Subject says it all. I am heading to a gun show tomorrow and hope to find some ammo. I reload tons of shotshells but have never loaded brass. I really don't know much about it. I see ads that say ammo "can't be reloaded". If I spend a bunch on overpriced ammo I would at least like the ability to reuse the brass/steel. This Wolf and Brown Bear seem to be some of the less expensive stuff out there but I gather they don't use brass but steel. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

BTW...I'll be looking for 223 and 308.

––Joe

wolf and brown bear cases are not brass, so no they can't be reloaded.

 wow, thats such false info. here is a better answer for o.p. yes and no. some later loads are boxer prime for wolf. i dont know about bear thou. i have loaded at least 1500 wolf ammo. they were the same lot so i dont know which lot wolf changed from berdan prime to boxer prime. some people just dont like steel ammo so they will say anything.

These two brands CAN be reloaded, steel cases not withstanding.  In fact, sizing steel cases is apparently easier than sizing brass cases.  Some Wolf is Boxer primed, so reloading it is almost exactly the same as reloading a Winchester case, with the exception of easier sizing and a few cleaning precautions.  

The rest of Wolf cases and all Barnaul cases are Berdan primed, and this is where things get a little hairy.  It is QUITE feasible to reload Berdan primed cases, as long as you can get the right Berdan primers, which is the most difficult part of the whole process.  There are a number of folks who visit the Reloading forum who reload Berdan primed cases; post there and see what sort of reaction you get.

It isn't quite as easy to get into reloading steel cases because so many of them are Berdan primed and that's a PITA.  But I've had more than a few Berdan-primed BRASS cases ruin my day, so I would suggest that as long as you're sorting to avoid Berdan primed brass, you may as well look at the steel stuff too.