What I picked up at the range....

[Crash_Corrigan]

Some time ago at my local range I was working on developing a load for my 38-55 via the ladder method. I had a spotting scope and I had been there for about 20 mins all by myself until a van pulled up and disgorged 4 Asian men along with a gun case and two cardboard boxes.

Soon it became apparent that the driver of the van had brought 3 men to the range to shoot the same gun a M-1 Garand. He had in the carton sealed cans of Greek 30-06 cartridges loaded in en-bloc clips in bandoliers. He set up at 100 and 200 yds a pair of pop up steel targets painted day glo orange and he began to instruct his guests on the Garand.

Soon all 3 were blazing away with a small degree of success. As the time went on they all got better and better. They burned through 3 cans of ammo and there was brass all over the place. Eventually they got tired or bored and packed up and left. I asked the driver if he wanted help in gathering up the brass. He was pleased with the offer of help and said I was welcome to it and he also gave me the sealed tin of ammo as well.


I was floored and profusely thanked him for he generosity until I learned from him that this was his sideline. We was a bartender at a downtown casino and regularly brought guests up to range for a fee. Ammo and gun provided included in his fee of $400 per guest. He did not want to keep ammo at home and usually either threw away the excess or gave it away.

I was very happy to get almost 600 once fired 30-06 cases and another 196 loaded rounds along with a mess of en-bloc clips and bandoliers.

This was a better deal than when I found a laundry detergent carton containing over 2500 .38 special cases at the range just sitting there on the shooting table one afternoon.

A great day and now I have a lifetime supply of cases for my Garand.

[fryboy]

Good score indeed and it sounds like getting to know this feller better could prove to be beneficial for both of you'se ;)

[jonp]

That's no lie. You had better go find that guy and let him know to call you whenever he is going out to the range and that you would be happy to take the ammo and brass off of his hands.

Most Americans have no idea that in most of the world you can't just go out and shoot when you want. It's a real treat for foreigners to be able to shoot like us for a day. I had a guy from overseas to my house once and we got to talking about guns and he said he really like Dirty Harry guns. I went into the other room and brought him out a wheelgun and he turned it over and over with a big grin. When I asked him if he wanted to shoot it his eyes lighted up and he asked where. In the backyard of course, where else? He asked about the neighbors and the cops and I told him I shoot out back all of the time no-one cares. He was stunned and besides himself when we lit off a few hundred rounds.

[historicfirearms]

Great score. I'd find out where that guy tended bar and follow him around. Maybe he needs help taking people out to shoot too. Could be a fun side job.

[Epd230]

Offer to tag along and also the use of your firearms in this endeavor. That way, you can scoop up more of the left over rounds and brass, in calibers that you need!

[Kraschenbirn]

Good score!! Got a couple hundred rounds of HXP much the same way last fall. A fellow (non-reloader) club member had brought his brother...a militaria collector...out to range. Brother had brought 3 Garands and two M-1 carbines along with a couple of cartons of ammo. When they finished shooting, I noticed they were dumping the empties into our 'recycle' bin and offered to help them clean-up.

Bill

[fatelk]

I once watched someone dump a bucket full of brass into the dumpster at the range. If there hadn't been people around I might have considered dumpster diving. Another time I found a box with maybe a thousand pieces of pistol brass; the dumpster was full and the box was at the top so I did the environmentally responsible thing and recycled, keeping it out of the landfill. :)

[lightman]

Good Score! Maybe you made a contact too!

When we first built our private range one of the members was an executive at a construction company, at the international level. One time he brought his Japanese counterpart out to shoot. Here is this wealthy 40 something Japanese businessman thats never fired a gun, having the time of his life. The next time he was in the Country he brought 12-15 of his business associates to shoot. We assembled enough firearms that all of these guys got the opportunity to shoot about every type of firearm. Pistols, revolvers, bolt guns, semi-autos, shotguns, and even a full-auto. They had the time of their life! And talk about a brass haul!!!

[Windwalker 45acp]

wow, great score!

Some people have all the luck, when I am just happy to find a handful of fired .45acp brass....

[Ithaca Gunner]

Lucky dog!

[Lance Boyle]

Nice to have those little coups once in a while! Yours was kind of big though.

I've had that a few times, mostly using the range after the PD's. In the old days they often left the brass dunnage. One club I belonged to the border patrol would rent and leave the brass. The old timer at the club would give me gallon zip loc bags of 5.56 brass and apologize it was dirty. Now a lot of agencies recognize an intrinsic value in it as scrap. One of our own instructors got mildly jammed up over brass. We would police and save or agency brass at quals in 5 gallon buckets. When we got a pick up truck load, he'd take it down to a shooting supply place and get credit. With the credit he'd buy range stuff; timers, cleaning rods and supplies, etc. He wasn't pocketing it. He was the kind of guy you could trust with your wallet and your wife. Well that didn't jive with the fiscal policy where any monies/value had to co back to the coffers. So instead of making your budget go farther by recycling that stopped. For a few years after the brass went in the dumpster until they figured out an official process to scrap it. Wasn't just that either, auto shop scrap dumpster was placed by a company for years as waste removal and not scrap. Then there was a few years where it was dumped on the ground for when the government got it straight what they wanted to do. When they ran out of room/got in trouble for the ugly scrap pile it went into the regular waste dumpster and they paid to remove it as garbage.

Your gov in action. :-/

ETA- I can remember when all that happening in the post scrap phase and one of the bosses was on the range to qual and was [expletive] about all the staplers were broken. Why don't you go by some expletive working staplers he bellows? Ans. Sorry no more brass money for that stuff. We ended up stealing those black metal spring clamp paper clip things from a lot of the offices. Also went from those decent paperboard target backers to waste cardboard on a PD range. Any rain or wind and it was a bad show. Well it was lively shooting when your target is dancing wildly though.

[mold maker]

Good deeds at the range are always suspicioned, by the bean counters........ Don't as how I found that out.

[375supermag]

Hi...

it constantly amazes me that so many members of my gun club don't reload.

A couple weeks ago, my son and I were shooting his AR and there must have been 5 other guys shooting ARs in .223, also.
None of them wanted their brass...to a man they claimed it was so cheap to buy they didn't bother reloading it. I am not set up to reload .223 yet but, free brass is free brass. Probably picked up 300 cases in addition to the 300 that my son and I shot. My son says he doesn't see the cost effectiveness in reloading .223 at this point( he has the same mindset on 9mm). Once he decides to buy the .223 dies and bullets, I'll start reloading it for him. I have enough brass squirrelled away to supply a platoon of soldiers.

Same thing happened last Sunday on the pistol range. Some guy was there with his wife/girlfreind and 3-4 other guys shooting a couple of 9mm and a .40S&W. Our brass was getting mixed so I was checking headstamps to keep it separate and he said I don't reload, just keep it. Four 50rd boxes of .40S&W brass and probably another 300+ pieces of 9mm brass. I haven't run it through the tumbler yet but, it half-filled a 5lb Folger's coffee can.

[CLAYPOOL]

All the brass that hits my range stays. Or so.... But it does help me and the guy that most of the time picks it up. My range is used for Concealed Carry Classes and as cheap as he rents its worth it for him. You also don't want a bunch of newbies chasing brass while class needs to keep moving.