[swiftak]

On my drive home from work I drive by an old sand pit where people and some slobs shoot. I stop every day and look to see what kind of brass people have left me. Today I picked up 40-Fed 3006s, 160- LC 5.56mm, and 40-Fed 308s. A pretty good day for a reloader. I was curious about whether other people get as excited as I do when they find clean shiney once fired brass as I do.

[janobles14]

its like Christmas!

[jibjab]

nice score, I'd be stoked :D
I had a pile of Fed(Amer eagle) .308 win. free range brass and after culling out 40% of it I ended up with some good reloading stock.

[win71]

I used to shoot with a guy once a week. He spent more time brass picking than shooting. Like a kid in a candy store...........

[Griz44]

Win71, please do not talk about me like that. I can't help it!

[wankerjake]

it's almost as fun as shooting...almost

[floydster]

:DYou people are all brass whores!!!

[rondog]

I'm the same way, it's an obsession. Except I don't just pick up the shiny stuff, I'll pick up the nasties too. IOSSO brass case cleaner will get off most of the tarnish, then I tumble them in dry walnut media, then polish with corncob treated with NuFinish car polish.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b150/rinselman/guns/DSCN1410.jpg

[Halo]

Or what about mysteriously reappearing brass? Where I shoot I can thoroughly comb the ground for brass, I've even used a metal detector, and yet the next time I go there I find old brass here and there. Not brass from my last trip either, but brass from several trips before, and it's always in a spot I know I searched. I think heavy rains must uncover some of it, or something. Either way, no complaints!

[472x1A/B]

I wish I could find a place like that to stop and look for brass on the way home from work. Course I only live 7 city blocks from where I work. But on the other hand I do have my , across the street neighbor, that brings me a 1/2 to 3/4 plastic 5 gallon bucket of mixed brass from the police range every 5 months. Sorry I just can't refuse free brass, ever, really. (please don't be mad at me)

[Griz44]

I think heavy rains must uncover some of it, or something.

No, it sprouts from seeds that are strewn into the wind by reloaders who use smokey lubes....

[nambu1]

My son and I love the lazy people that do not want to be bothered by reloading.

[AZAndy]

It has happened, on rare occasions, that I use the entire shooting-time I've allotted myself in picking up brass instead. After all, I can shoot most any day but that brass needs to be picked up right now.

[SASS#23149]

I'm as giddy as a school girl when I spot nice shiny brass just laying there looking up at me. ! :)

[Loomis]

Now, if someone were to pick up the russian steel case stuff, then I'd think they were a little wierd. But picking up brass isn't so strange.

[RobMoore]

This thread reminds me of watching the brass-monkeys picking through the spent casings after matches when I used to shoot .357SIG for USPSA and IDPA. They'd be happily picking along, claiming useful 9mil or 40 (the 38 super guys grab theirs as it exits the gun)....then they come along to my brass and say "*** is this? Who the hell shoots Speer .357SIG at a match?"

[roc1]

At our range brass is everywhere if you want it.I pick up the best stuff.I guess you pickup brass forever if you wanted to.
roc1

[sargenv]

I especially like picking up brass that is in an uncommon caliber. One time I was able to pick up nearly 500 rounds of 44 special brass. Yeah, I could hardly believe it too.. I traded it for something I could use.. 308 Win I think..

[dirtman]

roc1, wheres the range at.... i don't mind a good drive.... just another brass whore here.....

[mike6161]

I love picking up brass. I pick up that cci blazer stuff and even shotgun shell and rimfire. if it was fired out of a gun i pick it up.

[zxcvbob]

I've accumulated about eight hundred .40S&W cases (lately there is more of that on the ground than 9mm and .45ACP combined). I'm gonna have to buy a .40 pretty soon. Maybe a 10mm that's convertible to .40, because I've picked up three or four 10mm cases too. ;)

I don't always pick up brass, but I do always pick up the lead off the ground under the steel plates during the summer. It just takes a couple of minutes to pick up 15 to 20 pounds of lead.

