Range Rats, how much brass is enough brass?

[colt.45]

i know some people at the range i get to wear my own fake staff shirt, have a name badge and pick through the 55 gallon drums as i please, as much as i please. hell, jordan said i could have a damn bucket if i could carry it to my truck.(no way in hell) of course... ill be working there a little during the school year and next summer. guess what my job will be... BRASS SWEEPER!!!

 

[rantingredneck]

I pick up every usable piece of .45ACP I can find. Most of the .40 I can find (for sale and trade fodder), and any .38/357. .45 Colt is rare as hen's teeth at my range. Never see any .44 Mag or .41 Mag laying around. I stopped picking up 9mm once I got a couple thousand pieces stashed. Now I just pick up what I shoot there. Still haven't started loading 9mm yet. I pick up all my rifle brass and any I find in .243 or .30-06. I pick up all the .223 I can find (and I don't own one).

 

[Ala Dan]

I Own

a tacticool rake with a flashlight~!

 

[FieroCDSP]

I've only ever come across two 44 Mags...I still have them. I couldn't figure out if they were cases or shotglasses.

 

[Smokey Joe]

BIG brass!

Fiero--Just wait'll you run across a .480 Smith & Wesson! And if that doesn't stun you, wait for a .375 H&H, or a 7mm STW! Ye gods, they look like they came out of a howitzer!

If I can accumulate 20 or more of a belted magnum brass, I put it in a baggie and take it to a gun show. Results in selling these have been so-so, but you get more for reloadable brass as reloadable brass then you do for scrap. Obviously. Sometimes I can make back the price of admission, then it's a free show!

Nobody (so far) @ my club has brought a .50 BMG to shoot. And they'd have to be both crazy and rich to not reload that, so that's one I don't expect ever to find lying there in the grass, winking yellowly at me...Ahh, but I can hope!

As for selling brass for scrap, did you know that pistol and rifle primers are all-brass, too?? I'm saving up a bucket of them to sell to the metals buyer, but it'll take a while.

 

[glockman19]

I take all my own and as much of calibers I have. I Always pick up .357, 44 mag and .45 ACP and as much .308/7.62 & .223/5.56 as I can find.

...and I don't even reload yet.

 

[B yond]

Take it all. If you don't shoot a particular caliber and you have found a lot of brass in that caliber, that just means you need to buy another gun in that caliber.

 

[evan price]

I am not a "Brass rat". I am "The Brass Badger"

Recently I built my own magnetic separator out of a bunch of deceased car stereo magnets and a perforated plastic trash can mounted up in a pair of pillow block bearings with a 3/4" pipe for an axle. The magnets I stick to the outside of the can using a steel plate that goes on the inside of the can and magnetizes. That times ten magnets. Then I dump in 5-gallon buckets of used brass. Spin the can. Oh yeah, lay a plastic tarp under the contraption. The brass and aluminum and nickle cases fall through. The steel stays stuck inside. Pull the magnets off. The steel plates lose their charge. Turn the plastic can over into the scrap bin.

Working on another one tha twill let me categorize rifle case vs pistol cases by length and diameter. .223 is the one that causes my troubles.

Tactical rake? Heck, I need a tactical snow shovel.

This weekend's haul was two (5) gallon buckets full. Belted magnum rifle cases, 7mm, 375 Ruger, 300 Weatherby, .308, .223, .243, .270, .30-30, .30-06, .22-250, .303, x39, x54R, .30-M1, you name it.
.45LC, .44Mag, .357, .38, .45 GAP, .357 SIG, .40S&W, 10mm, 9mm, .380, .32, .25, various .22 and .17's, it took me three hours to clean the range.

I'm well on my way to filling my SECOND 5-gallon bucket of 9mm.

Scrap brass is worth bucks. I take all the brass I see, even the ones that hit the lawn mower blade, or the green nasty muddy ones, or the ones from the burn barrel. It all sells! I mix in my primers from reloading and all the berdan/split cases I can't reload. MONEY...

