I'm still amazed at how many STILL don't reload

[Buckshot]

..............Let alone cast. Since our home range is shut down for the unforseeable future, GopherSlayer and I have been driving 10 times as far to a different range to do our shooting (Old range 8.4 miles round trip. New range 81 miles). We certainly no longer shoot EVERY Tuesday as we have for the past 15 - 16 years!

So anyway the ground is littered with brass. My 2nd time there checking the trash cans (sorry, can't help myself and am mainly looking for the slip top 22 ammo boxes) I pulled 3 full boxes of Remington 30-'06 out. All the empties placed back into their plastic carriers and slipped into their 20 round boxes. If a guy needed 223, 9mm or 40 S&W he'd best bring a snow scoop and push broom. I've picked up three 3 lb coffee cans of 45 ACP, several ziploc bags of 308, and maybe 50 NNY 7.62x54R.

In our few trips there, just being freindly and seeing people packing up to leave and ignoring their empties if you mention reloading they get this far away look in their eyes. They've all kinds of reasons but the one I've not heard yet is that they're independantly wealthy and don't need to :-) If you mention casting boolits they swallow their tongues and forget to breath.

Another thing is you'd figure if they were out there shooting they might have a gun oriented magazine subscription or by accident done a bit of reading about it? Do you have to be a gun wacko to know what a 1903 Springfield looks like? I was shooting a 1909 Argentine Cav Carbine (Mannlicher stock, polished bright action) and a guy setting up on the next bench says, "Is that a Springfield?" I said no it's a 1909 Argentine Cav Carbine, he says, "Cool, what caliber does it shoot?" (It really doesn't shoot calibers) and I said 7.65x53 Argentine and he says,"Cool". I was ready to show him a cartridge (with it's cast boolit) but he'd already turned back to his bench.

Probably drifted in one ear, made a rapid transit through his head and then out the other ear. Excuse me if I sound a bit unreasonable here as I don't intend to be, nor do I expect everyone else to be as much a nut about it as I am, but come on:groner: No interest, no curiosity, no nothing? Why are they shooting in the first place? I will hasten to add that I'm GLAD they're shooting. The more shooters there are (so long as they're safe and understand the tragedy a firearm can cause) the better off all us shooters are.

Maybe all they're after is the noise and the recoil? Maybe it's simply pulling the trigger here, and seeing dirt fly over there? Guess I got off track a little and I guess I should thank God for those shooters who DON'T reload, eh[smilie=l: So during a break there was GopherSlayer and me. He's bent over headed east along the line in front of the benchs picking up brass, and there's me behind the benchs headed west doing the same. As we pass each other he looks at me and says, "This is stupid. I have buckets and buckets of this stuff at home." I said, "Yeah, so do I but I can't help myself".

I guess maybe not all shooters are as diseased as others?

...............Buckshot

[shotman]

it true was at a public range [just to see where a guy was killed for his guns] and ther were 3 people shooting one was a CZ 7.62x39 had about 100 empanies on the ground all rem. another was shooting a ar15 had brass every place all feds and the last guy had a win 70 bolt old one nice scope was a 308 had about 100 win brass around him target was about 50yds looked like a shotgun target. I am a fan of old 70s so had to talk to him. Well he said gun didnt shoot straight. I looked at it and ask if he would mine me shooting it go for it. looked the scope over seemed mounted fine --Nikon I looked at muzzle for leading
Ifired one shot and missed about 3 in fired another and was near same hole. I asked if he would let me change the scope. answer was go for it. I moved it and fired again and got lucky . Both moves put it in the center. I said here you see what you can do . He mounted the gun and you are not going to beleive this. He was looking through the scope with left eye.
I said wait and try the right eye he said he always shot that way. got him to change eyes and his first shot cut my hole in the bull. He thanked me and I asked if he wanted the brass . said no and said he had some in the car. I walked away with about 300 308s

[dromia]

Well you've got include me with that lot Rick. When ever I get someone (usually just got their first FAC) trying to engage my enthusiasm with their new shiny plastic stocked tactical space race gun with lazer computing widrift predicting facilities linked to a scope so great that it can see through time I don't even let the words get in never mind exit.

I have a little maxim I stick to that sort of reflects my position on things.

Analogue good, digital bad (mostly). :-D

[Jim]

I'm still a remote member of that rifle club in Columbia, SC. The club sent out a questionnaire/poll one time and one of the questions was about reloading. only a dozen or so people responded positively that they reload at all, nevermind how often.

