Picking Up Brass at Matches

[Jim Watson]

Our local club was infested with brass scroungers. One guy was banned because he was not only aggravating but unsafe, wandering around on a live bay with his head down.
We eventually put in a restriction on picking up brass until the match was over so as to avoid delay during the stages. So now when the shooting is done, you see a field full of butts in the air as people bend to pick up empties.

 

[Sam1911]

Major matches I can see it, but local stuff it seems silly not to get your brass back. It's cheap for a few here and there but can add up to serious money over time.

Yup. And that's been my experience as well. The only part of our monthly club matches that could be considered "lost brass" is the shoot house, but that's a big bottleneck anyway as it takes more time than any other stage to run each shooter through (75 sec on average) and then the SO and shooter paste and score coming back through because. We run it as a blind stage, because that's just much more effective and "realistic." Also we don't bring others in to paste as we don't want to have to keep track of clearing the structure of some unknown number of helpers before each shooter's run. I can count to 2 pretty fast.

 

[1SOW]

I went to a handgun steel match this morning. Drove 35miles to be at the sign-up and briefing at 8:00 A.M.. We finished the 'Steel Challenge' at 1:30 P.M. Man-On-Man shootoffs were scheduled 'next'.

If anyone had held us up by picking up brass, Im SURE he/she wouldn't want to come to the next match.

I shoot 100% range brass, but there ARE times it's TOTALLY inappropriate to pick up brass.

Edited to add: "After" a match is fine.

 

[ny32182]

Incidentally I shot my first ever steel challenge club match this morning. Considering you stand in one spot the whole time and all the cases (from most guns at least) get dropped on one neat little pile, this was the one match situation I've ever seen where I actually did likely get nearly 100% of my exact cases back.

 

[twofifty]

Figure on coming home with 5%-10% fewer brass after a pick-up match.

Today I was offered 600 cases of once-fired free nickle brass...
Things work out.

 

[Robert]

I help police brass while the shooter is being scored. I give all the brass to the shooter, sometimes they let me keep it but I always offer it to them. I never just outright keep it.

 

[splithoof]

"Lost Brass"? Where I usually shoot, we all pick it up at the end of the day, sort it into a few piles, and divide it up between who wants it. When I shoot using steel cases I bring my stick magnet, fill a wheel barrow, and haul it home to be dumped. That way I help clean up after the few slobs that are bad members. Sometimes when I go to our facility during mid-week, I find all kinds of good brass just laying around. I easily average close to 1K .45ACP cases every year, sometimes more. Sometimes I use my 625, and just set the whole clip with attached brass into a range bag.

 

[BullfrogKen]

A lot of what determines a lost brass match depends on how many shooters are there and whether it's an "action" match.

If the brass is spread out 10 yards across the range, it makes picking your own up during the match a challenge. Usually folks will go through the ranges at the end and pick it all up, and everyone who hangs around until the match is done and everything is put away gets back some.

 

[Taterhead]

At our local IDPA club, the squad divides up the task of taping and picking up brass after each string. Sanctioned state matches at our club are a lost brass event, however.

Since I shoot a 10mm Glock, I usually have no trouble identifying brass as my own. If it is 10, it is most likely mine.

 

[TexasRifleman]

If it is 10, it is most likely mine.

Same here, shooting a 10mm 1911 makes it easy to get my own brass back

 

[sargenv]

One reason I like shooting a moon clipped Revo.. all of my matches I get my brass back.. When you pay up to $8 per moon clip (Hearthco's) you are darn tootin' going to get em back!! If you run speed loaders.. then in the bigger matches, those become lost brass... but you get your speedloaders back...

 

[MCMXI]

I mark the heads of my LC brass with an X across the head to identify. Most folks are pretty cool about knowing what belongs to them and leaving yours alone. Still mark mine..Have alot of time and prep into it.

We pick up brass at our USPSA and 2-gun matches. I use a red Sharpie to put a thick red ring around each case. I simply rotate each loaded round in a loading block while holding the pen steady ... only takes a few minutes to mark 150 rounds. I've found that it's easier to spot my cases after the stage with the ring around the case wall rather than marks on the case head. Cases tend to lie flat and red stands out fairly well.

 

[Bwana Bob]

If I don't pick up my brass, I will soon be out of ammo!

 

[Corey ACP]

Brass

The range my club uses is mainly a law enforcement training center used by numerous P.D. agencies. They do not pick up much if any of their brass. Our club stresses that you pick up at least as much brass as you shoot but to not delay the match. The S.O. has the authority and is expected to keep things moving along. The range has separate bays that we set up each stage in. Sometimes there will be big piles of 9mm or .40 ,.45 .223 left, whatever the P.D. was using at the time. I have made some huge scores on once fired brass with little effort.
I have only heard of the "lost brass" matches. To each his own I guess.

 

[waktasz]

I'm back with first hand experience from this weekend's match in Central Jersey.

To those of you on my squad, scrounging for brass and not taping I just want to let you know that I hate you.

THAT is why I'm ok with lost brass matches.

If you want your brass back, stay until the end, help break down the stages, then crawl around in the mud all you want. In the mean time, I was pasting targets largely by myself the entire day.

 

[Cowboy1629]

Years ago when I shot USPSA at the local clubs we picked up brass. Usually the shooter would score the targets with the range officer while half the squad was either pasting targets or policing brass and mags. When you returned to the table guys would hand you your brass and mags. This never slowed anything down and we all did our share.

I just started shooting USPSA again after about 15 years of CMSA shooting and the two matches I attended so far no one picked up brass until after the match but if you were in one of the last squads to finish you were lucky to get your brass back from that last stage.

I guess I'm just cheap because back when brass only cost a fraction of what it does today we policed it, now it appears whoever gets to it first after the match keeps it for themselves.

I learned quickly after the first match to only shoot my old brass since I most likely will never see it again.

 

[Cop Bob]

'Course if you're weird and fire some oddball 1930s cops-&-mobsters cartridge, you can't split the pickin's with anyone!

HEY I REPRESENT THAT STATEMENT !!!, wadda ya mean? I can't get my 41 Long Colt back?

 

[frankge]

we let it lie at our range and then when I'm low I'll play brass monkey for a few hours and be good for a while