[Bush Pilot]

The people who shoot and run are NOT slobs or lazy, they are "brass donors".

[Tony Gable]

My wife gets so excited about scrounging brass that she act like a little kid in a Chucky Cheese Restraunt. Pretty comical. We save it all. What I don't reload goes into our scrap brass bucket to fund my reloading. As of last weekend we have 66 pounds of scrap brass to sell. :D

Tony

[CHEVELLE427]

just like looking for EASTER eggs




The people who shoot and run are NOT slobs or lazy, they are "brass donors".

i took this as some left there trash as well as some brass;)

[GRB]

I was curious about whether other people get as excited as I do when they find clean shiney once fired brass as I do.

I do not reload, but I have often wondered: How do you know for sure that the brass you have found is once fired?

[Hey_Allen]

How do you know for sure that the brass you have found is once fired?

That's something I've been wondering as well, and that the manuals that I've been reading (just starting to reload) caution about, and against.

The S&B brass that I've been picking up at the local range is rather obvious, as they red lacquer the primers. Not just the groove, but the WHOLE primer. Somewhat of a give away that it's factory ammo, there.

That being said, if the weapon that fired it has/had chamber irregularities, it may have damaged the brass, so who knows...


I'm going to stick to my personally fired brass for now, and see where things go from here.
Worst event, I just get to sell as scrap, at today's rates! :D

[dodge]

At my range I try to pick up any brass that I can find but there is an older gentleman that usually gets it before I do. He's quite bad about it, too. When I'm shooting my deer rifles he doesn't come over but as soon as I fire a mag full through my AR he's john-on-the-spot asking if I reload or not. In talking to some of the other club members he has almost burned his fingers getting the brass almost before it hits the ground. That I have a problem with as I go to the range to relax not to fight someone over my brass that I'm going to reuse myself.

[Marlin 45 carbine]

I go to a public range on NF land that is fairly well kept up (due in large part to some NRA member volunteers) and I always rummage the trash cans (when nobody is around). I've found '06 cases in there that the shooters some of 'em have even placed back into the boxes the came in. lots of 1X fired .45acp also, a time or 2 in the boxes. neat freaks I guess. there's at least one other range rat that comes there, whenever I have cases that have been loaded 5-6X I shoot it up for 'shoot&scoot' practice and leave it lay. somebody has been picking up that worn out brass!

[greyling22]

even better, I shoot with 3 friends who don't reload. not only do I get tons of 45, 9, and 40, but I've trained them to pick it up for me.

[loneviking]

Yep, I'm a scrounge! I hit the jackpot earlier this week. I picked up almost 100 nickel, .38 spcl. cases and 42 big .44 magnum cases. What's weird is trying to figure out what the heck these folks were sometimes doing. I was chasing these nickle cases all over the range! I'd find a pile of 18 to 20, then at another spot 6 or so, then another big pile---WTH? Were they drunk and just randomnly wandering and shooting?

Anyway, once I get to 500 cases found for the .44, I think I can plead my case to wifey that I really, really need a .44 so that all of these nice big cases don't go to waste! :D

[indiandave]

Glen Battley , I always consider found brass to have been fired twice so when I reload it would be the third time. Most people who leave brass don't reload, so it probably has only been fired the one time.

[CHEVELLE427]

I don't have any problems with once fired or 15 firing, if it looks bad toss it, if its too long trim it,:rolleyes:
I have just now started getting some 44 mag brass act up and some of it I started reloading back in 1990.:what:
and i try to shoot something at least twice a week.:neener:
As for a brass hog snatching up any brass I shot, I would just say thanks for picking that up for me and hold my hand out.;)

my 45acp has 6-12 reloads on them
223 has so far up to 4.
50AE up to 6
3006 necked to 8 mm up to 4
270win up to 3
10mm/40 up to 5 so as you can tell as long as the brass looks useable it most likely is

. One sign brass has been reloaded before, look for marker markings on it. Or multi ejector marks. Some color the primer so they can keep up with how many times they had reloaded it.

my brass looks new but after it has been fired it is a lot dirtier then new once fired brass, some of this is do to dirty burning powder.