[Maineboy]

You don't see much reloadable brass lying around at our club range except after local LEO's come to practice. No independently wealthy guys shoot here! Not all of us reload but those that don't save their empties for someone who does. We do have more boolit casters though. When I joined the club about 10 years ago I knew of only four of us who used cast boolit reloads at our monthly military rifle matches. This winter at one match, eleven of the fourteen participants were shooting cast. These guys call them "lead" bullets though. I think I'm the only one who calls them cast boolits.

[NickSS]

My club is near a Navy base and we get a lot of sailors as a result almost none of them reload but they burn up a lot of ammo. I have never had fo buy a single pistol round nor any of several rifle calibers (the popular ones due to all the brass thrown away (and even some loaded ammo)

[nicholst55]

Why are they shooting in the first place? Maybe all they're after is the noise and the recoil? Maybe it's simply pulling the trigger here, and seeing dirt fly over there?
...............Buckshot

I used to shoot on an unsupervised, public range, and used see a lot of that, especially younger guys with AKs, SKSs, and (rarely) AR-15s. They put up something vaguely resembling a target at about 15 yards, and commence firing from some sort of offhand position. It goes something like this:

Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang! (I'm still waiting for the first hole to appear in the target)
Bangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbang!! !! (repeat until rifle empty) Maybe 2-3 holes in target.

Much laughing and swearing. They leave, ignoring their target and brass, marveling about the "firepower" of their bangstick.

I may have fired a 3-shot group during this time frame, but more likely used the time to allow my barrel to cool off.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy an occasional 'mag dump' as much as anyone, especially if Uncle Sam is paying for the ammo and rifle barrels. It does absolutely nothing to improve marksmanship and, when taken to excess, promotes sloppy (read: dangerous) gun-handling habits. These guys normally have quite obviously not zeroed their rifle(s), and have no interest in marksmanship. They're there to make noise and make dirt clods fly. At best they're annoying and create a bad impression of EBR (Evil Black Rifle) owners. At worst, they're dangerous and create a bad impression of EBR owners.

[leas327]

Everyone at the range I go to must be dirt poor. Because it is rare to find anybody leaving brass around. You will find some occasionally but usually someone will snap it up. I mostly go there for different matches and it could be different when it is just normal shooting hours. But the only stuff laying around rimfire cases and some .40 s&w.

At the pin match I was at sunday the guys were practically grabbing the brass as it went through the air. If it flew behind the firing line guys would pick it up and pocket it. After I had shot my tables the guy timing me started picking up my brass and I started picking some up too. When I finished getting what I could find I turned around to thank him for helping me pick up my brass and he was gone along with my empties. I didn't really want to make a scene because he probably only got 10 or 15 peices and he was a member of the club and I am new but come on. The friend I went there with and just looked at each other amazed to see these guys nabbing up brass like that.

[HeavyMetal]

Buckshot:
The next time your at that range ask the shooters if you can see thier NRA card.

Use the pretext of seeing how many different scenes the NRA is generating this year on the card.

I think you'll be amazed at the result, let us know what you find out.

[Rocky Raab]

The obverse of the coin is that you are NOT standing behind all those non-reloaders at the reloading supplies counter, hearing them say "I'll take it all."

[Recluse]

I'm THANKFUL at how many shooters don't reload.

At one of the ranges I belong to (private), finding brass on the ground is as likely as finding an Obama bumpersticker on a member's car.

At another range (public), owner estimates less than 5% of his clientele reloads. I've been shooting at this place since the 80's--brought him our law enforcement agency's business shortly after he opened, who in turn brought their spouses and friends, who in turn passed the word.

Missed some years when we were living in North Carolina and Kansas City and elsewhere, but back home now (sort of) and I make it a point to shoot at his place a minimum of twice a month. It's a haul from where I live and I kill the most part of a day, but the owners are good folks who run a good business and are staunch no-infringement believers in the Second Amendment.

Asking about the NRA is a good idea. I ask ANY new shooter I meet at a range if they're an NRA member. At least down here, I'm pleasantly surprised by how many "Absolutely!" answers I get. Ratio is far higher "yes" than "no."

But Rick, like you, I'm just glad that people are shooting. Doesn't bother me if they don't reload or don't know all the calibers. I don't have the slightest idea what caliber most old war guns shoot. Have never been into war guns or war birds (airplanes) or war tanks or war anything. I wouldn't know an Argentine mauser from a German mauser from a Russian Moisin Nagant if they were laying side by side.

Just never been my bag.

In the gun world, I enjoy reloading and casting far more than I do shooting. Which is why I'm thankful so few shooters reload.

Now, if those non-reloading shooters would only leave a few wheelweights at the range every time they shoot. . .

