Brass at the Range

[Kingson]

Does anyone get excited when they go to the range and there is a whole pile of brass there and no one around? Do you spend more time picking up brass then you do shooting?
I went to the range today to try out 3 old mil-surps that I bought the other day( I got 2 Enfields, #4 mark1,#1 mark3 and a Carcano. All for $15 dollers. Spent all day yesterday cleaning them.) and there was a big pile of .223 there. I think I spent more time picking up brass then shooting (It didn't help that I one had 20 rounds for the Carcano and 50 rounds for the Enfields.). I just hate to see it thown away when it could be reloaded. I think the less I have to spend on ammo the more guns I can buy.

 

[El Tejon]

Range slobs do not get me excited. They make me angry.

Take your gear with you when you leave, that includes your trash.

 

[willyjixx]

i pick up my brass an shot shells. if there is ever stuff i shoot that isnt just corroded over i pick it up. i dont reload though i just dont like littering.

last friday i was shooting had my 5 gallon bucket filling it up. guy walks over ask if i reload.. nope i sais an ask do you? sure enough he does an he walk away with a whole buncha brass.

 

[willyjixx]

can you sell brass? an shot shells??

 

[Stickjockey]

Kingson-

Ranges are a great place to pick up a little extra brass. Two points to ponder, however.

First, if there is anyone else around, ask first. There was a thread recently about someone who had a guy try to grab a bunch of brass that our shooter had just emptied and was going to pick up later. Needless to say the situation was less than warm and fuzzy. Even empties still belong to the shooter until he/she leaves them or lets them go.

Also, make sure to check range pickups carefully when you get ready to reload them. They may have been just fired, or they may have been there for some time, being kicked around, stepped on, and generally abused all the while.

Not trying to harp; you probably already knew. Happy reloading!

 

[blades67]

I've collected over 2500 pieces of .45 acp brass at my local range in the last year. I almost always leave with more brass than I bring. I have over 10,000 pieces of 9mm brass, most of it once fired, that has found its way into my brass buckets from the range. Almost 800 pieces of .223 Rem brass await reloading, all of which followed me home from the range. That place is like a gold mine.

I also have a bunch of .38 Spcl, .357 Mag, .44 Mag and .45 Colt brass that was donated by the kind non-reloading shooters at the range.

 

[4v50 Gary]

If it's good brass, I'm happy to help. But there's a good point about range slobs messing things up for the rest of us. Broken bottles, TVs, and other trash are eyesores and hazardous to others. I prefer biodegradable targets (paper, aluminum cans or just cans), clay pigeons, balloons and pigeons.

One of these days I'm going to find a casting class and I'll make my own buttplates, trigger guards, sideplates. Cheap has its virtue.

 

[Okiecruffler]

I found 35 pieces of Remington .303 Brit brass on my last range trip. I just wish more of the range slobs used rifles that I reload for.

 

[DWS1117]

I have brass for calibers that I never plan on owning. I have about 20 pieces of .50 AE. As expensice as that stuff is I am surprised anyone would leave it laying around. The was I see it is that someone reloads just about everything. Trades, deals, and sales can be made.

 

[Gewehr98]

I love range slobs that shoot calibers I reload for!

And even some I don't. Got a bunch of .50 AE, .454 Cassull, .356 TSW, 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Win Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum, .30-378 Weatherby Magnum, and .35 Whelen - you know some of that stuff isn't terribly cheap. All left on the concrete, they couldn't care less when I asked to pick it up. Some folks have serious disposable income, ever price a 20-round box of .30-378 Weatherby Magnum?

Okiecruffler, I know how you feel, I just scored several hundred pieces of S&B .303 British brass, and several hundred pieces of S&B 8mm Mauser brass. So much 8mm brass, I'm considering a semi-auto 1919A4 in 8mm as my next big project.


But I'm not too keen on all that steel-cased Wolf 7.62x39 rusting out there, I pick it up and throw it away, but for every round I dispose of...

