Huge pile of .30cal brass shell casings and M1 clips

So I had some free time earlier today and decided to swing by an old power line outfall that is a popular dump site. It had been recently mowed so it didn’t look like there was much there, but I walked down a little ways just in case. And I happened to notice what looked like a few spent shell casings laying on the ground. As I was picking them up, I realized that it was actually a huge pile, mostly buried. Thousands of .45ACP and .30cal casings, and M1 Garand clips. They have obviously been there for a long time, and all of the steel clips are badly rusted. I haven’t finished cleaning and checking for live rounds yet, but so far it’s well over 100lbs of brass. They are quite tarnished, and most of them are partially crushed. Is there any reason you guys know of why a yard wouldn’t accept these? And the going rate seems to be around $1-2 per pound, I’m not sure what kind of price to expect, seeing as these shells are old. Uploading images seems to be disabled right now, but I’ll try again when I get to my laptop.
Long time lurker, first time posting.
Thanks,
Miles

Yards will buy them, you should call several yards for prices, some places pay a different price for brass shells than yellow brass

Nice find. Did you have to dig them up and clean them?

For the most part, yes. I first noticed what looked like 20 or 30 shells laying in the dirt. I kicked the dirt over and found out that there were a lot more buried. I only had a couple of 5gal buckets and a 30 gallon trash can with me so I (carefully) filled them up, just in case of any other ordnance mixed in. I’d hate to hit an old grenade or mortar with a shovel lol! I put them all into bins and rinsed them with a hose. Dragged a magnet over them to get all of the clips and tossed them in the steel bucket. Only found a couple of live rounds. I ended up making a second trip and ran my metal detector around, filled all the buckets again. I’m pretty sure I got the majority of them, I may take one more look and try digging a little deeper. It’s not exactly “public” property, I’m sure it’s a utility easement. But i don’t see any harm in cleaning up what I’m sure is a source of lead contamination. There aren’t any “posted” or “no trespassing” signs and no locked gates.

Nice find. Be mindful of digging in utility easements---as there may be buried utilities or pipelines.
Just a heads up if you haven't thought about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cct001

Nice find. Be mindful of digging in utility easements---as there may be buried utilities or pipelines.
Just a heads up if you haven't thought about it.

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Adding on to this:

Digging on someone else's property without permission can lead to more problems than you are hoping for. It will not be because of the value of the brass it will be the liability to the owner of the property. Mike

keep the shell separate from other brass. most yards want them separated even if its the same price