 

[jeepmor]

Reduce, reuse, recycle. I pick up all I can, but where I shoot, I could spend a week cleaning up the mess because it's a public outdoor range frequented by people who think plastic, steel and brass will just pick itself up. I pick up mine and all that I can. No range rake, butterfly net or shop vac....just yet.

jeepmor

 

[jlficken]

If I didn't live 15 miles from my range I would be there every night scrounging for brass. I will search for 15 minutes for 1 piece of my 308 brass but I put alot of time into case prep on those. My thought is that brass is like gold and I need all that I can get! If anyone wants to get rid of some 45, 308, 223 let me know and I will even pay shipping

 

[tasco 74]

brass is getting really hard to come by at the public range i go to.. useable brass that is .. i used to be able to find .38s .357 mags and lots of 9mm brass.. there is a dumpster on site i have gone dumpster diving for brass there before... i don't know if there are more people reloading or just more scrappers in this part of the country.. makes it hard to find good brass though..

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

I confess, I too am a brass rat. the loyal order thereof. BRASS RAT
I will trade off what I can. Reload what I can and Make a brass cannon off of the rest. Life is good.

 

[Owens]

Tactical rake & flashlight? does it come with a tactical wheel..... (doh!)

 

[KaiserBen]

My range is indoors and staffed, so they clean it up about every hour or so (or more often if there are several shooters on the line). So, if I need more of a particular caliber, I go to the front desk and make a donation to the youth club and get some brass. Recently, I asked for 7.5x55 Swiss brass, and got ~175 pieces (once fired PRVI) for $10.

 

[tbtrout]

I walk the firing line and pick up anything I see where someone is not shooting. A lot of times other shooters telll me to help myself to their brass as well. I pick up everything because I will eventually have a gun chambered in a caliber I do not have yet.

 

[GlowinPontiac]

i shoot at what is basically an abandoned sand pit where there are junked cars and all sorts of debris laying around. along with plenty of brass. ive been keeping .223/.40/.45/.357/.38
there is TONS of 9mm but to me its not worth the time to dig them out of the sand then have to pour the sand out of the cases later on.

but i can get 75cents per pound for fired brass so i might just start scooping them up to cash in.

 

[jungleroy]

I only stop looking after i have fired alot if I have a pressing appointment to go to. I never seen to find enough brass. I look at it like people are leaving 1, 2, or 5 cent pieces laying around and if I pick them all up thats money I don't have to shell out later.

 

[Noxx]

I look at it like people are leaving 1, 2, or 5 cent pieces laying around and if I pick them all up thats money I don't have to shell out later.

That's how I explained it to the wife. Metal prices being what they are, it's a bit like standing in a field full of nickels.

 

[scout26]

I'm a shotgunner, so that makes me a hull-whore, instead of a brass rat.


I'll see your tactical rake and raise you an assualt wheelbarrow. (Yes, we have one at my club.)

Here it is in action:

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=27062&d=1122653714

 

[trueblue1776]

Scout, nice contraption. But as a true scab-kneed brass whore I know, the sweepers miss about 5% of the brass. 5% is unacceptable.

 

[woodfiler]

I pick up most handgun brass even if i don't reload it. I will trade or give
it to one of my realoader freinds. They will usually reciprocate and give
me what i reload. It works out real good.

Most clubs including mine will take it to a scrap yard. I figure we can make
better use of it.

Enough brass is when you run out of room to store it.

wood

 

[RustyFN]

I shoot at a club that has an outdoor range with six pistol bays and a 300 yard rifle range. I don't leave until there is no more brass to pick up.
Rusty

 

[Floppy_D]

I offer to clean up after people, and let them figure out why later. It sounds less like begging. My biggest take was last month at the local range, when the guy working the counter said "you could fill up your backpack with brass from the barrel, for all I care".

Needless to say, I spent 6+ hours sorting.

 

[Jack A. Sol]

you can never have enough brass

 

[Vic303]

Definite Brass Rat here! We even take our kidlets to the range to pick up spent cases for us. They're too little to differentiate brass from steel case consistently, but they have sharp eyes and willing hands!