I drop pistol powder). He has been loading all his shotgun shells for over 2 years. Luck, Tim
 
380, 9mm, 40, 10mm, and 45 Brass

Dan Scharch at Top Brass usually has processed brass at a resonable price.

I load ammunition for customers and with all rimless cartridges they should be roll sized or tube die (ring of carbide) sized. Generally any Full length reloading die does not size up to the groove in the brass because the die requires to be chamfered.

Roll sizers resize the web area and recondition the extractor groove. I know of two types for sale. Scharch sells a comercial roll sizer. The Case Pro 100 is for the recreational shooter. It uses die plates. Plates can be bought for many different calibers. It uses a Dillon Case feeder as its collator.

You will get much better case life and feed reliability on remanufactured ammo that has been roll sized especially to 40 caliber.

Nat Lambeth
 
Hey, Tim, that's great to hear, I..........................

bet he's proud as all get-out that he's able to contribute to the effort!! I love hearing news like that. And thanks for the tip, too.;)
 
Back
Top