Free Range Brass - is that so rare?

KentM said:

I just wondered, is my range the exception?

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Your range is the exception.

My range allows the pickup of your own brass and whatever may be scattered on the ground. They hire teenagers to clean up the brass otherwise and use the brass sales to supplement the pay those workers receive.

There is a bunch of steel case stuff that is all over the place as no one picks that up.

I police my own brass for the most part even if I dont plan on keeping it. There is a brass bin nearby so it is pretty simple. The owner of the range said to me once that if you see a bit of brass on the top in the bin that you can use go ahead and take it but dont go rooting through the whole bin. I found 20 338 Lapua cases on the top once so I took them for my buddy who has one of those. That is the only time I "scrounged" in the bin though.

Not much brass is being left behind where I shoot.

Don't find as much brass laying around as I used to but it was nothing to fill 5 gallon buckets with free range brass before the shortages hit.

I've got plenty of brass since my range is right outside my back door. If only there were a range somewhere that let me pick up unfired primers.....

The out door rifle range I go to allows you to pick up brass. But the indoor handgun range I go to never had a policy either but since the shortage I notice they started selling once fired brass which they never did before, so I guess their policy changed. I will continue to pick up brass until verbally told otherwise.

Your range is the exception.

My experience is limited to three indoor ranges: NRA HQ (only your own brass), Elite (only your own brass), and Sharpshooters (written rule is you may police your own, but all others is the range’s—not strictly enforced).

At all three other shooters are free to give theirs to you.

Edit: before the panic, NRA used to sell bags of 500 sorted dirty brass at decent prices (for example, 500 mixed primer 45ACP was $27). I bought a lot of it.

See, I take exception to all this you can't pick up brass. For example my indoor handgun is now selling once fired brass and if they started a policy you can't police brass, I will tell them, I've been coming here for 20 years I have never walked out with the same amount of brass I came in with, so I'm taking what's mine and they actually owe me!

I belong to four local ranges , all have buckets to throw your brass in if you want to donate it . That stuff is off-limits to pick . Anything left on the ground is fair game if a person wants to grab it . It is an honor system , most people honor it .

I pick up whatever I find, which isn't much, at the local club.

I have shot at an indoor range only once in my life. They officially discouraged picking up brass, and anything beyond the firing line was off limits.

However, the RSO saw me picking up my brass. After a short conversation, he started sweeping all the brass towards me, and then turning his back.

I left with far more than I came in with, and he didn't have to pick it up....

That is the exception, Our pistol club range you can only pick up your own as our club sells the brass, at some of the public shooting ranges they say you must leave all on the floor as they have peeps that come around and sweep it away for retrieval later. They also use a magnet to check your ammo B4 you enter range to stop all steel rounds.

As the availability of ammo has decreased the policies have gotten tighter and more enforced. I shoot at an indoor range that has never allowed you to take other people's brass but you can pick up your own. Now the RM is on the sweeper and you better be fast before its seeped forward. Seems as the good stuff is absent now. Havent found any rifle brass in months.

unwashed said:

See, I take exception to all this you can't pick up brass. For example my indoor handgun is now selling once fired brass and if they started a policy you can't police brass, I will tell them, I've been coming here for 20 years I have never walked out with the same amount of brass I came in with, so I'm taking what's mine and they actually owe me!

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OP was asking about current actual policy/practice. You’re drifting into reactions to a possible change in policy and while I may feel as you do, it’s all hypothetical.

CQB45ACP said:

OP was asking about current actual policy/practice. You’re drifting into reactions to a possible change in policy and while I may feel as you do, it’s all hypothetical.

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Yes, you're right, apologies to the OP.

We are encouraged to pick up after ourselves...and others. Finders keepers. I have picked up more steel cases than I have taken, or shot for that matter.

Yep, your range is one of the good guys. I went to a few ranges when I lived in LA. One didn't mind if I policed my own brass (when I got to my stall I swept all the brass forward. When I was done I swept up all the brass in my area and took it home), another allowed me to pick up my own brass and brass in my immediate area, but not scroung the whole range. One I went to once didn't allow picking up brass, but they also "forced" you to purchase/shoot their ammo, handloads and factory. I went once, heard the "rules" and left, didn't even unpack my guns...

KentM said:

I just wondered, is my range the exception?

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I would ask if it's an indoor range that you shoot at.
If so, then absolutely, your range is the exception.
All of the indoor ranges where I'm at pretty much set the point of..." anything on the floor is ours"...
They don't seem to be amused when we shoot revolvers----the brass never "hits the floor".....
I don't frequent the indoor ranges much around here, as I belong to a small outdoor range that is fairly close,
That range encourages everyone to police the range, if it's on the ground and no one claims it--it's yours, or put it in the buckets for others that may want it.

Soonerpesek said:

I would ask if it's an indoor range that you shoot at.
If so, then absolutely, your range is the exception.
All of the indoor ranges where I'm at pretty much set the point of..." anything on the floor is ours"...
They don't seem to be amused when we shoot revolvers----the brass never "hits the floor".....
I don't frequent the indoor ranges much around here, as I belong to a small outdoor range that is fairly close,
That range encourages everyone to police the range, if it's on the ground and no one claims it--it's yours, or put it in the buckets for others that may want it.

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I've almost exclusively switched to revolvers for that exact reason. I'll follow your rules and my brass will go from chamber to range bag.

AJC1 said:

I'll follow your rules and my brass will go from chamber to range bag

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ABSOLUTELY.....!!

My club range has no brass program; if somebody leaves brass behind, help yourself.

All but one of the commercial and big club ranges I shoot on have the "own brass" policy. A staffer at one place offered to sell me sorted brass by the bucket, but he never delivered; I guess the management was happy with scrap prices.

The other, where I shoot Indoor USPSA, sweeps brass out of the shooting area. After the match, some of us will descend upon the pile and scoop up a supply. We have an informal agreement, if you got brass last week, I get first scoop today.

At my range it’s okay to police your own brass but not other brass. I do tell them that when I shoot my 9mm I will leave with the same amount of brass I came with but some may not the brass that I fired. They are okay with that. Sometimes it’s hard to get all of your ejected brass back. My range reloads and sells range ammo from brass that is on the floor.
I don’t dump my revolver brass, I eject it into a baggie.

There is an outdoor range here that I have been to that tells shooters that all brass that hits the ground is theirs. I have only been there once. I won’t go back. Especially after the heated discussion I had regarding “my” brass.

At a range I used to go to in Oregon the rule was you could collect your own brass but no other. The owner arbitrarily changed that rule one day. The man was penny wise and pound foolish. He lost me as a very good customer over his insistence that my brass was his brass after hitting the floor.

My range allows you to pick up your own brass, they're someone lax about it, but I suspect if you abuse it, they'll let you know.

I live in Arizona, where most gun owners are sloths. They haul their junk into the desert, shoot at it from close range, pack up quickly leaving their garbage behind for someone else to deal with. Absolutely no discipline or respect.

The upside is they leave behind mountains of brass. A few years ago I watched two guys shoot two spam cans of M2 ball from their M1s over the course of about an hour. I waited in the distance, and when they sped off I pounced. I found all 384 pieces of HXP brass. That's really good stuff. I'm still working with them today in my 03a4s.

Most everything else I pick up, sort, process and sell to pay myself back for all the toilets and TVs I pick up and haul off to the dump on behalf of my disgusting fellow shooters.

I won’t shoot at a range that don’t allow you to collect your own brass. That policy is a tax at best and theft at worst.