[Halo]

I do not reload, but I have often wondered: How do you know for sure that the brass you have found is once fired?

I guess in most cases you can't know for sure, but you can reasonably conclude it's once fired based on a few things. Most reloaders won't leave their brass behind, so if you find brass out in an open and obvious area chances are it was left there by someone firing new factory ammo. You can also look at the case head and mouth. If the case has been fired more than once you can very often see multiple extractor marks on the canellure. Likewise the mouth will often show separate marks from where it hit the slide on the way out. If you can only find one such mark it's a pretty reasonable assumption that it's a once fired case. Of course this only applies to autoloaders.

[jmorris]

Once you find a "honey hole" for tons of brass you might look into one of these. http://www.baganut.com/

[mike6161]

I do not reload, but I have often wondered: How do you know for sure that the brass you have found is once fired?

I look at the primer. if it looks like it's brass it's a factory primer. if it looks like it's nickel its reloaded. thats how I tell most of the time.

[jmorris]

I look at the primer. if it looks like it's brass it's a factory primer. if it looks like it's nickel its reloaded. thats how I tell most of the time.


That would be a bad way to tell as Winchester and Remington primers have the brass look and factory ammo like fedral hydrashock has nickle primers.

FWIW for most of my loads it doesn't matter how many times its been fired as long as no cracks exist.

[Walkalong]

Brass on the ground is a good thing, a really good thing. It sounds like you have a "honey hole" for free brass. :D

[tunnug]

nickles,nickles everywhere, just can't leave one laying around you know.
at least that's how it feels.

[Hiaboo]

heh.. When I first arrive to the range, I have to pick up wahtever there is.. Scrap it if its junk. I don't care if it is 1 fired or 100 as long as it's still good.. I seperate them out, I only use LC for my .223 and whatever there is for .30-30.. It's easy with military brass to tell if they are once fired because of the crimps, and they are usually crimped unless it came from black hills or on eof those reloading outfits.

[RonC133]

You don't. But you know for sure that it has been fired at least once.:D

[Otto]

I do not reload, but I have often wondered: How do you know for sure that the brass you have found is once fired?

When the guys next to you shoots ammo that comes in a white box and says Winchester on it, you can pretty much bet it's once fired.

[jjohnson]

Yeah, count me in. I love it when "donors" leave nice new brass lying around for us brass whores to score big on. :) The whole deal appeals to the cheapskate/archaeologist/old sergeant/God only knows what else in me. Some of us have been known to even buy a new firearm or at least dies, because we found one of those wonderful treasure troves of brass.

For you donors out there, thank you. Please stop throwing it in the can at the range though. I always feel like a raccoon when I dumpster jump :eek: Please just leave the brass where it is or neatly piled if you're a neat freak. The brass whores will come and take care of it for you.

And for those of you who buy non-recyclable stuff - please go shoot elsewhere. :scrutiny:

[rugerman]

I used to go to a public range and shoot a little and pick up brass a lot. At one time I sold the excess brass at gun shows to reload dealers (or rather traded for powder, primers etc) but for some reason they stopped taking it so I only pick up stuff I can use now. I still have a bunch of 9mm, 40 and 223 that I don't use but I'm too lazy to haul it to gun shows any more. rugerman

[Noxx]

I have slowed down on my brass-ratting, only because I am running out of room in the garage for brass (at last check I had over 300lb of .45 and 200+ 9mm) and I'm about to the point of purchasing a .40 just because I am reaching critical mass in .40 brass and don't own one.

[Noxx]

And for those of you who buy non-recyclable stuff - please go shoot elsewhere.

No such thing. Blazer is still good old aluminum, your local scrap shop will happily take it off you by the pound, pays for powder. Same goes for steelies.

