Is Military Fired Brass Being Reduced to Scrap Metal Again?
Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, has revealed that once-fired military brass is being converted into scrap metal rather than being sold in reloadable condition with revenues going to the U.S. Treasury. The destruction or mutilation of once-fired brass runs contrary to the efforts of Congressional leaders to ensure that fired military brass be resold rather than destroyed. Marbut claims that once-fired brass is now being destroyed as the result of “sweetheart side deals with installation commanders that [are] being aggressively promoted by ATK.”
According to Marbut, ATK/Alliant Techsystems has encouraged military base commanders to sell their used cartridge brass directly to ATK. The brass is then demilled and rendered down to scrap metal for use in ATK’s future new cartridge production. Marbut states: “ATK even provides portable equipment to demil tons of cartridge cases at the military installations, destroying the brass for reloading purposes. Because the destroyed cartridge case brass is not suitable for reloading, it cannot command a price driven by auction for the highest-value use of reloading. Military installation commanders sell the Alliant-destroyed brass to ATK at a private, non-auction, special price. Commanders are willing to accept the reduced price because the sale proceeds go to the commanders’ discretionary accounts and not back to the U.S. Treasury via Government Liquidations.”
As a result of this reported arrangement between military commanders and ATK, Marbut believes, millions of used military cartridge cases, which otherwise could enter the commercial market for surplus brass, are being destroyed rather than sold at auction for fair value. In a time when there are still acute shortages of reloading components, this reduces the supply of reloadable brass, while depriving the U.S. Treasury of sales proceeds. Marbut calls for Congressional action to stop the “sweetheart deals” and ensure that “expended military brass of civilian-usable calibers generated domestically goes through the public auction process.” Marbut believes that “will benefit the U.S. Treasury, America’s gun owners, and the adequacy of the ammunition marketplace.”
CLICK HERE to read full story: Military Cartridge Brass Destruction 2010 – Round 2
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The simple solution to this kind of underhanded action by ATK would be to boycott all of the ATK family of companies. Honestly though, I can’t blame the military for looking for new sources of revenue considering the challenges we face under the current administration. If the military can make more money by scraping it and selling it to ATK, then I’m all for it. I was opposed to scrapping it the first time because it was additional cost and a total loss. ATK might just have figured it’s easier to make new cases out of old brass than it is to inspect, clean, deprime, swage primer pocket, anneal, and reload the old cases, and they may be right. Shread, melt, form all of them, instead of just the rejects.
The military needs to be reminded that the material belongs to the citizens of the United States and not them. Furthermore, the elitist attitude towards the shooting public seems to me to be shortsighted. We probably represent some of their strongest supporters in the general public and with the liberals currently controlling the Federal Government they need our support. This action by ATK will certainly influence my component purchasing decisions.
it will be hard to boycott ATK products. They make a lot of shooting related items.
I can sympathize with the base commanders a bit here… these days, with the Socialists in power, I’d want to keep every nickel I could for discretionary spending. Hopefully, the commercial enterprises that rely on surplus brass can find another angle, like ATK did.
Now the MSSA will go to Baucus(D-MT), author of the Senate healthcare bill, to appeal for government interference in a successful capitalist enterprise. According to keynote speakers for NRA conventions, we’re s’posed to let ATK’s profits trickle down so we’ll all be able to afford Norma and Lapua brass. Shooters need once-fired LC. Elected officials need to listen to shooters. Pundits don’t. Corporations dealing with the military don’t.
I’m sorry to hear that the government does not have larger issues to take. Scrape millitary brass is the primary brass used in reloading for the marksmen sport of target shooting.
The Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service [at this address: http://www.drms.dla.mil/index.shtml is designated as the Agency responsible for the sale of scrap property to the public. Someone seems to be deliberately bypassing this Agency’s function unless … the rules have been rewritten specifically for the sale of surplus brass.
Funny. I was just headed out to grab some stuff like this, and decided to google a some recommendations, yours came up.