Brass recovery %

[Grayrock]

When you shoot semiautomatic weapons that you reload for, what percent of your brass do you recover? Right now I only load for single action revolvers, so the brass is 100% recovered. If I get into reloading for my 9mm or .45ACP, do I need a brass catcher for my pistols or just scrounge around the range and hope to get MOST of my brass back? or just let it lay there and buy new brass? How do you go about getting more brass and what percentage of your spent brass do you recover. The ranges I frequent are thick grass in places and sand and gravel in others. Can you get a device that directs ejected cases down so they are not strewn all over the countryside?

 

[RustyFN]

I always come home with more brass than I left with.
Rusty

 

[Steve H]

We don't have anything close to an offical range anywhere close to here so I use an old abonded gravel pit for all of my target shooting. I use the back of my pickup truck to catch the brass. I pretty much know where the gun will be throwing it so I park accordingly.....................the turck does a pretty fair job it can get about 90% of the brass.

 

[GRIZ22]

Brass recovery depends on where you shoot. Concrete pad or indoor range cllose to 100%. Grass or gravel it depneds how hard you look. To abandon brass is not only wrong economically, it gives antis something to compalin about. All that littering! I consider the bend and stretch bringing up my brass part of my exercise routine.

 

[Walkalong]

I used to be anal about finding it all (read cheap), but now I don't worry about the last 2,3,or4 and don't waste the time.

 

[scrat]

thats why they have brooms at the range. best part about it is picking up more than what you came with. i always bring and old shoe box with me. All of my reloaded ammo goes in those plastic ammo boxes that have the bullet pointed upwards. its a pain to even try to think about putting empty shell cases in those things it would take foreve. so i take an empty shoe box. sweep it all up then put it in the box. same time the plastic buckets they have at the range. i usually make sure my shoe box is full before leaving. You have to do that. because some of your ammo cases will get messed up just by you walking around and saying ooops. there goes another case. then when you inspect the cases there will be somet that you will like and some that you will not like. its just the normal selection process.

 

[Smokey Joe]

'Pends on the weapon involved.

Brass recovery varies by weapon. My SKS, for example, is the most enthusiastic thrower-all-over-the-place of brass you could imagine (it is a characteristic of the breed) and on a very good day I might get 90% of the brass back, but there's always that 2 or 3 which go straight up and literally disappear, it seems. If I reloaded steel cases there'd be plenty, but since brass is all I'll do, there is a constant drain on my supply of 7.62x39 cases.

My 1911 is almost as bad, though it doesn't throw the brass quite as far. Usualy I can find all of the little dears--and it doesn't really matter, anyhow, as there is always .45 auto brass for the scrounging. I've got as much of that as I can handle.

At pistol league, some of the guys use a brass catcher--most don't. Frankly, most of the brass catchers I've seen are pretty Rube Goldberg-ish, and I wonder if they aren't more trouble than just sweeping the brass up off the floor.

I'm hoping to get one of those M1 Carbines from CMP when they become available--have no idea how badly they toss brass.

My Mossberg 500's toss their hulls very sedately and predictably, almost in a pile--very easy to retrieve 100%.

The rest of my weapons are all break-actions, bolts, and revolvers. All 100% recovery of brass, at least at the range. When firing @ a live animal, frankly brass recovery is not one of my top priorities.

 

[Matt Dillon]

I use a brass catcher in my right hand; I still only get ~95% of my brass, because some of it doesn't go into the brass catcher, but I try to make up for that by picking up other brass of a caliber for which I reload.

 

[dodgestdshift]

Depends on where you are shooting. 45 ACP and 9mm are small cases that love to hide and are hard to find. (You can always tell reloaders at the range because they have holes in their pant knees, and look for the case before they look to see where the shot went). High grass is hopeless, and brass found is just luck. Low cut grass is easier but you will still lose brass. Hard floors are best and should cut your losses. Better than brass catchers in my opinion, is placing tarps down on the ground (cover lots of area - you know your gun) and if possible have someone who is shooting with you spot the cases, if it can be done safely. This year we had to paint and I am going to try a plastic painting drop cloth with the tarps to increase the covered area. With the tarps I usually lose about 1 -3 cases per 50 shot.

 

[wolf_from_wv]

Recovery rates for me:
9mm - about 300%
.45 - 150%
.22LR - could have about a 900% rate if I was able to reload it...