:coffee:

[mike in co]

there are a few whose time is more valuable than the cost of ammo. i know a few like this. they make more in an hour than they can blast up in several hours of shooting.

i know one rifle shooter that buys primed brass, loads, shoots, sells the 1x brass and starts over. he recovers a lot of the initial cost from the 1x brass. again his time is to valuable, so he only "loads"..no reloading.


besides if it was not for these shooters i'd have no brass to sell to reloaders!

mike in co
(20 plus yrs ago, i use to shoot on an unimproved national forest range. would take the kids with me sometimes, let them shoot and when we would get done, we would go brass "minning".......lots of product on the surface!)

[44fanatic]

Have two public ranges here in TN that are close to Fort Campbell and Nashville. Get a good mix of shooters. Get alot of "kids" from the military and Nashville with their testosterone guns (semi auto pistols n black rifles), hunters, reloaders. Havnt ran into any one that cast's yet but plenty of reloaders. One one range, if you dont pick up your own brass, they keep it. Need to see if they sell brass. On the other range, brass all over the place but usually have folks that go through and pick up what they can.

If im not dedicated to sighting in, Ill spend half my time shootin the breeze w/ whoever is down there...a few are down right scary.

One thing I find amusing is going to the range and seeing the military "kids" with their ARs all deck out and their "9's" on drop leg holsters. Get groups of 2-5 burning up rounds.

[Jal5]

At my club its really rare to find brass just laying around, except if some of the young guys are there and are firing 9's! On the public range near my house, I will make several trips in the fall when guys are sighting in rifles and at least one trip at spring thaw and will walk away with a lot of different brass, mostly pistol though. The only caliber I need to buy is 357 but even there I can sometimes trade off other brass that I have accumulated from the public range.

[waksupi]

Buckshot:
The next time your at that range ask the shooters if you can see thier NRA card.

Use the pretext of seeing how many different scenes the NRA is generating this year on the card.

I think you'll be amazed at the result, let us know what you find out.


It wouldn't work for all members. I'm an endowment member, but don't carry the card(s)(NRA-ILA). I already have a drivers license, library card, calling card, two bank cards, AAA card, CCW card, Canadian firearms cards(non-restricted, and restricted), and business cards in my wallet. If the businesses around here had their way, I would also have a card for each of them for their "discounts". There is also a wad of hunting and fishing licenses in there, which adds up to a pretty good stack in Montana.
So, I don't carry the NRA card! Enough is enough!

[danski26]

I
have a friend who is an avid shooter. He has a nice range on his property in his back yard. He wont handload though. no matter how much i explain to him or show him he is convinced that it is too dangerous. He is always interested in seeing what i am working on but won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. I'm not some extreme hot loader either. Mostly a grain or two below max if its good in my gun. He also says every minute he would be loading is time he could be shooting.

[exile]

It is a learning process. I have only been reloading for about five years and I enjoy reloading more than shooting. I wish it had not taken me so long to figure out what fun it was. Of course I have more time than money so that is a good motivation there. I finally got started because I noticed that the first article I read in a gun magazine was about reloading, usually oddball calibers. That and the price of the .357 Sig, which I hardly bother with anymore because the brass ends up on another planet every time I pull the trigger.

I am increasingly disgusted with the fact that articles on reloading in magazines such as the "American Rifleman" decrease and articles on the AR-15 increase every time I pick up a magazine, which I do less and less as time goes on. In a recent issue of "Handloader" there was an article on the .357 Sig which I was very excited about until I read it and discovered there was no mention of reloading at all. Go figure.

I only wish I had gotten started earlier so that I had not missed out on such things as inexpensive 6.5 Swedish Mausers. I talked with a friend the other day who said he bought his first one at Montgomery Wards for $ 15.00. He said they were stacked in grocery carts like firewood.

exile

[.357]

I shoot at a range where the median age is over 5o so all these guys are retired and they all reload. I do however smile if i drive up and there is a young guy there, they almost never reload and will give me their brass. City range here won't let you take other people's empties, chaps me something fierce since the city people just save them for themselves.

[Cherokee]

Don't usually find much brass at my private club range. Will find some that people missed seeing themselves and there are only a few that leave their brass, mostly 9 & 40. You have to be an NRA member to renew/join so all are. Don't understand some people that don't reload but then, I'm sure some people don't understand me.

[DLCTEX]

We made a trip to visit friends and family this past weekend and came by my brother's to pick up a computer he had repaired for my wife. On the way home we stopped at the river bridge north of home to pick up brass that plinkers had left. It was a very nice day and my wife didn't mind picking brass. We scored quite a bit of good brass. On of these days I'm going to have to mine the backstop. Probably 50 years of bullets in there.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I'm actually considering getting a 9mm just b/c I find so much great brass. I wonder if a Blackhawk convertible would be worth a try.