[Noxx]

. http://www.baganut.com/

I lerv you. My wife does not, but I do. :D

[PecosRiverM]

Some folks have all the luck..

Where Dad, the kids and I shoot we can't pick any but our own brass. It's been a range since WWII and old brass is everywhere but the owner doesn't want folks picking it up. Go figure.

[EricTheBarbarian]

Well, I don't reload yet, but I still get excited to pick up piles of brass to save for the day when I start reloading. Even in weird calibers that I don't even own.
I've actually learned some things from brass I've never heard of, like 5.7x28mm when I researched it.
I get a kick out of shooting 54r at the range all day, when people shooting 7mm mag or .303 british shoot one box of 20, and leave all the brass on the ground next to me:D

I even like to pick up piles of berdan primed ammo, just add it to the scrap bucket as long as its brass. I also pick up aluminum, recycling metals or selling scrap is a habit I picked up in college and can't quit get rid of. Don't worry, I only scrap berdan primed and save the rest in various ziploc bags in different calibers. If it's a caliber I dont use or intend to use, I'll list it on THR so someone else can use it.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

About 15 years ago, I went to the range and had a good find when there was about 60 9mm brass cases - all factory, new - once fired. At the time I had a Beretta 9mm. :)

I scarfed it all up and went to my in-law's for dinner. Someone we know was there and was telling about just coming from the range with their new gun. I asked if they reload, and they said "no."

Here, it was the guy I was eating dinner with who left all the 9mm brass in the grass! :cool:

[goon]

I also scrounge all available brass.
A lot of it comes from the range but I occaionally get some from a friend who works a local gun counter. When they get a used gun in with ammo (they can't resell ammo) that no one else can use, he'll occasionally give it to me. From there, I either shot it or pull it down for components/brass if I can't use it.
I just recently sold some .30 Luger brass and bullets on here that came from some of that. Sold it cheap too just because I figured someone could use it.

But more often that not, the stuff I can't use goes to the scrap pile and gets sold off to fund more reloading stuff.

[rondog]

FWIW - I use 1-gallon milk jugs with the neck area cut out about the size of my fist, but all the handle still intact. Those make great brass gathering buckets. I nearly always come home with at least 1/2 gallon of various brass. I only fill' em halfway, they get too heavy, so I always carry two. I have to resist picking up cases for scrap, or I'd NEVER get to shoot.

[evan price]

I clean at the club range, and I get a five gallon bucket of range brass a month, plus whatever I scrounge when I am out & about at various ranges.

I don't turn down any brass, even the dented, tarnished, brown, nasty Berdan rifle junk that's been stomped into the mud. It's all brass. I won't pick up short .22's like LRs unless it's a big handful sitting in one pile on the bench- but I grab take 22 Mag and .17 HMR long cases for scrap. I love going to the range and seeing the rifle range glistening in the sunlight...
As far as once fired or not, typically around here people who reload take all the brass they can find. If they leave the brass it is usually WWB or Blazer Brass that was bought at Wal*Mart an hour before shooting it.
.223 is usually mil-crimped so you know it's once fired.
I get lots of military rifle cases with sealed/crimped primer. Once fired, for sure.

As far as once-fired, who cares? I have .45 acp with headstamps from the 1930's and it reloads fine.
Every now and then I split a pistol case. It goes in the scrap bin. When the case or rim gets too banged up to my eye, into the scrap bin.

As far as rifle, if I get one load out of it, it's free, isn't it? Inspect, trim, and look for thinning at the web. If any doubt- scrap bucket.

Member of the official Brass Rat Alliance (With the dumpster-stains on my shirt).

I love the types that carefully put the brass right back in the box and put it in the trash. Revolvers, rifles, etc. Makes my day.

[jdorian]

Even the steel and alum goes home with me, no reason to trash it. I can take it to the scrap dealer down the street from my house and get something for it. No need to sort it at all, its just scrap steel or alum to him. Might as well recycle it somehow. In states without bottle deposits, what do you do with your pop and beer cans?

