Policing Brass?

[PennsyPlinker]

Not sure if this is the place to put this, but I need to put it somewhere. I shoot at a private outdoor range. There are a lot of members - a lot. There are no range officers or other attendants 90% of the time or better. Many members do not seem to see the need to pick up their brass when they are done, which leaves a carpet of brass on the ground in varying stages of decay. I pick up as many of my own casings as I can find when I am done shooting for two reasons. First, it is the right thing to do, and second, I can reload the brass ones. Steel stuff from my WASR goes in the can.

I am wondering if anyone here has come up with a convenient way of keeping their brass in order - i.e. easy to collect, retain, whatever? Stuff from the revolvers is easy enough to keep, but we have lots of semi-autos we like to shoot, and it is a real pain sorting through all the crap people leave behind. Some of my guns eject the casings fairly close, but others, like my wee little Kel Tec put the things into orbit before they come back down. Other than taping a pillowcase to the ejection port, what have others here done?

Thanks.

 

[stoky]

Brass catchers are available for some semi autos, not sure about the Kel Tek.
OTOH, walking around on brass keeps your boots out of the mud.

 

[Cacique500]

You can also get one of those large tarps and spread it on the ground - does a pretty good job of keeping most of the brass on it and much easier to pick up.

 

[Delta Dave]

My solution

Shooting partner and I had the same problem, solved it this way. Built a two foot square of 2x4s and stretched a sheet of quarter inch hardware cloth (metal window screen) across the bottom. Use a close tined rake to sweep the brass into a pile. Scoop it up with a muck shovel and sift with the box, this gets rid of most of the dirt. Pour into buckets and head home. If there is too much rock and dirt clods, we simply pick the brass out by hand. Sort at your own pace. Sounds like more work than it really is.

 

[the naked prophet]

I saw a guy hang a mesh sheet from the poles of the rain shelter at the local range. It had a loop at the bottom where the edge had been folded up. All his cases impacted the sheet about 2 feet to his right, and then rolled down into the crease. At the end, he collected his brass, took down his sheet, and was done.

 

[Clipper]

5000lb brass catcher...

...We shoot behind my buddies pole barn, so I park my truck on the starboard side of the firing line and let the brass land in the bed...

 

[Ron James]

I will police up my brass and any other brass that doesn't have someones name on it. If I can't use it one of my friends can.

 

[joneb]

Where I live, I can take unwanted brass to the scrap yard for $1.20/lbs that equals $70+ dollars for a 5 gallon bucket full Recycling can be a good thing

 

[tegemu]

I devised an easy way to police my, or anyone else's brass. I purchased a Kitty Litter Scoop with a handle that requires less bending and, at Lowes, a small (about 36" long) broom. Sweep 'em into the scoop, any dirt sand (a lot of sand here in the Gunshine State) etc. just filters out.

 

[svtruth]

The range

I shoot at belongs to a local sportsman's club. It is sand, grass and weeds. I pick up my brass and about 2X as much of other people's. Al and steel, shot shells, etc. go in the can, brass gets sorted, mine I keep for planned reloading. The other stuff may get melted down some day. I read of a guy casting a little saluting cannon out of salvaged brass.

 

[Geno]

M1A is simple

With the M1A, I just turn off the gas value. As such, the action does not cycle. Then, after firing the round, I cycle the action manually and take out the spent round. Too bad more firearms aren't made this way. In my experience, the Ruger Mini 14 was the "worst" for trying to locate spent brass. My first Mini 14 used to throw the brass literally 25 to 30 feet. Gotta love those single shots too, Encore, Contender, etc.

Doc2005

 

[Wedge]

At our range every shooting position has a "brass catcher". It is basically window screen separating the shooting positions and dropping the brass into a trough that goes into a bucket. I think one could be easily built in a modular fashion which would allow use at any range AND serve the purpose of not peppering your neighbor with "friendly fire" from your ejection port.

On my Glock 17, I would say only about 40% of my brass actually goes in the brass catcher, the rest goes behind me to the right (must just miss the catcher). I pick up my brass between strings to give myself a break.

 

[sacp81170a]

Another handy dandy trick I've learned is to mark the base of the brass with a bright colored permanent marker, think red or some other obvious color. Doesn't affect the cycling and function, and lets you know immediately which brass is yours. This is especially handy if you're hand loading for accuracy and want to keep track of different lots of brass. Just use another color. I like all the other suggestions I've heard. Keep 'em coming!

