I was at a public range not long ago shooting my Enfield, doing some fire-forming to my brass. At first I was all alone at the end of the range so I let my brass go, it was landing immediately behind me to the right. It was making a neat pile so I figured I get it when I was done. Mind you, I'm the only person within 5 benches, completely to the end of the range.
After a minute or two I notice movement out of the corner of my eye and see a guy shuffling around immediately to my left scavenging brass, mostly .223 stuff. I didn't pay him attention, figuring he could see where mine was landing.
Then, I see him to my right, bent over picking up brass as I'm still shooting. There's probably less than 20 rounds on the ground of mine, all .303 and sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the steel case 762x39 & .223 all over. I turn around to find him pocketing my brass. It's not 2 feet from my foot.
So, I said "Those are mine, I'm reloading those".
The guy looks at me like I'm nuts and says in response "This is public range man, I always pick up brass here".
I said "Yeah, I know it's a public range, but I'm not throwing that brass on the ground for ya, they're mine to reload the same as the ones in this box are mine to shoot. I'd appreciate it if you'd put them back on the ground."
So, this guy looks thoroughly disgusted and empties his pocket of my .303 brass on the ground and grumbles something I couldn't hear under his breath and walks off.
I'm not a up on range-etiquette (I usually shoot at home), so my question is am I in the wrong here? Seems like outright theft to take someone's brass without asking, right in front of them while they're still shooting. Is this considered acceptable behavior??
After a minute or two I notice movement out of the corner of my eye and see a guy shuffling around immediately to my left scavenging brass, mostly .223 stuff. I didn't pay him attention, figuring he could see where mine was landing.
Then, I see him to my right, bent over picking up brass as I'm still shooting. There's probably less than 20 rounds on the ground of mine, all .303 and sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the steel case 762x39 & .223 all over. I turn around to find him pocketing my brass. It's not 2 feet from my foot.
So, I said "Those are mine, I'm reloading those".
The guy looks at me like I'm nuts and says in response "This is public range man, I always pick up brass here".
I said "Yeah, I know it's a public range, but I'm not throwing that brass on the ground for ya, they're mine to reload the same as the ones in this box are mine to shoot. I'd appreciate it if you'd put them back on the ground."
So, this guy looks thoroughly disgusted and empties his pocket of my .303 brass on the ground and grumbles something I couldn't hear under his breath and walks off.
I'm not a up on range-etiquette (I usually shoot at home), so my question is am I in the wrong here? Seems like outright theft to take someone's brass without asking, right in front of them while they're still shooting. Is this considered acceptable behavior??