[nicholst55]

I'm actually considering getting a 9mm just b/c I find so much great brass. I wonder if a Blackhawk convertible would be worth a try.

Or, you can make 9mm brass into perfectly good .40 S&W (or .41 Mag) bullet jackets.

[DIRT Farmer]

Not much brass laying around but plenty of percussion cap remains.

[Dale53]

I joined our local gun club 56 years ago. When I joined the rifle club was less than a year old. Several years ago we instituted NRA members only. EVERYONE had to join (most of us already WERE members). At the time we had maybe 200 members, total.

Now we have over 800 members and ALL are NRA members. Dern few are reloaders. I'd say about 5% is all. There are few bullet casters.

Both of those figures represent a sad state of affairs (reloaders and bullet casters) but we are handling NRA Membership quite well. People are lined up to join our club and glad to be there.

FWIW
Dale53

[Echo]

I'm actually considering getting a 9mm just b/c I find so much great brass. I wonder if a Blackhawk convertible would be worth a try.

I have one, and it doesn't shoot 9mm worth a hoot. J-word .355's rattle from side to side down the barrel, and it won't chamber reloads with .358 boolits. I thought about having that cylinder re-chambered to .357 Linebaugh, but was advised against it, as there would be too little steel around the chambers. Maybe a .357/41Mag...

And the county range where I used to volunteer picks up the brass and sells it to a recycler. You can pick up your own brass, but not the cast-offs. AZ, Pima County, and Tucson, are hurting for $$ (thank Janet Napolitano for some of that) and they are glad to get the few hundred, maybe a thousand bucks every month or so.

[JeffinNZ]

I bet the guys that make home brew are surprised at all those who buy beer and I am surprised not all diesel SUV owners like myself don't do their own oil, filters etc.

Horses for courses.

[gnoahhh]

Quite frankly the only reason I reload .45's and .223's is because it's cheaper than shooting scads of high-end commercial stuff, otherwise I wouldn't. Reloading sufficient quantities of those two to keep me happy is a real chore (no progressive press here) and I would happily give it up if I were well heeled. What I do enjoy handloading for is about everything else I own, some of which can't be bought over the counter and most of which are fed cast bullets. Then again I tie my own flies, build split cane rods, build my own furniture and custom rifles, etc., ad nauseum. An inveterate do-it yourselfer I am, but when it comes to mundane repetitive reloading I would rather buy the stuff if I could afford it.

[44fanatic]

Went to a public unmanaged range today. Most of the brass had already been picked up.
Probably about 6 groups out there, 3 of us reloading and the guy next to me was shootin boolits through all of his weapons. Once we got done shootin, we picked up all the 45 and 40 brass from the other shooters out there today, let him haul it off as I dont have those calibers.

[Trey45]

A friend of mine shoots 9x25 Dillon, 50GI, and 10mm and will not reload. I have offered to let him use my machines and reloading books. NOPE! He was over yesterday shooting behind my house with me, I collected 90 pieces of 5.56x45 brass, and 50 pieces of 7.62x51 brass that he shot. I've asked him to save the Dillon and GI brass for me, but he doesn't seem too interested in that either. He's given me a LOT of pistol brass in the past in various calibers though.

[Mntngoat]

I bet the guys that make home brew are surprised at all those who buy beer and I am surprised not all diesel SUV owners like myself don't do their own oil, filters etc.

Horses for courses.

thought i was the only diesel owner that enjoyed changed 3 gallons of oil!

Ml

[hoosierlogger]

Our range requires the use of a tarp (provided) on the ground big enough to catch 90% of your brass. When you are done shooting, you pick it up. If you get caught not using a tarp (even for revolvers or single shots) or not making an effort to get the brass that missed the tarp, you get your card pulled for a week. The second time it happens you dont get to come back. So there is very little brass to pick up. The trash can is fair game though. I have more 9mm, .40, and .45 placstic trays and boxes than I have brass to put in them. Most people will give you their brass just for asking them for it. They dont care what you do with it.

[6.5 mike]

The range I use has alot of retired shooters & yes most of the regulars are nra members. Russel, the fellow that does the maintance, asked me awhile back if I could use the range pickups, live rounds & light primer hits. Told him sure if I can't I usually know someone who can, I've got around 300 9mm & nothing to shoot it in. He saves all the 6.5 swede, 7x57, & 8x57 he finds for me. About the only thing left on the ground is steel cased stuff, they bag & sell the more common emptys.
And yes I dumpster dive like the other addicts. Just can't help myself after scrounging brass & shot gun shells for all these years. lol. Oh well keeps me off the streets & outa the beer joints.

[shooterg]

3 years ago lots of brass left on our range, almost none now. And all our 300+ members are required to be NRA members also.