Brass Vultures

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Cheeseybacon

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This past Monday I had off work for Martin Luther King Jr. day so I decided I would take advantage of the opportunity and get in some much needed time at the range. So I packed up my Colt and Beretta and off I went. When I arrived at the range I was happy to notice that I had the whole range to myself. I was there by myself for maybe 15-20 minutes when a very fat old woman pulled in to the range. When she got out of the car she DEFINATELY didn't look like the shooting type at all but in any case I figured that this was as good a time as any to examine and replace my targets. I took my time and went about it really slow and lazily, figuring I'd give her plenty of time to get her stuff together and setup her targets. After I finished setting up my targets I came back and started loading up magazines to keep myself occupied while she setup. I slowly loaded up 3 7-round 1911 mags and 2 15-round Beretta mags. When I was finally finished loading all of my magazines I was astonished to see that the woman had not done anything done more than plop her butt down on a bench. She didn't have any guns, ammo or targets with her. I thought this was really really strange, I mean, what's the point of going to a gun range on a wet, overcast day if you aren't gonna do some shooting? She did have hearing protection though, which I found odd. Anyway I continued shooting, and periodically looked at her out of the corner of my eye. She was just patiently sitting at one of nearby the shooting benches watching me shoot, sorta zoning out it appeared. About a half hour later I decided that I had better start picking up my brass since I had flung quite a bit of it all over the place. I reload and would rather pick up two smaller batches of brass than wait until the end when I'm all tired and pick up one massive pile of brass. So I start picking up my brass and can't help but notice that this woman is now giving me the evil eye. She didn't say anything but I could feel her eyes boring holes into me and avoided eye contact. I picked up as much of my brass as I could find, dumped it in a big pile on the shooting bench then went back to shooting again for probably another half hour. Finally when I was ready to leave I retrieved my targets, dumped my first pile of brass into my ammo box, and then proceeded to pick up my remaining brass. At this point the woman stood up, now angrily scowing and said "You know you could have told me you reload!" I was really caught off guard by what I was hearing. I don't know what her intentions were, but the range is absolutely littered with brass of all kind, all I was interested in was my own .45 ACP and 9mm brass that I had just used. All I could say was "Uh, sorry." I packed away my gear and brass and promptly left. As I was leaving I saw her get out a bag and begin picking up various peices of brass.

Really really odd experience. I thought it was pretty strange, I've never encountered a "brass vulture" before. I talked to the management later and they assured me that they didn't have any kind of personnel who directly managed or maintained the range while people were using it. Anyone else ever have a similar experience? People are weird...
 
Brass is worth money, even if it doesn't go to a relaoder. Scrap yards will pay a reasonable price for it as long as it isn't contaminated with some of the milsurp steel cased stuff or aluminum Blazer.
 
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Why apologize to her? She should have asked. I assume that any shooter around me might want his/her brass unless I know otherwise. So should she.

I always ask someone shooting near me if they reload. I can't get into reloading 9mm, so I dump my used brass into the club recycle bin, but if someone wants to keep theirs (or mine) I make sure I'm not throwing away their brass.
 
Only Once

We have an unattended outdoor range in our town (the indoor range over the hill got killed by the EPA).

On a single occasion, when I was range testing the Kel-tec SU-16A, I had a scruffy guy show up in a beater car and start walking the line with a bucket.

I policed all my own brass, and I got that same "sense of resentment" vibe from him.

It hadn't even occurred to me that people did that, but there's a lot of unclaimed brass out there.

For what it's worth, my range trip was also on a cold, wet, windy day just at sundown.
 
You should've asked her if she reloaded! I think brass here is .20 per pound dirty, .70 clean, but that's just one price qoute.

I've gotta admit that I've never heard of that scenario before!

Dan
 
I always ask other shooters if they reload their brass, most of the time the answer is no, half the time they will pick up theirs and hand it to me. I shoot at 'club' ranges, so you are supposed to be a member to be there.
 
Dave in PA said:
I shoot at 'club' ranges, so you are supposed to be a member to be there.
Click to expand...

You know, I didn't even think about that until after the fact. The range I was at is members-only. I bet she probably wasn't even a member. I guess I should have asked to see her membership card and it would have ended right there.
 
\The nerve of some people. Bet she wouldn't have talked like that to you if you still had ammo left.:D ;)
 
At this point the woman stood up, now angrily scowing and said "You know you could have told me you reload!"
Click to expand...

Actually, I don't reload. I just don't want the gov'ment to have my fingerprints, so I am going to take all my brass and bury it in the woods.:neener:
 
Well she was rude but I always feel bad thinking about all perfectly good brass that must be thrown away every day at shooting ranges. I mean, I would rather people come by and scavenge it and sell it, at least then something positive (profit, even if for someone other than I) would come out of the situation.
 
I wonder what being a brass vulture pays hourly in the end? Seems like can collecting would be time better spent. Should have drunk yourself a Coke and saved the can.
 
Having fat Ma Barker sittin there would have just creeped me out.

I probably wouldn't even shoot till she left----I like having a fully loaded gun when there are creepy characters about.
 
Husband: "Hey honey, why don't you run down to the range and grab me some used brass while I finish reloading this batch of .45"

Wife: "Sure thing babe, let me grab my earmuffs and a bag. It is cold and wet out there so no one should be at the range."

.
.

Wife: "I'm back with your brass. There was some scrawny kid out there that was moving in slow motion and then decided to pick up his own brass. He should have known I was there to pick up brass, why else would you go to the range without a gun. At least he appologized when he saw the error of his ways"

Husband: "Lousy kid. Hey honey, grab me a beer."
 
Hmm...lets assume $0.50 per pound for fun and a minimum wage of $5.50. So you need to be collecting at least 11 pounds of brass per hour in order to make minimum wage. Probably closer to 15 lbs. / hr to cover gasoline costs to the range and to the recycler.

What does 1 9mm case weigh? About 100 gr.? I have not weighed my 45 Colt cases but they seem to weigh less than a 200gr. bullet and definitely less than a 255gr. bullet.

Let's assume average case weight is 100gr, which means you need to pick up 70 cases to make a pound. Times 15 and you need to collect 1050 cases an hour.

Add in that anyone shooting a big rifle cases more than not reloads, big revolver cases are generally reloaded and both of those are easy for the person to grab.

So you are trying to grab 1000 cases an hour to get your 15 lbs. of brass. Dirty, leaded brass with sharp edges which are far from sanitary.

She must be doing well at it though, your description makes it sound like she isn't starving.
 
Never seen a brass vulture before, but have seen aluminum can vultures before, at the Dumpsters- getting in the dumpsters and finding all of the coke/beer cans they could. A weird thing to see, and makes me thankful that I am not that desperate to dive into people's trash.:barf:

Recycling in itself is not effecient- it takes more energy to recycle a can than to make a new one. Most of these forms of collecting and cashing in on the scraps are done in desperation, I guess when the welfare money has run out for the month.
 
Would I qualify as a brass buzzard? If I see idiots who shoot, then leave and NOT pick up their brass, leaving it strewn around for somebody to walk on possibly slip on and sprain an ankle or something, I pick it up. But since I'm picking it up, I keep it. But I guess I don't qualify for a buzzard, since I don't wait around looking FOR somebody to scrounge from. When I'm done shooting, I pick up my empty brass and go.:p
 
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