How Do Folks Get Their Brass?

[Rule3]

Does that mean you pick up all brass that you can reach within 12 steps?


That's pretty much what I do, but only for 9mm and .223. All of my .308 brass is from factory ammo that I or my son fired.

No that is much to far. After they know I want it they enable me and put it at my shooting station

 

[tcj]

For 9's all of my brass came either from when I started by saving it from factory rounds and the rest from range pickups. I've never bought 9mm brass and currently have somewhere over 3,000 cases.

For 45's about 2/3 is range pickup and the rest I've had to buy as most that shoot 45's will police their own brass and it isn't as common at the range I frequent.

Everything else I end up buying what I need as you don't find many - if any - left on the range.

 

[mdi]

My brass comes from new purchased factory ammo and saved by me, range pick-ups, purchased once fired (used). I have purchased some new brass for my "Pet Guns", but that's rare. (Starline and Magtech for my .44 Magnums and Hornady for my 30-06 Garand). I have never found more than three or four steel, or aluminum cases per 1,000 used 45 ACP brass nor 9mm brass I have purchased from 3 or 4 different venders; usually 99% what I asked for. I rarely buy factory ammo and the last two times was I needed some brass quickly and bought a box and shot them for the brass. I have acquired about 1,600 .223/5.56 cases over time for my single shot .223 and only bought 20 new rounds and mebbe 100 new cases ...

 

[Walkalong]

Made it to the range today. It was hot, but folks had left me some presents at the 100 yard range. Lots of .223, some 9MM, .45 ACP, a few .38 Spl, a couple of .308, a handful of .380, and a couple of .45 GAP. I picked these up, then set up to shoot, and work called, so I didn't get to check any other pistol pits for brass and, didn't even get to shoot.

I scrounge brass, but buy brass for the calibers that people don't tend to leave behind, like .32 Long, .32 Mag, .32.20, .22 Hornet, .35 Remington, etc.

 

[luzyfuerza]

The 12 step program hasn't helped me any. I'm the worst brass vulture that you've ever seen. Brass is like gold to me, and I can't walk away from the stuff. You know that you need help when you're willing to spend an hour with your head in a brass/debris barrel sorting through .22 lr brass looking for every last 9mm luger case. I'm an addict.

The best trick I've found for getting plenty of good brass is to NOT load for or shoot a popular caliber. Yesterday, I traded a bunch of .40 S&W brass that I'd picked up at my local range (I don't have a .40) for a pile of .223 (that I shoot plenty of) that is a little more scarce.

Another trick: find out when and where your local cops practice. See if you can help clean up. Although I feel for the officers who aren't getting good training, the brass maggot in me loves departments that all shoot the same caliber, and which teach all of their officers to shoot standing in a row at static targets that are also arranged all in a row. I just wish that there were more departments that shot .45 ACP!

 

[SwaneeSR]

I too have a brass problem. I rolled a co-mingled trash barrel on its side and extracted all the shiny metal things at the bottom. Sorting through some trash and steel cases.

I think I need help. It seems like such a waste to let 9mm and .38 special and .357 go into the trash.

 

[GBExpat]

Since I ramped up my pistol shooting and reloading hobbies years ago, I periodically augment my supply by buying Lots of used brass.

 

[Trailduster79]

I save all the brass from the ammo I shoot. I am also the only one in my family that reloads, so I get brass from them as they shoot.

I also get some from a local police range. Multiple agencies use the range, and one of them saves the brass from their agency for me.

That provides me with loads of .223, .45, some 9mm and some .40.

Everything else has come from this forum or others through buying and trading.

 

[vaalpens]

In the beginning the THR members helped me out with some brass PIF's. So when I go to the range I pick up what I can find, and then PIF a caliber I am not loading or planning to load, when I have enough for a small box.

I mostly find 9mm, 40s&w, 45ACP and 223/556 at the range and probably won't need to buy any for the foreseeable future. At the range I also look for any caliber I have not seen before, and pick it up to add to my collection of different calibers. These go up on my display.

When it comes to 357sig, it is a completely different story since I have yet to find any 357sig brass at the range I shoot. So I buy 357sig once fired brass when I need it, and obviously try and pick up all my own spent brass. It is not that easy to find every case since it can be ejected some distance. I normally tell the shooters next to me that I will be coming over to pick up my 357sig brass, since nobody else is shooting them.

