Luke E.

If it gets that high I personally would pass. Now if stays sub $1.50 I'm in. Not that $1.65 is a bad deal but I can buy as I need for around $1.70 so a nickel per pound isn't worth the extra effort. On a positive side, no scrapper is going to pay $1.65 per pound just to go sell it for $1.65 per pound so maybe it will stay lower.

       Kinda what I thought OS. Guess if I go into a gun shop and they have a rifle listed at $500 plus a 50% discount that would make it free? I'm thinking they are going to ring it up at $250... 

   They are always worth watching because like you said, every now and again there will be a lot that slips through the cracks. Like I said, if it looks like it might go cheap enough I will gladly go in for 1-200 pounds so you can count on that much being taken care of.

  Nope. Scrap value is a fair bit higher than that so folks will buy it and scrap it before they let folks like us get it and use it.

Very nice. I know nothing about knife making but wish I knew how.

  That's what seems to always happen towards the end of the auction.

   Like I originally stated, I would not hesitate in the least to reload the brass. I have some of the exact same brass and I fully intend to reload them when I run out of factory ammo for the .308. If you start out towards the minimum listed charge you will be okay. As far as your .308 die set goes, even if the 7.62 brass had slightly different dimensions, they would have the .308 outside dimensions once you run them through your .308 dies. Same goes with .223 because I have never seen a set of "5.56" dies and I have run thousands upon thousands of pieces of 5.56 brass through my .223 dies and never once had an issue. My favorite load isn't close to the max load so I load each case the same whether it is .223 or 5.56 and can't tell any difference from one round to the next. BUT you being new to reloading you should start at the published minimum and work your way up.

 Another thing is, If the brass auctions have the same requirements as buying the deuce and a halfs, an EUC (end user certificate) will be needed in order to place a winning bid. We bought about 25 of the 2 1/2 and 5 ton 6x6 mil-surp trucks and a semi trailer worth of the diesel generators about 5-6yrs ago so our buisiness may still have a valid cert. but I would have to check. I don't remember it being a big deal to get so you could check into it yourself if you'd like.

  Depending on what type of wood and how thick it is a pallet can weigh as little as 20# up to 60# with most average pallets landing between the 20-45#. I'm not sure about the crate they have pictured but I would say that your guess is pretty reasonable. 

I will mention that most of the time they are going to run up close to current brass scrap value which might seem high depending on how you normally acquire your brass. Also just in case someone missed it, the brass auctions almost always include the pallet and box/crate/containment device in the total listed weight.

I would be in for 100 pounds depending on the price.

 I just went and inspected about 30 rounds of once fired CBC brass I had in the back and couldn't see any signs of high pressure. I dont have any .308 dies but do have a universal decapping die so I knocked the primers out and everything looked good there. I also didn't see any gouges or sign of any extractor issues. So in the name of full disclosure, I have never loaded any CBC .308 brass BUT I couldn't find any reason why it wouldn't reload and run just as well as any other brass. Hopefully someone else will chime in with better info for you. If i'm not mistaken I saw Red shooting some CBC ammo at the range in Woodbury once and I know he loads so there is a good chance he has some first hand knowledge so he might be the one to send a PM to.

 With pistol ammo I generally shoot groups and watch the primers. Obviously start with the lowest charge, shoot you first group checking the primer for high pressure sign after each shot. Repeat until you have gone through all loads or you started seeing sign of high pressure. I like to keep the fired brass in groups with the same load so that I can line them up afterwards and look at the progression in primer "flattening". This is just something I like to do because you get to see how much those small incremental jumps in powder charge effect the spent primer. I usually go with the most accurate lowest charge that reliably cycles the weapon. A lot of times the groups will start off opened up a bit and tighten up over the first few loads then the next few loads will show similar accuracy and then start to open back up as the charge increases. This isn't always the case but I have found that the most accurate round is seldom the hottest load which is why I mentioned the groups usually start to open back up. The reason I say choose the lowest accurate/consistent charge is because I see no need in wasting the extra powder and adding recoil when i'm not gaining any accuracy from it. The only exception I personally have made regarding this was with a hunting bullet that I needed the extra speed to ensure adequate expansion so I was willing to give up a small amount of consistency in exchange for more speed.   You will really start enjoying this whole process once you have developed a few more loads and start to see the whole cause and effect thing first hand. Good luck tomorrow and I hope the rain will give you the chance to run off your test loads!

Glad you're pleased with your choice. 5.45 is really a nice plinking/training round.

 It all comes down to EW having the right to charge whatever they want whether $5 per brick or $500 a brick BUT consumers have the right to praise them for selling it a $5 per brick or crucify him for charging $500 each and everywhere in between. If a few people were overreacting about the price they would have just brushed it off and everyone else would have "come a runnin" to buy all he had to sell but that wasn't the case because it didn't sell, the most sought after ammo in the country,,, and it still wouldn't sell. Kinda makes me think that most everyone that walked in or saw it on Facebook  and thought that maybe the guy was smokin' rock when he decided what price to slap on the boxes.. ?

    Actually selling a brick for $20 that only cost them $10 is 100% mark up.

 If you already have H335 then it won't hurt to do some testing and who knows, you may find something that works for you. The bullets weights are the same and if i'm not mistaken the bullet profile is similar so I personally wouldn't get to concerned with it. They are both 75gr bthp projectiles weren't they? I can't remember for sure. Assuming they are both bthp and you loaded them so that there was the same amount of the projectile base in the case you should be very very similar. I personally would start at 20-21gr and work up from there as I can't find anything to suggest that there's enough difference in bullet to cause any major issues provided the ogive isn't way closer or further from the base of the bullet than the other. I would just watch for pressure signs...   DISCLAIMER Of course all this is just the way I would attack this deal and your mileage may vary so don't do anything you're not completely confident in.  END DISCLAIMER ;)

I would gladly pay $30 per mag for a handful of them for my M&P 9 which are $40-$45 IF you can find them. The $25-$30 mags are the only reason I have been considering buying a Glock. Guess you're not getting sympathy you had hoped for on this one huh ;)

     The case length won't have any effect on the OAL and like others have mentioned, 1.150" is going to be closer to where you want to be.

 I guess you'd really have to want that wobble target huh.

 Here's the link to the page if you want you change anything, http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

Here's what the Hodgdon web manual says, [URL=http://s303.photobucket.com/user/lukeduke_03/media/b8f3922a-6037-4d22-8fca-ed6a6e8faa9d.jpg.html][/URL]

   So you could totally outfit the property without breaking the bank. For some reason I was envisioning 10-20 acres and thinking that it would be some kinda hard to get all that secured. I guess that also makes it harder to figure out if it's just someone wandering around or someone with ill intent.

 Hey Peace, if you don't mind my asking, how much land is your house sitting on? Just trying to understand the "lay of the land" per say.

   Cool thanks, I'll look into it a bit more. My barn/shop is on the back of my property and will be adding security measures in May so that I can move all my shop tools (hand tools, bike lifts machining equipment) into one side and reloading components in the other.