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Once Fired Brass
Copyright 2019, Stephen Redgwell

Most people know that once fired brass can be a bargain, but there are shooters who won’t consider using it.

“It’s alright for people who can’t afford good brass.”
“It’s poorly made.”
“It’s prone to cracking because it isn’t annealed.”
“The cases are too much work to get ready to use. The primer pockets have to be swaged to remove the crimps..”
"It’s only good for guys who shoot ARs.”
“I don’t think it’s legal to use...”

Wow, the stories and misinformation I’ve heard at gun shows and some ranges surprised me. I hope that I can clear up some of the bad press. Once fired brass has been around for a long time, but despite that, bad information is still circulating.

This discussion concerns Canadian IVI (Valcartier Industries) once fired, surplus brass. Pick your poison. 5.56, 7.62x51mm, 9mm, etc.

The brass is made in Canada by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems – Canada Inc. (GD-OTS Canada) in Quebec. I have always found it funny that a US multinational aerospace company owns and manufactures ammunition for the Canadian Armed Forces. To be fair, they bought the company long after it was established. Canadian small arms ammunition has been made under several names – Dominion Arsenal, Canadian Industries Ltd, the Dominion Cartridge Co, and others. It’s been in production continuously for over 100 years.

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The brass is made to a specified standard. Informally, it is referred to as mil-spec or military specification. That simply means the ammunition must conform to a set of rules laid out by the military. In most cases, ammunition must be specially made so that other NATO countries can use it, if required. All cartridges must meet velocity, pressure and accuracy standards, and long term storage criteria.

All ammunition is tested and its performance monitored after manufacture. All ammunition lots are tested to ensure conformity to the MIL-STD, and random samples of issued ammunition are tested to ensure quality. Suspect lots of ammunition are quarantined, inspected, and if necessary, destroyed.

In short, there is nothing wrong with military brass. It is very well made. During manufacture, all brass is annealed and must pass a number of quality control inspections.

How do I know this? I was an armourer in the service, and have seen and been involved with testing, quarantining and destruction of many types of ammunition and explosives.

It should be obvious that if I can buy once fired brass from a Canadian store, it cannot be illegal to own or use. So let’s look at these businesses.

First off, where do they get the brass? All brass is picked up by military range users after firing. Keeping the range clean is expected, and all members must tidy up the mess they made.



Bottom left of the tri-wall is the white contents label and a red "Certified Free From Explosives" label.

The brass is collected and packaged at individual bases in tri-walls (heavy duty cardboard boxes on pallets). Full skids are given over for sale to CAD – Crown Assets Disposal. Crown Assets Disposal is tasked by the Cdn government to sell off the brass via auction.

Here’s a link to a successful sale of 36,000 kg, (79,200 lb) of assorted, once fired brass. The winning bid was $187,301. That’s $2.36 a pound, of various expended small arms ammunition casings, up to .50cal.

Brass Auction

This is mixed brass. That is, several calibres constitute the lot. But for fun, let’s assume that it was all 5.56 brass. At 94 grains each, that would be approximately 5.9 million cases with a value of 3 cents each.

A large quantity of spent cases like this is not purchased by individual gun shops. It is resold to shops and businesses who must clean it up and repackage it for sale. There will be losses due to damaged cases, and there is a cost involved in transport and cleaning it up. Still, buying once fired brass this way truly is a bargain.

Depending on the re-seller, the public can buy once fired brass in one of three ways:

a. As is;
b. Cleaned, but not resized or trimmed: and
c. Completely reworked – cleaned, trimmed and the primer pockets swaged.

Completely reworked is the way to go if you do not have the equipment to clean, trim and swage the primer pockets.

A few months ago, I bought 500 5.56 cases for $80. Forgetting the tax and shipping, that works out to 16 cents a piece. To my mind, that is excellent value! If dirty range brass is sold by the government for 3 cents a piece and gets to you for 16 cents a piece all cleaned and prepped, how can you go wrong? Compare this to new cases at your local gun shop.

I checked the prices for new 223 brass at a number of shops. The best I could find was $43 per hundred or 43 cents each. The savings per case is 27 cents each!

So, if you’re worried about quality, don’t be. If you’re concerned about maximizing the number of shots you’ll get from each case, relax. Once fired brass is a bargain!