 

[Candyman87]

I've bought 300 pieces of new .380 brass but most of my brass is from once fired (by me) factory ammo.

I started shooting it all before I reloaded but have always kept my brass. Now I don't shoot anything I don't reload.

 

[GBExpat]

Since I ramped up my pistol shooting and reloading hobbies years ago, I periodically augment my supply by buying Lots of used brass.

... and, yes, I think that it is worth an extra cent or two to buy brass that has been cleaned, checked, pocket-swaged and resized.

 

[z7]

I pick up range brass, the goal is to leave with more than I shot.
I have also purchased from the Trading Post here on THR. OF 9mm brass can be had by the bucket load and there is no shame in buying 1k or 2k to be comfortable with your stash and then resigning yourself to scrounge the rest. I have a 12lb stash that is in reserve (not sure what for, just warm and fuzzy i guess) for 9mm. I work out of a 6qt Tupperware bin that is what I have picked up at the range

I enjoy going and shooting just so I can come home and sort through my goodies. The other day it was 50pcs of starline 45 colt brass

 

[PJSprog]

I have over the years gotten mine from all three options listed, though I pretty much stopped picking up range brass back in the '90s. The wife just this weekend bought a 9mm, though, so I may reconsider that (I've never owned a 9).

What I buy mostly depends on what I use it for. I keep all of any brass from store bought ammo (which isn't much anymore), and buy once fired for plinking and practice loads. I always buy new brass for anything that will potentially be used to kill anything other than paper or steel (hunting and SD loads).

 

[mdi]

For the other brass wh___es (I'm one); How long would you search for one case? I found myself looking for a 30-06 case ejected from my Garand for about 20 minutes, walking around looking at the ground (dirt, rocks, grass, trash). I just couldn't leave it there!

 

[GBExpat]

... How long would you search for one case? ...

Guilty. Usually I end-up slowly walking the area (a section of my drainfield) several times within a couple of days.

Often I turn up other cases for which I followed the same procedure, unsuccessfully, sometime in the past.

 

[PJSprog]

Guilty.

Dittos. I'll search until the sun goes down for lost 7x57 brass. I did that once and ended up finding that I'd simply miscounted what I had.

 

[Hondo 60]

Buy factory ammo and save the brass? Scrounge at the range? Buy new brass? Buy fired brass?

All of the above, depending on how rare it is.

For 9mm, I'll go to the range with friends who don't reload and get their once fired brass.
I've also been known to scrounge at my club.

For more rare calibers I'll buy once-fired if I think it's a decent deal.
Otherwise I'll buy factory ammo & save the brass.

 

[mstreddy]

Why, they do grow on trees...

 

[Average Joe]

Buy it new, reload it again and again, until it splits.

 

[mstreddy]

OP, all of the above is how I get mine. For most common pistol rounds, 9MM, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, 38 spcl, 357 Mag, even 380 I don't have to buy. There is plenty available for pickup at the ranges where I shoot. 38 Super, and 32 ACP, not so much, so I have bought new and OF for those.
For rifle, 223, 308 and some others I can pick up plenty of. I have bought new for my more obscure cartridges and have bought OF and formed 300 blackout.

 

[highlander 5]

Lately I've been finding 45 auto lp and LC/NATO 5.56 brass at my range. We used to let the Coast Guard use our range and they left 9 mm brass and 12 gauge hulls behind. At one point I had 25,000 9mm cases,traded them for 120 lbs of lino at the local scrap yard.

 

[otisrush]

At one point I had 25,000 9mm cases,traded them for 120 lbs of lino at the local scrap yard.

OK......I've got about 1,000. That's manageable but I'd like to have a larger cushion. And some here have mentioned a few thousand in their inventory.

25,000!!!!! Holy that's-a-lot-of-brass-Batman! Criminy!

Thanks for all the stories all.

OR

 

[otisrush]

Went to the range tonight for an "unloading" session.

Shot 75 .223 rounds. I scrounged the brass buckets before I left. I came home with a total of 150 empties.

I guess it is like saving for retirement: Accumulate a little bit consistently pretty soon you'll have a bunch!

 

[mstreddy]

And now, there is enlightenment...

 

[Chuck R.]

I've got my own range out back, all I've got to do is invite a bunch of gjuys from work out, and I'll end up with a coupleK in 9mm and usually some .45ACP and .40. Rifle brass I usually have either given to me, or a buy it.

Chuck