Hit the jackpot yesterday

FROGO207

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Mount Desert Island Maine
Took a different route to the family farm and found a new to me gravel pit along the way. Stopped for a look and found just over 1/3 of a five gallon bucket of assorted range brass littered about on the ground. Best find was 145 correctly headstamped 300 BO brass that looked freshly shot. Lots of 30-06 and 308 there as well. Only trouble is now my back and knees are complaining alot. At least people are shooting more this year than in the recent past.
 
Took a different route to the family farm and found a new to me gravel pit along the way. Stopped for a look and found just over 1/3 of a five gallon bucket of assorted range brass littered about on the ground. Best find was 145 correctly headstamped 300 BO brass that looked freshly shot. Lots of 30-06 and 308 there as well. Only trouble is now my back and knees are complaining alot. At least people are shooting more this year than in the recent past.
been seeing a lot of .300 BO lately!

scored a box load of 10mm at the indoor range. Guy was poping off and the brass was hitting me at the benches. I just took out cloth bag and was catching them in the air!
 
Congrats on the find.

Went to the outdoor range and swept up 2k 9mm last week, a box or so of 10mm, big handful of 44mag, bout 100 380, 30 38’s, and 4 40’s. Who the heck shoots 4 40’s? Didn’t make it to the rifle side, but hope to this weekend or next. Not that I need any more brass, but I just can’t help myself.

couple years ago when prices got ridiculous, I sold off my extra brass to buy some AR parts kits. Sold 16k of 9, 8k of 38, 3k of 357, 7k of 308, 5k of 308 bullets, and a few hundred each of 30-06, 270, and 243. Bought some extra primers too with it.
 
Good find for sure! With the economy the me way it is currently, a lot of people are picking up their brass and not leaving ad much behind like they used to. I have found that much in a day but usually have to hit several spots. Its nice coming across a find like that.
 
What's your favorite way to clean up "range brass"? I just inherited a mop bucket full of Out Door range brass. Healthy stuff...filled full of leaves and pine needles, etc. It feels like about 10 lbs. Mostly 9mm but I've been pleased to find quite a bit of 45acp too. But MAN this stuff is dirty. I thought about putting it in a kitchen colander and just blasting it with the leaf blower for a bit. What would y'all do?
 
Run it through a sifter to separate the brass. Then I would use a bucket with soap to get most of dirt off. If you have a wet tumbler use it, but in any case you need to sort by caliber so they don't get interlocked. If not use a dry tumbler with walnut hulls to do the hard work. Polish later with finer if needed.
 
Best find was 145 correctly headstamped 300 BO brass that looked freshly shot.

It's funny... I find that people who can afford factory ammos like that, don't reload, or even save their brass. I was shooting at my indoor range last week, guy 3 doors down was shooting a revolver of some sort. When he would eject the shells, I could hear them hit the ground... and I'm like 'Those are .40+ Magnum cases!!!' He finished up, packed up, and left... and curiosity got the better of me. Yep, sure enough... .44MAG cases. Never ceases to amaze me what people will leave behind, even with the understanding that not everyone reloads, either. I was actually looking to see if those were .41MAG cases... knowing that was rather unlikely.
 
I am starting to think that not many 300 BO shooters reload. I find that brass at my range every time I go.
Maybe I should start picking it up and bringing it home. I always toss it in the brass bucket for others to take.

@FROGO207
Get yourself one of these. It folds for easy stowage. It’s a back saver.
 
It's a fairly nice day in the Metro East area so I took a couple big scoops out of the bucket and poured them on the picnic table lined with an old shop towel. Towards the second scoop I was finding a lot of muck and leaves. That brushed away fairly easily once it all dried for a bit. I'll check on it again after lunch and start some more sorting. So far the only rarity has been a heavily corroded 300 win mag shell and a couple of 7mm Remingtons. I've been experimenting with detergents. So far I've soaked three batches of 25 9mms in 1.) Dawn dishwashing soap 2.) diluted Simple Green and 3.) a Lemi-Shine/water solution. As far as I can tell, they all came out about the same. I think I'll just stick with Dawn. Easy to find, cheap, and millions of oil soaked baby ducks can't be wrong.

I think once I get towards the bottom of the bucket, I might just pour them out on the concrete patio. I'm getting down to the *really* mucky stuff now.

I forgot to take a picture of the first batch of 50 I cleaned up. Once they rumbled around in the tumbler they came out looking pretty shiny. Not as nice as once fired, freshly collected, indoor range stuff. But good enough to load up and make something go Bang with.

Dirty Shells 11_22_2024.jpg
 
Heck as long as they dont have dirt and rocks in and on them you can reload them.The shine up is handy to spot defects and such but not necessary. Watch out for ringers when you decap, have found some brass that has marinated in wet and dirt for a good while to exibit this trait.
 
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