[PCJim]

LoneViking - what you are describing sounds like the range is probably being used for tactical training purposes at times when it is not open to the general public. Those little piles are left behind when someone stopped to unload a mag before advancing to their next vantage point.

[ZeSpectre]

Everybody takes all the brass and doesn't leave any for ME :uhoh:

Not to mention that my .380 cases all seem to bang out into 9mm after being shot because I can shoot 50 rounds of .380 and when I start policing my brass I'll have 20 .380 cases and 30 9mm cases. WEIRD!

[ForneyRider]

I got a brass catcher for my AR from Brownell's.
There are cheaper ones available, but mine doesn't melt like some of the cheaper ones. It's pretty handy, but deflects more than it catches. Be great to find one for my 1911.

I wish everyone with semi-auto had one. Our local range is open so the brass gets thrown 2-3 stations over.

The Gibson's range-master/owner lets you pick up as long as you are quick. Garland Public range is pick up your own only, but has fabric between the stalls.

I see more live ammo on ground now that AR's and SKS/AK's are more common. Last visit I got handful of live ammo, 1-2 were steel, but rest were brass. I will still pull them apart. But I can see it from the range's view of not letting you pick up stuff. Plus it can slow down the clearing of the firing line. Of course, I pick up all I can. :)

[Walkalong]

I love the types that carefully put the brass right back in the box and put it in the trash. Makes my day.
Oh Yea! :D

[FM12]

I try to go a step further and also pick up the trash left behind, such as old targets, ammo boxes, and shotgun hulls that are damaged beyond hope. makes me feel a little better when I can also help the eco-system!

[jeepmor]

I was curious about whether other people get as excited as I do when they find clean shiney once fired brass as I do.

Ooh yeah, I found 150+ LC 223 at the range one trip. I'm guilty of scrounging for brass more than shooting. If I could pick up used brass as fast as I can dump it on the ground, I'd be one happy man. I know, brasscatcher...blah, blah. I also try to avoid reloaders as shooitng partners, I don't need the competition. ;) Just kidding.


I try to go a step further and also pick up the trash left behind, such as old targets, ammo boxes, and shotgun hulls that are damaged beyond hope. makes me feel a little better when I can also help the eco-system!

I do the same, but I don't waste all day doing it because the public impromptu range I frequent is also frequented by those that think the world is their own personal trashcan.

[VegasOPM]

During our local USPSA matches, I am the "brass monkey". I put all of the brass into a big bucket and tell everyone that they can "grab their own" out of teh bucket. By the end of the match most of them figure it is a waste of time and leave it with me. I also practice on Mondays, when the ranges still have tons of leftovers from Saturday and Sunday matches.

[swiftak]

I also pick up trash at the pit. Thats what I meant by slobs. 180 mixed headstamp 223s today, All mine

[ljnowell]

Kinda funny, but my wife has been shooting long enough with me that when I shoot my g21 she will stand behind me and when I stop shooting to reload, she starts picking up brass. lol. Most of our shooting is done at the home range, but when we go to one of the others she watches to see who is shooting what. That way when the leave if they are leaving .45acp or .38spl she grabs it quick as she can. :)

[scrat]

Ya someone ask RC Model how much brass he has. i think he has barrels full.

[VINTAGE-SLOTCARS]

I wear a back pack and go into the moutains after the week end. Some times I will only carry a .45 acp. I will scroung around and pick up 10-15 pounds of good brass. I have found mags, stripper clips , field glasses. All my reloading buddies get to sort thru the stash. Yea it's kinda like egg hunting. I have five gallon cans full of clean polished brass ready to go.:)

[travis74]

I pick up all the brass that I see. That is something I do anywhere I see it. It amazes me how people just shoot, let it fly, and forget about it. I am glad those people are out there. I really enjoy picking up brass when I see it and really I am not that picky about what caliber it is, well other than any 22 brass. I figure that I may own a gun someday that might use it, so it is no big deal to me. Especially when there is lots of it.