 

[scrat]

.22lr gets swept up and taken home. once home goes in case tumbler then in a 1 gallon jug. i keep repeating until filled then take to recycling yard.

 

[SSN Vet]

or just scrounge around the range and hope to get MOST of my brass back?

well if your going to scrounge ...you might as well scrounge with gusto!

 

[RyanM]

50% to 75%. My Glock has excellent aim. It throws 'em right towards the nearest area where the brass would be hardest to find. Gravel, grass, behind tables, etc. Anywhere but the concrete floor! One day it was throwing them right at the range entrance, so that anyone trying to come in got bonked on the head.

 

[P0832177]

Go to Home Depot or Menards. They have those cheap poly tarps. Put it down where you shoot, and you just have to tweak to the ejection of the firearm you are shooting.

 

[Grayrock]

How big a tarp have you found useful?

 

[RustyFN]

thats why they have brooms at the range.

I wish, I get my brass at our clubs outdoor range. We have an IDPA match at the end of every month and if I go back within a couple of days I can pick up about 2000 rounds after every match.
Rusty

 

[lee n. field]

When you shoot semiautomatic weapons that you reload for, what percent of your brass do you recover? Right now I only load for single action revolvers, so the brass is 100% recovered.

Depends what gun, and where I shoot.

My XD-40 is very well behaved in that regard. Behind, too the right in a 5 foot circle, roughly. The CZ-100 it replaced tossed brass higgledy-piggledy every which way, all directions and distances. This, I think, was symptomatic of other issues -- one reason it got traded off. My Makarov ejects to low earth orbit.

If I shoot on gravel, I can recover 100% or better ( depending on what others have left. ). On grass, brass tends to migrate down and hide.

 

[Luggernut]

As much as I can. If no one is around at the indoor range it's easily near 100%. Outdoors or at a match it's usually much less... I don't care to "compete" with the other guys for brass... never mind that many folks in IDPA/IPSC reload and who know how many times and with what kind of loads they've used.

 

[byf43]

Go to Home Depot or Menards. They have those cheap poly tarps. Put it down where you shoot, and you just have to tweak to the ejection of the firearm you are shooting.

+1,000!

One of the guys at our club pulled out a couple of old Army blankets and tossed 'em down at a pistol match. (ROs got to keep the brass that they 'ratted'.)

Talk about getting some brass!!!!!
Everybody else was cussin' up a storm. We were scurrying around like little rats (hence the term "rattin' brass"), and this guy folded up his blankets with the brass in them, tossed them into his truck, and drove off.

For a smart (you know what) he was pretty darned smart.

 

[dodgestdshift]

Graylock:

I use 3 tarps. I spread 2 the long way behind me, and the third behind them spread the other way. My 1911 seems to spit them to the right and back (most of the time) and I place the three tarps behind me.

 

[FieroCDSP]

My S&W Sigma 40 fires them consistantly 25ft directly to the right. My M&P 40 drops them about the same as the guy above with the XD. 5ft circle behind and right, religiously. My SKS, uncontent with merely firing high-speed projectiles of death downrange, proceeds to launch the spent case at the enemy (targets) also. Bolt-action the SKS and it's solved. I'll give it to the Ruskies, they know how to build enthusiastic guns..

 

[JonB]

10mm and 223 I am at 100%. Actually 223 is about 120%. Last time I went to the range I had to dig through 4 inches of snow for both 10mm and the .223 - but I was the only one who had been there so it was easy to see where they went into the snow. A bit of digging is all it took.

When I do the indoor pistol range I usually scrounge a bit for 10mm although not many people shoot those. Heck I don't even reload them - but my dad does. So once I have a couple of hundred cases, they go into the mail to him.

 

[mc223]

I use an old army shelter half, because hot brass dont stick to canvas.

 

[P0832177]

How big a tarp have you found useful?

Ah you have to figure that one out. Just observe how your guns eject, I have a smaller one and it gets most of the Glock 9mm and USP 45ACP that I shoot. The AR does okay most of the time. Keeps the brass a bit cleaner.

For shooting the AR I have brass catcher (canvas one), but i use it more like a deflector for shooting off the bench. I build up the bench with all the 4x4 chunks of wood used for makeshift rests. One range had brass deflectors that are made out of aluminum tubing with window screen material that do well at containing the brass.

 

[Toxicscream]

98% recovery on my 50 AE should be a 100% due to the over large size of the 50 when looking at 9 and 45 on ground but that damn snow seems to claim a few every winter.