Old empty shotgun shells

diver1

A friend of mine just cleaned out an old house which had a lot of old reloading stuff in it. I believe that some of this material might be useable. the old hulls were stored in trash cans an look good, I would classify them as once fired. My question is that they could be 30 years old, would this make them unsafe in anyway ? I assume the bag lead would probably be worth more as a novelty. He also has several cigar boxes of old rifle & pistol brass marked sized an deprimed around 1968. Is this old brass dangerous to reload or is it in the novelty department also ? I am sure part of your response will suggest visual inspection. I guess the question is does the age alone disqualify the materials from use ? Thanks for the help.

geeguy

Age does not, condition does.

I load 30-06 from 1917 and other brass right up thru present day. Clean it up and inspect it, if it looks good load it.

On shotgun shells I am still using hulls from 1960's in some cases, again you've got to inspect it. The plastic in some hulls can shrink or become "hardened", but in most cases it works just fine.

Sounds like a good find.

charliemeyer007

Really old brass from the mercury primer era is weak. Plastic gets brittle from ozone or UV light.

Someone probably collects bags of shot, Winchester brand for sure.

bambambam

Bags of lead that old would defiantly be corroded.

The hulls could be used by someone, but depending on condition if they wanted to spend the time to clean them up.

Hawk Carse

I never heard of anybody collecting "bag lead."
Shot is at a high price now and would definitely be worth a good bit to a shotshell loader.

If the shotshells are in good condition, they are usable, but may call for the obsolete #57 primer or some odd wad.

1968 is not old for brass.

Sky Soldier

Easy enough to clean lead shot and at $2.00 a pound(current "fair" market price), well worth it.

bambambam

Lead shot is about $35/bag here. How much in your area?

cbyerly

There is no reason not to use old shot. I would just mix a little powdered graphite with it and stir it up to coat the shot. I would separate the hulls by the type of crimp. 6 or 8 point, paper or plastic. Most modern loaders will not work on 6 point crip shells. Good usable double A hulls are worth about 5 cent each.

diver1

Thanks for the help. I traded for the stuff today.

Sky Soldier

quote:Originally posted by bambambam
Lead shot is about $35/bag here. How much in your area?


$52.49/ 25 lb bag at Sportsman's Warehouse. More everywhere else.

SS

diver1

These bags appear to be old, would a collector pay more for the bags of old #8 shot ? Advance Brand Chilled Lead Shot, Winchester American Standard, Phoenix, All American,

charliemeyer007

I have seen people pay $200 for minty empty boxes of 12 ga. The Winchester marked sacks will be worth more than the others IMHO.

If any of your hulls uses the small shotgun primer, they might be worth more too, as the primers turn up cheap at times.

diver1

I haven't got started yet going thru all the materials. Some magazines from the 60's lots of pistol brass some military 38special,
old cigar boxes full of brass. Would the best way to go be to list some of the items on the auction side ? Question there are several cans of powder can they be shipped safely ? Several Hercules cans, different mgrs.

charliemeyer007

Shipping powder or primers is lots of work. Minty condition powder cans like a Hi-Vel #3 from Hercules will likely not be found with powder that is any good. The can is the collectable part usually.

XP100

I sell 23# bags of shot for 39.50, a lot less than Bass Pro and a couple others near me.

XP100

Typo on previous post. 25# bags