How to find PUGs for ICC when I'm not in a raiding guild?

OK, PUGing can be a pain. There are several things you can do to help yourself get into a PUG Group, although it depends on server to server. So the following details are for my server:

Download yourself the GearScore Addon, everyone is interested in it nowadays. It's a right pain, but you just have to live with it. Secondly, achievements, achievements are important and most people now won't give you a chance unless you have the achievement. If your struggling to get this achievement, because you can't go, (it's a vicious cycle, I have been in it) then there are several things you can do to try and get around it.

• Get a friend that has the achievement to get you in.
• Have a high gear score (this can be done without raiding, just doing HC's)
• Try and "blag" your way in.

In regards to getting a good group. Mostly it's down to luck, but you can check your group to see roughly if you will do well or not. To check your group do the following:

• Check other people's gear. if it's good chances are they are going to be OK, unless they have been boosted. The way to tell if they've been boosted is to see how many good items they have, if they have a lot but by talking to them, not a lot of experience, chances are they've been boosted.
• Check people's guilds. Learn the good guild's on your server, and when you join a group, check to see if the guys are from these guilds.
• Ask them questions. Learn yourself the IN's and OUT's of ICC, and when you join a group, ask them some questions about it, like what do they think work's best on this boss, that tactic or this tactic. This will give you an indication of what they are like.

This is going to be very hard if you haven't been to ICC once, as no one will let you in because as you've said yourself they want a good group and to do it quickly, not someone they have to teach. If you can, go with a friend who has previous experience. If not, when you get into a raid group, try and befriend some people and impress, and just say, "Hey, next time you get a group, whisper me and ill join :)"

This should help you get in.

Definitely trade/general chats in major cities. All of this boils down to the server you are on and your luck. If the server is big, there should always be PUGs being formed to ICC. From my experience a good time to do that is Saturday and Sunday in the morning/afternoon because this is the time when the guild are not doing their 'normal' raids so they go with their alts but because most of the people know the tactics it goes smoothly.

But the easiest way would be to find the raiding guild tbh.

You may also look into GDKP runs, if you've got these happening on your server (basically a gold for drops run with some twists).

The Saturday / Sunday / Monday nights towards the end of the raid lockouts are the best time to get into raids, since you'll have a lot of people either not wanting to waste the lockout, or partially complete raids that may need to finish off the second half of ICC and need another body or two to round out the raid.

Another possibility: http://pugplug.com/ - website where you can sign up for or schedule pug raids.

Use the raid browser (the last tab in the social pane), pick the raids you are interested in, and list your role and gear score. The closer you are to the end game, the more patient you need to be. It's also good to be flexible. I'll usually list myself for ICC and several other raids at the same time.

It's good to be aware of the calendar. Lots of guilds will raid on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Lots of pick up groups will happen on Sunday and Monday, just before the weekly locks expire. That's because these people hoped to raid with their guild or something but since the locks are about to expire they don't mind "wasting" them on a pick up group.