Georgia Arms is the 5th largest retailer of .223 ammo in America. They normally buy spent brass from the US Department of Defense. Spent brass is “one time used” shell cases used by our Military for training purposes. br /br /They buy the brass, recondition it, and then reload the brass for resale to Law Enforcement, Gun Clubs, Gun Shops, and stores like Wal-Mart. They normally buy 30,000 lbs of spent brass at a time. This week the Pentagon notified Georgia Arms that from now on they will be destroying the spent brass, shredding it. Thus, it will no longer be available to the ammo makers, unless they buy it in a scrap shredded condition (which they have no use for). The shredded brass is now going to be sold by to China as scrap metal, after the pentagon pays for it to be shredded. They’re selling the brass to China for less money than the ammo makers have been paying, plus the military has to pay to have the brass shredded and do the accounting paperwork.br /br /This sure helps the economy now doesn’t it? The owner of Georgia Arms says that he will have to lay off at least half of his 60 workers, within 2-3 months if the pentagon will no longer sell spent brass cases to the industry. Georgia Arms has 2-3 months of inventory to use, by summer they’re out. If the Reloading Industry has to purchase new manufacture brass cases, then the cost of ammunition will double or even triple. I really fail to see anything positive in this situation. You can read the information and see the DoD letter to Georgia Arms at a href=”http://www.theshootist.net/2009/03/dod-ends-sale-of-expended-military.html” target=”_blank”http://www.theshootist.net/2009/03/dod-ends-sale-of-expended-military.html/a