 

[Black92LX]

i had a friend do that, and the owner of the range threatened to have him arrested for theft. and was real nasty about it. the range owner said anything that touched the floor of the range belongs to him. man he must own more pairs of shoes than any woman.

 

[Sisco]

In the last two or three trips to the range I've picked up 75 rounds each 45 colt & 44 magnum. I don't even own these calibers but you never know.
What really sucks is when you spend 20 minutes or so picking up all the nice shiny .308 brass only to discover when you get home its berdan primed. I've since learned to check first!

If you're one of those shooters that doesn't reload and leaves your brass behind for the next guy, Please don't throw it in the trash can! Makes a brass scrounger feel really scroungy digging through the cans.

 

[cool45auto]

I hate when people just leave their brass all over the table and floor. I usually sweep up my brass into a pile after every couple of magazines to let the guns cool off and change targets.

( I got 2 Enfields, #4 mark1,#1 mark3 and a Carcano. All for $15 dollers.

Kingson, is that a typo?!?!

 

[Psssniper]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
( I got 2 Enfields, #4 mark1,#1 mark3 and a Carcano. All for $15 dollers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kingson, is that a typo?!?!


Yes "dollers" is actually spelled dollars

 

[Gewehr98]

Black92LX, it's his range.

And a LOT of private indoor ranges sell off the brass they collect to reloading firms. Some run a fairly sophisticated operation, with big canister vacuum cleaners, and brass sorting machines. I even saw one that had an eddy-current metal discriminator that flung aluminum-cased CCI Blazer shells into a refuse bucket.

Other ranges go so far as to ban steel-cased and aluminum-cased ammo, it cuts into their brass recovery profits.

So if they're sticklers to claiming any brass that falls onto their range floors, there's probably a reason.

 

[capbuster]

Kingson, I am always grateful to find some usable brass at the range. It saves me money which I can use for my other reloading components. Even if I dont use a particular caliber, I can either give it to another shooter or put it in my scrap bucket at home and sell it later to buy more components. Strange as it seems, some shooters consider the fired brass as garbage,but reloaders know what a prize they are.

 

[Black92LX]

Black92LX, it's his range.

that's true, but it was posted no where. not even in the rules/waiver form you must read and sign to shoot there. i understand the reasoning. but the attitude was the problem. it's could have been handled in a much more mature fashion. and posted somewhere. another thing is he was also picking up brass from rounds he had brought to the range.

 

[willyjixx]

whats a berdan primer??

note to self! start saving brass an collecting whatever if find!!!

 

[longtom4570]

Just got back from shooting in the desert ,before we left we cleaned up old shotgun hulls and other brass we are trying to send positive msg to kids plus to reload 30-06

 

[Sisco]

whats a berdan primer

Berdan primered cases aren't reloadable, (OK, some will argue the point, but for all practical proposes they are not).
Instead of one flash hole under the primer they have three. Mostly European manufacture

 

[Kingson]

Cool9mm
( I got 2 Enfields, #4 mark1,#1 mark3 and a Carcano. All for $15 dollers
The one typo is that I can't spell dollars today.
I work at a gun store cleaning guns part time. They had some guns over in the corner that they where going to sell to a gunsmith for parts. He said that he gets $5 apiece for them so if I wanted them I could have them for that.
The #4 mark 1 has been sportsrized, the Carcano is missing one screw to hold the upper handguard and the #1 mark 3 is missing lots of screws and some wood. most of the stuff of it was in a bag, had to rob the screws off of another Enfield that I had to see if it fired.

 

[telewinz]

While visiting my son at his college and shooting at a local range, He became quite upset when I started going through the trash can for about 80 empties. With cheap surplus ammo, my reloading is down about 70% but I can't pass up boxer primed brass whether I'll use it or not.

 

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's All-

While I don't make picking up range brass my
top priority, I will spend a few minutes
gathering in useable handgun brass; as
I don't do rifles any more.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[CWL]

I always sweep when done, it's just polite.

Local ranges have 'first dibs' rules on leftover brass. They supplement income by selling brass to local reloading houses.

I have picked up many stripper clips though.