Revolver versus Auto brass range pickups.

[Iron Sight]

Just a thought/For what its worth

Revolver brass is easier to retrieve versus automatic.

So possibly what revolver brass has been discarded at the range has been used more time than the auto?

 

[jcwit]

Its a possible, but in reality who knows for sure?

 

[LiveLife]

Many people shoot new factory ammo at my local range. The discarded revolver cases are left by those that don't reload. Some nice shooters will pile the brass on the bench for us reloaders - God bless them!

 

[evan price]

I still find brand new boxes of revolver brass that some shooter has very carefully put all the empties back in the holes in the tray in the box before putting it in the trash. I find 1x fired brass of all kinds. It just depends on if the shooter is a reloader. There's still lots of shooters that do not reload and abandon 1x fired brass in windrows- I have buckets and buckets of brass to prove this. Obviously stuff like 9mm luger and 40 S&W are more common (to me) than revolver brass, but so far in the past few weeks I've managed to come out ahead by about 50- 32 Longs, 200- 44 magnums, 50- 44 specials, 50- 45 colts, 500- 38 specials and 150- 357 magnums.

 

[okespe04]

With proper inspection it really should not matter. Anything you pick up at the range along with your own 1st 2nd so on so fourth reloads should be fine. Or not and should be tossed based on inspection.

 

[ranger335v]

I don't use range brass or more than twice loaded for my 'social ammo'. But otherwise I don't care how many times it's been fired; free is free so the "value" of the cases is irrelivant!

My handgun cases are used till they fail with mouth or body splits, most commonly occuring when sizing. Even spliting during firing causes no more harm than a flyer on the target. No big deal; it splits, I toss it.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

On one of my recent trips to the range I found a pile of shiny 45 auto brass swept against the wall. Sure was nice of someone to be so neat.

 

[cougar1717]

It would be foolish to generalize and say that range pickup revolver brass has always been fired more than range pickup auto brass. Revolver brass is less prevalent since autos are more popular. I've picked up revolver brass that's definitely just once fired; I've also found brass loaded one time too many. It goes back to the same root: examine and cull your brass, especially range pickups.

 

[rcmodel]

I agree it doesn't do any good to generalize like that.

The only brass I might ever leave on the ground would be auto-pistol brass nearing the end of it's life span in a Glock for instance. I generally only reload .40 Glock brass 3 or 4 times at most.

Old revolver brass ends up with split necks after enough reloading, and then can sometimes be trimmed back and used some more if that floats your boat.

And as others have said, more people don't reload then does reload.

So, anything on the ground is worth picking up for further study at home.

rc

 

[evan price]

I've got 38 special cases that are so old the headstamp is almost smooth. They still keep shooting. I really don't think there is any "age" of pistol brass that matters as long as you are loading sane, normal, published loads that are within the design of the caliber. At worst a case splits and you toss that brass piece in the scrap bucket. It's not like a rifle with 2x to 3x the pressure where a failed case can be dangerous.
I scrap brass for pistols for split cases when picking them up, or they get so dinged up in the rim they are potentially unreliable for extraction- with only a taper crimp they don't get the mouth worked so much to harden it and get brittle. By way of comparison, revolver brass goes until it gets mouth splits, usually from working the roll crimp, or just cracks down the side spontaneously.

 

[LiveLife]

Thinking about getting one of these to get a closer look at range brass.

 

[TonyT]

Shooters who do not relaod discard both revolver and semi auto brass.