 

[ptmmatssc]

The range I go to (member) has no RO and each member is given the combo to the gate lock so we can shoot whenever we feel like it . pretty much everyone picks up thier own brass and there are a few members that go to the range daily to get what others have missed . For those that don't reload there are cans to drop the brass in . The only thing that doesn't seem to get picked up is .22 casings . For me , I tryt to police up my brass when I do target changes . Usually not to bad , but my SKS tends to throw casings 15-20 feet forward and most guys hate waiting while I go pick up several hundred casings . so only shoot the sks when noone else is there .

 

[Walkalong]

My home made Mini 14 Brass Deflector. It drops the brass right at your feet. It will bounce the brass against the scope and it has many little scars and dings. It has never hurt the function of the scope and I do not mind as it will throw the brass a mile as Doc2005 says.

 

[murph50]

I belong to a private indoor range. After shooting the shooter is expected to sweep up all cases. If you're there alone --no problem--but if the range is crowded it can get messy with cases all over. One of the shooters there came up with a clever idea and me and several others have copied it.
I use a fine mesh fish net and a small portable vice. I attatch the vice to the shooting rest and put the net into the vice so the net ends up next to but several inches from the ejction port. This catches most of the brass in the net.
This range has a few 50 gal drums where all swept up brass is dumped. We are allowed to salvage brass from that for reloading only--not for scrap(honor system there). I usually shoot a couple hours then spend an extra hour going through the brass bins. Must be some rich guys shooting there a lot--there's always some great scores in the brass bins .

 

[LeafsFan]

I myself shoot steel cased surplus out of my 91/30 and I pick them up using a stick with a magnet duct-taped on the end of it.

It grabs a dozen cases at a time and I don't have to kill my back doing it.

 

[pax]

I've never figured out why they call it "policing brass." IME, out of all groups & individuals who shoot on ranges where I've been, the police are the least likely to pick up their brass themselves. (Not that that's a bad thing! Fresh, once-fired brass of high quality, free for the taking if you get there soon enough. Cool beans... and worth nearly $1/lb these days at the recycler, for those who aren't reloaders. Worth a little work.)

pax

 

[zoom6zoom]

Pax, it has little to do with the police - it's a term the military has used for generations. "Policing the area" meant walking around and picking up anything that didn't belong there.

 

[Coronach]

1. Someone else here once suggested laying down mosquito netting to the right of their firing position. I haven't tried it yet, but the only thing that I can think of that would make it not work well would be if the netting wasn't strong enough to take the weight of the brass (unlikely) or the occasional footstep (more likely).

2. Ever seen a golf green? I'd love to have one of them as a firing position. Alas, not really helpful for you or me; your range won't let you plant a green and I have no interest in maintianing one.

3. http://www.southernbellebrass.com/Southern.htm

Our police range has one of these. It works really well. I fully intended to buy one for myself, and then I saw the price tag.

Your tax dollars at work, right there.

Mike

PS In their defense, they have hundreds of officers to train, and not a lot of down time between relays. But still.

 

[Justin]

Champion's Choice sells a brass catcher for pistol shooting. Most of the bullseye shooters I know have one of these things.

Not much help for stuff where you move around, though.

 

[langenc]

I kinda thought this would refert to a thread on slob shooters. Why are there so many. Nothing mentioned as to what is left at the target end of the range--shot up bowling pins, tin cans, plastic bottles paper targets , freon tanks, computers???--yuk..

 

[General Geoff]

Most of the cartridges I fire at the range are .22LR, I don't bother picking those up as my local range's ground is comprised primarily of .22LR casings.

Shotshells I pick up, steel casings from 7.62x54R I pick up and throw out, .40S&W steel casings I pick up and throw out.

 

[PennsyPlinker]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I like the tarp idea, but then the fishnet sounded real good too. I have a large amount of deer fence stuff, real fine black plastic netting, that I do not use for the garden anymore. I could make a very large net with a couple of sticks to hold it up on one end without it being real heavy or taking up a lot of room. It wouldn't even really hurt it to walk on it (a little bit anyway) and it would be easy to scoop everything up at the end of the session.

Pax, I have been known to pick up new looking brass I did not shoot as well. I figure if someone has enough money and enough lack of consideration to leave it lying around, someone worthy should benefit from it!

General Geoff, we are neighbors - real close...

 

[perdurabo93]

Keep in mind that not all steel cases are berdan primed. For example, I routinely reload Wolf polymer coated steel cased 45 ACP. Its boxer primed and the polymer coating wont wear off for a LONG time, even after repeated tumblings and loadings. I actually prefer it to brass, believe it or not.

I will happily take all the wolf 45 acp cases you can pick up for the price of shipping it in flat rate boxes