Brass thieves on the range - your thoughts??

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swingset

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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??
 
Arguing with a guy with a loaded rifle on a deserted range just proves the depth of some people`s stupidity.:banghead:

I don`t save brass but I drew the line when some dope was following me like a bird after breadcrumbs.:what:
 
Agreed, the standard rule is that you don't pick up someone's brass unless you've first asked, or they've left... Then to argue with you when you call him on it - sheesh! I guess you're lucky he's not standing right next to you with a bag trying to catch them as they're ejected. :)

I often shoot at an indoor range. The rule there is that you can pick up your own brass if it's in your lane or behind you (of course you can't pick up anything in front of the firing line). Also, you can't scrounge your own brass out of someone else's lane (while they are there at least). If you don't pick up your own brass, you're supposed to sweep it up and put it in the buckets provided by the range - it then becomes their property.

Sometimes I'm shooting away when the "helpful" person to either side of me decides to sweep up MY brass and toss it in the bucket...grrrr. Not a huge issue but it does cause me to pause and pick up my brass every few magazines, before it's all lost.
 
Placing a small (3'x3') sheet or towel on the ground under the impact point should let everyone know that you're intending to keep your brass.

Kharn
 
OMG! Swingset the same thing happened to me one time while I was shooting my Enfield. This old guy, who I had seen at the range collecting brass before, acted like he'd hit the mother lode when I started ejecting .303 shells! I was taking my time shooting and he was constantly over my shoulder waiting for the next round to come out. I finally told him I was reloading them, even though I don't but was getting tired of him being my shadow, and started bringing the bolt back slowly and taking out each spent cartidge one by one and lying them on the towel.:rolleyes:
 
I don't think you were wrong. I dont think it was outright theft though, just bad manners on his part. Not a lot of people reload, somrthing on the order of 3% of shooters is what I read. So even though it felt like theft to you (I know the feeling) I think theft is the wrong word.

I scrounge brass too but I always ask first. The occasional scrounger comes for my brass sometimes and I just say "All the brass in this area is mine, I reload too", and they go scrounge the other end of the range.
 
Definitely one rude SOB! I would have probably smacked him with the butt end of that rifle when he decided to argue with me.

At my club, folks are always asking me if I want that brass on the floor, and I'll usually give it to them as I don't reload. They have always been careful to leave my brass be when they are gathering their own. Good folks are polite folks.

Of course, none of these guys have offered me any reloads to pay for that brass..... Turnabout's fair play, people!
 
Etiquette is to ask first, or wait till the shooter leaves it behind. I have shot on one range that had the rule that any brass that hits the floor or ground belonged to the range. I only shot there once too.
 
I agree: Observed etiquette is to ask first (just had a fellow do it on Saturday). I'm pretty much with dinosaur on this one - what an idiot. You know, generally the range is a pretty polite place . . . .
 
I shot a round of sporting clays Sunday with my brother and a friend, and made sure to save the Win AA hulls for reloading. The older gentleman shooting with us said, "Looks like I've got competition!" After that, I made sure he had his share of hulls before mine went into the bag. Amazing what a little courtesy will do.

In the original post's case, I would've gotten a little bit cranky too.
 
"I hate rude behavior in a man. Won't tolerate it".

I don't reload. Maybe I'll start, but probably I won't. Several times, a guy has walked up, stuck out his had and introduced himself and said, "May I please have your brass if you don't need it". I always: 1) immediately clear my weapon, 2) put it down, 3) help the guy pick up the brass.
I'll admit that I have kind of a "hair trigger". I don't know exactly what I'd do if someone was rude enough to do what Swingset's guy did, but it wouldn't be pretty. And it's for damn sure I wouldn't let that saying something under his breath that I couldn't hear go by! I hate that "mumbling crapola".

KR (Yeah, yeah--I said "damn" again. I'm sorry. I'll watch it.)
 
At the club I belong to, there's often one or more real old fellas hanging around the pistol range, shooting their guns a little, and shooting the breeze a lot. More than once, they've picked up and piled my brass for me as I shot. Gotta love southern hospitality, extraordinary courtesy, and friendly old guys with time on their hands.
 
myself, i dont reload, and i'm willing to let others collect whatever i leave behind. except for the mauser 8mm, i'm keeping all my brass because i will start reloading for that cartridge eventually.

but one day i was at the range, and theres this other shooter 2 lanes to my left, hes picking up most of his own brass, and after a while we start conversing, hes giving me some really good suggestions and criticisms on my shooting, and another shooter comes to the lane between us. range was getting full and there were maybe 2 other lanes open at that moment. this fresh face starts picking up the 40 and 45 brass in that lane when this guy i'm talking to yells at him for doing that without first asking.

it made me feel embarrassed for this fresh shooter to be snapped at, hes all apologetic and whatnot. hes shooting his glock that he just recieved back from being compensated. hes enlisted, doesnt get much chances to shoot his own personal weapon, and from the getgo i could tell he was uncomfortable because of this older shooter that chewed his head off. he even asked if i wanted him to take another lane when he realized his brass was pinging me, but i told him it was no big deal.
 
