Damn, now I'm rubbish picking and I'm not happy.

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Luggernut

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Well it's not like it sounds. But I did go to the range today and now that I've been reloading I'm always keeping an eye out for left over brass. Well in the trash was 3 or 4 empty boxes of commercial .45 ammo. The problem was some stiff put all their cases in the trash too instead of using the brass bucket! Damn I was pissed. I fished thru the trash for a bit as some cases were sitting on top. I was tempted to try to get more but I just couldn't get myself to trash pick that hard. Doesn't that piss you off though? :banghead:
 
What part enraged you? That you left a job undone, that you have gotten as bad as me about brass and reloading, or that the guy who took the time to clean up his mess, didn't exaclty finish the job properly?


Just teasing. All reloaders go through this. You ought to see us go through dumspters at clay shoots, just to pick out the STS hulls.:neener:
 
Clay shooters and STS hulls DEFINITELY take the cake around here... :p

What I hate most is when I see some cartridge I need/want (what's the difference??)... only someone just let the brass sit in the cold, wet mud and now it's corroded to hell and beyond... totally unusable. ARGH!

Last range trip I found some Wolf Gold 7.5x55 brass... in the mud, at the farthest bench, totally caked and filled with mud and rainwater, and completely ruined.

...some people...

;)
 
It's depends upon how desperate you are

I haven't taken the plunge into the trash bins, yet. However, I do crawl around on the floor on my hands and knees for brass. You have to be real careful that the other shooters don't step on your gun hand though.:eek:
 
I have not put my five year old son in a dumpster to pick shotgun hulls, and he does not immediately knock over the trash barrels at the range when we first get there.

I don't care what my wife said she saw me/him doing.

And yes dragongoddess, it gets to the point where you spend more time looking at the hulls (or brass) on the ground then concentrating on your scores/targets. I've shot skeet where me and another shooter we're giving each other the hairy eyeball because another shooter was shooting paper hulls out of his A-5 and let them hit the ground.
 
last time at the range, I went to Dietz Range between San Antonio & New Braunfels, TX. There were cow patties all over the place, even on the paved area where the shooters benches are.

A lot of my brass was landing in the middle of 3 large patties... but I picked it up anyway.... :)
 
I been to the local police outdoor range, and it kills me to see all that once fired .40 cal brass on the ground, all bulged up from being Glocked:D I pick up all the 9mm I can find, usually piles of a hundred or more, from their MP5s.
 
So this is what awaits me if I take the reloading plunge.
Click to expand...
Yes and once you get there you can't turn back. I find myself making excuses to go shoot so I can pick up brass. The worst part is I pick up brass in calibers that I don't own guns in.
Rusty
 
Last time I went to the range for some rifle time, I found two bandoliers for M1 in the trash can, cardboards and all. Oh yeah, they came home with me.

I've found a lot of brass that'd been left out in the weather and rain and mud; if it's not actually corroded or damaged, it gets washed out and then tumbled.
 
I can understand leaving it on the range.. but if someone is taking the time to pick it up to throw it into a trash barrel... why not put it into the brass bucket!!! :cuss:
 
At my local DNR operated range, people throw brass in the trash, and trash in the brass buckets.

Last week I went shooting there, then scrounged through the brass buckets for about 1/2 hour. I found 300+ .30-06 cases, 99% shiny factory brass (not Korean milsurp). That'll save me some $$ on Garand food.
 
I have maybe 500 rounds of 10mm all loaded up. Hate to shoot it because I know those new Starline cases will be scattered all over the range.

I actually prefer shooting my 45 LC since I don't have to scrounge the brass

And they're call "brass rats" around here because they scrounge thru the trash (not that I'd ever do that:rolleyes: )
 
RustyFN said:
The worst part is I pick up brass in calibers that I don't own guns in.
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Well now, Rusty, you can't just pick up that brass and let it SIT there 'cause you don't have a gun for it. Get moving and finish the job -- you need to go gun shopping! :D That was an excuse that I'd heard several times for getting new guns. ("Gee, I have all this nice brass in (insert caliber) and nothing to shoot it out of. Honey, you wouldn't want me to be WASTEFUL, would you? ;) )
 
Scrap is great!

Any brass that comes my way, for which I don't have a gun, goes into the scrap brass bucket, along with cases bent by the reloading press, cases so old they cracked, etc.

(Except belted magnum brass, which I take to a gun show and sell to one of the dealers in reloadable brass. Usable brass always fetches better than the scrap price!) :)

When the time comes for the trip to the scrap dealer, the brass bucket goes there, along with all the misc. copper wire that's been found, auto batteries that've died, and of course the collection of aluminum beverage cans.

This is called recycling, and it's been politically correct since the '70's or so. Of course, thrifty folks have been doing it a lot longer than that.

The market for just about all metals is up. The scrap-metal money helps defray shooting/reloading costs.

At the range sometimes I ask shooters if they're reloaders, if they're shooting an interesting cartridge. Sometimes the answer is "no." Sometimes the non-reloaders will collect their brass and hand it to me--I don't even have to dive into the scrap bucket for it. :)
 
I'll even pick up stuff I have no use for! Once thought I was in Heaven when I found a pile of 45LC brass, couple of boxes worth. Don't even own a 45, maybe someday though.
Then there was the time I spent about 20 minutes picking up .308 brass, nice shiny stuff I thought a friend could use. Didn't notice until I got home that it was all Berdan primed. :uhoh:
When my son was about 14 he loaded up a 30 round mag and ran it through my M1 carbine as fast as he could pull the trigger. I asked him if he had fun. Big 'ole grin on his face as he said "Yeah!". The grin disappeared when I told him I expected all thirty empty cases to be recovered. From the weeds and sandburs.:evil:
 
Just a little soap and water will clean you up once you climb out of the garbage bin. And if the guys who chew tabbaco think that slows me down they're wrong. Once a range rat aways a range rat, relaoding tuned me into a brass junkie, trips to the range just for brass you bet. the worst thing I ever did was to take in a 5 gallon bucket of 40 s+w brass to the scrap yard just because my loading room was a cluster and I don't have a gun in that caliber. After doing the deed I felt terrible, having denied that brass the chance to be come a whole round again, never again. Now if I have brass that I don't want, I make sure it gets a good home, a little chew, a garbage bin and some deserving range rat who shows dedication.:neener:
 
I like to be the first out after a big spring thaw. All that nice shiney brass sunning itself after being buried in the snow and ice is fun to find. Hardly needs tumbling... :)
 
My wife and I took our 3 small children with us to a semi private range in the area. One of us stayed with them at all times and kept them well away from the active firing line.

We made a game for them called "Pick up the Brass"! They all had fun picking up the spent cases. They also earned themselves each $1. I now have a bunch more 223 cases, 9 mm cases, 45 cases, a coffee can full of steel cases, a jug of blazer, and a 5 gallon bucket of scrap brass.

Semper Fi
 
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