It would never occur to me to pick up another shooter's empty cases without asking. And it's been my experience that the overwhelming majority of shooters know this instinctively.

But there are exceptions.

Around 25 years ago a group of us were at an indoor - underground, actually - rifle range. We had the range to ourselves, and when we started the firing line had been swept - ALL the brass was ours. A small guy in his mid-50's wearing a fancy leather jacket came in and whenever we turned to shoot, we realized he was picking up our brass!

I placed myself at the door, and watched . . . sure enough, he was picking up ejected empties before they stopped rolling.

Well, after a while, he came to me and said "Move over, I'm leaving now."

I politely told him, "No, not until you empty your pockets of our brass."

He said "If you don't move, I'll move you myself."

Half his age and twice his size, I said, again politely, "No, you won't. Now empty your pockets of all our brass. It's not yours."

About this time, my buddies came up, saw the byplay, surrounded him and said words to the effect of "And there better not be any missing."

Realizing he had no choice, with poor grace and a face that shaded from red to purple, the brass thief pulled fistfulls of our cases from various pockets, handed them over, and said "I suppose you @ss*0#%s want my wallet, too."

"No, that would make us the thieves, not you. Get lost."

We told the range manager about it . . . FWIW, we never saw the jerk again.
 
I just hate it when I'm standing ready at an IPSC match and all the guys not taping are STILL hunting for their brass.... :rolleyes:
 
I have never had that happen to me. That would really get on my nerves. When shooting a bolt action rifle, I never just eject brass out on the ground. I put my hand over the ejection port and stop the brass right there. I don't do that because I a m afraid someone will steal my brass, I am just too lazy to pick it up expecially if I have to look for it or sort it oout from the other brass lying there. Plus landing on concrete dings it up. I shoot it, and return the empty case to the box.
I have asked people if they minded if I took their brass, but I never picked it up while they were shooting. Talk about a distraction. If somebody was standing there picking up each spent case as I ejected them, I couldn't concentrate; all I would be thinking about is what a cheap, low budget, penny pincher this $&* was. I can't stand greedy, cheap people and woun't let him have it even if I didn't want it.

Skunk, at our local IPSC and IDPA matches, the guys on deck immedately pick up the shooters brass and mags as the targets are being scored/taped/reset. I was kind of surprised when I shot out of town and nobody made any effort to help the shooter out by retrieving his gear for him. I know when I shoot, I want to walk along with the scorer and see how I did. Shooting matches where nobody wants to help sucks. And it slows down the process for everyone. People often complain about standing around and waiting for their turn to shoot. They often forget that if they helped out, it would speed things up for everyone and give them something to do.
 
Ah, brass etiquette (sp?). Swing's shadow was an obtuse clod, and the term "thief" does come to mind, but I doubt the grand jury would true bill him. Regarding the sort Skunk' (may I call you Skunk?) points out, there's no excuse to hold up a match for the brass scrounging. Matches last long enough without delays caused by the anal-retentive sorts who simply MUST account for the last of their 9mmP brass. You know, the brass that's slightly cheaper than gravel, and about as rare.
 
So nice to shoot IDPA, most of the guys are shooting pretty common stuff. Some of the IPSC guys shoot .38 super, and that is fairly pricey, no? I can see why they'd want to dig up their brass and reload.

The range ettiquette I see is typically just general stupidity, not brass hounding. That said, that is really irritating. Most of the stuff I shoot is non-reloadable though, so I guess that'd keep people from trying to get my stuff.
 
When I'm at the range just about everyone is shooting 40 S&W and I'm shooting .45acp. So I pick up my brass after about every magazine.

I don't want it stepped on or mixed up with the 40 brass and the range master sweeps every few minutes and dumps all the brass into a 5 gal bucket. At $10 per 50 cases I am usually carefull with my brass.

If I see someone else shooting .45 I'll ask if they reload. either they give me a dirty look like "reloading is for the underprivileged" or they say they don't care.

I've actually been ridiculed for picking up brass like I was a dumpster diver
or homeless cretin

I've found if I don't pick it up it gets picked up by the and sold for
$21 per 100 of mixed headstamp in the range office.

I've never encountered another reloader in all my travels and have picked up thousands of 45-70 30-30 44mag and 357mag discarded by shooters wealthier than me. But never without asking
 
I'd have to agree that guy was way out of line.
I've picked up other people's brass before... but from an empty lane.
Brass isn't that expensive and I don't even reload yet... I've typically picked brass up just to study the different calibers available.

But now that I have my AR-15 complete I plan to get into reloading.
At which time my brass will be important to me.
That's why I plan on getting one of these:
i_1141.jpg

that's from BluePress kind of pricey at $40 for all it is. But I'll still get one.
 
I've never had that experience at the ranges I frequent. What annoys me is people who shoot and don't police their brass. I think as a courtesy one should ask if he can have the brass.
 
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