It's funny how quickly history is forgotten

[wulfman92]

In a small town in rural Wyoming, I have to make a choice when I go to the gun range. Whether I'm going to spend my time shooting or spend it picking up brass! I'm not sure how it is nation wide, but some folks forget we had to pay top prices for brass during the last administration. I can't believe all the shiny brass people leave behind.

[popper]

They don't have any use for it but YOU do.

[RKJ]

I spend more time picking up brass than i do shooting. Mostly 9mm & 40 S&W. Though around deer season I get some good rifle rounds. I appreciate all those that leave that nice brass behind.

[Hick]

I used to shoot only with my levers and revolver. But the local AR crowd leaves so much brass laying around I decided to buy a CZ-527 in 223 Rem. It's never seen a commercial round-- all reloads, and I've never bought brass. I find so much I've never even reloaded my pickup brass more than once. Nearly 4000 rounds through the rifle and I still keep finding new brass faster than I can reload the old.

[Geezer in NH]

Complaining about FREE brass? Why?

[kodiak1]

Complaining about the shooters that don't clean up after themselves. It is nice to have the brass but if no one picks it up can you imagine what a lot of ranges would look like in a year or two..
We have the same issues up here. Even our police force had to be reprimanded by the club to get them to clean up after them selves.
The free brass once fired on the other hand is fantastic!!!!!!!!

[brewer12345]

Wish that were the case at my range. They allow you to keep your own brass, but otherwise it is swept into buckets and sold.

I remember very well how quickly things turned. I really need to go buy some SP primers, but I suppose I have gotten complacent since I think we have another year or two.

[GhostHawk]

I feel like I have it made. My range is actually seperate buildings with an underground rifle range, 6 lanes. 3 paper and 3 electronic.

Pistol range has classrooms, a comfortable lounge with Tv. Clean bathrooms and 25 pistol lanes with targets adjustable between 0 and 50 feet.

If the RSO is cleaning up brass he asks me "Save your brass?" Yes sir, thank you I do. Just shove it up next to the wall there. The end lane on each end has a slightly wider lower table. Is setup for people who are handicaped or limited mobility. I always just drag a chair over and sit down.

Last time I walked away with at least twice as much brass as I fired.

Range also sells brass reasonable prices. Rifle tends to be a little higher and smaller quantities. Still 50 once fired brass for .30-30 for 8 dollars is nothing to complain about in my book.

Pistol I have a 25 pound box of both 9mm and .40sw both cost me 50$ each. The 25 lb box of .45acp cost me 75$. I figure I have a lifetime supply for all three. I don't shoot a lot of .40sw so some of it gets swaged into .44mag and .444 jacketed ammo. I use a very simple whack a mole method with a .270 sizing die with depriming rod removed. Lately I have been using 125 gr .358 cast boolits, a #1 buckshot dropped into the .40sw case first, then bullet, whole works gets tipped into the die. I use a square handled punch base first to make contact with the brass. Whack it 12 times. And it tips out a nice truncated cone jacketed bullet with exposed lead nose. Good enough for what I want to do with them. And cost effective, positively thrifty in fact.

The buckshot does 2 things, brings the weight up to the range I wanted. And holds the cast up so it swaged into that nice cone shape instead of filling the base of the brass.

If I want to cast 158 gr .358's I can do the same thing without the buckshot. But they weigh a bit more, and my 158 gr mold is a 2 cavity. Where the 125 gr is a 6. Simpler, easier to add a bit under the 125.

That being said if I lived closer to the range I'd not be able to move for barrels of brass.

Most leave it lay. I look at a scatter of rifle brass and go "Those are 16 cents a piece at the rifle range. There has to be a hundred of em. That adds up, quickly.

Yes brass is underappreciated.

[MUSTANG]

My pet peeve/concern is the "Steel" brass. I take a magnet on a collapsible handle once a month or so and sweep the lines in front of the firing lines at the two ranges I belong to and clean up the "Steel" casings and dump them in the trash. Some shooters take the term "Police up your brass" too literally and do not pick up after themselves because they use steel casings; others - maybe they are just ignorant on the need to clean up after themselves.

Oh yeah, I am a Brass scrounger and pick up whatever I find and take home to clean and process - or use as trade goods down stream.

[wulfman92]

Complaining about FREE brass? Why?

Not complaining, just astonished!

[fast ronnie]

I usually ask if the guys reload, and when the answer is no, I ask if I can clean up their area. We can buy brass at $3 a pound and have a sorting table just for that purpose. Once it goes in the bucket, it belongs to the range. Just have to get it before the bucket does.

[Thin Man]

The range in my town gathers all left-over brass and stores it buckets, same for the lead from the target traps. They had several people asking to buy the lead but relative few who asked about brass, except for small quantities of specific calibers. They made an agreement with one buyer who takes both lead and brass at the current market values for scrap. The buyer drops by the range 3 or 4 times a year and hauls off all of the stored brass and lead. The seller is happy to have his storage area cleared out and the funds to support the business. I can't quote the weight of either metal but this range is busy and gathers large quantities of both as they are the only indoor range is this town. The lanes stay busy.

[one-eyed fat man]

I sometimes wonder how many decapping pins I have broken when I leave my Berdan primed brass lying on the ground at a public range.

[DerekP Houston]

I sometimes wonder how many decapping pins I have broken when I leave my Berdan primed brass lying on the ground at a public range.

I kinda feel sorry for the scavenger that comes after me too, there's a reason I left that worn out brass behind ;). In all fairness I watch for new shooters and guys with shiny boxes and sweep their brass up too. Just pays to look at what they are shooting first before you blindly take all brass.

[Rcmaveric]

There are a lot of scroungers like myself at my local range. I just pick up what i can use and leave the rest for the next guys. I feel like i shouldn't be greedy because i am not the only one. I would hope they would leave what i could use if they cant. Probably wrong logic but it helps me sleep at night. Place gets picked clean regularly as well as the shotgun lines.

[Rcmaveric]

<---- broke a decaping pin on some 7.62x39. i religiously check that now.

[lightman]

I agree, many shooters will get caught short the next time that we have a panic. Having lived through several shortages I weathered the last one without a hitch. I'm sure that I have a lifetime supply of lead and more brass than I'll ever used. Maybe or maybe not so with primers and powder. I still pick up whatever brass that I see. I've gifted good brass to a lot of friends and new reloaders and I swap some. I even pick up junk and damaged brass to sell as scrap, along with my worn out brass. A 5 gallon bucket of scrap brass equals a couple of boxes of new Lapua brass! Win Win!

[mold maker]

You'd really be surprised at the weight of used primers that most throw away. If your press collects and delivers the dead primer via a hose, just direct it into a jug. I have 3 X 2 litter bottles full and working on another.

[abunaitoo]

It bugs me to see things go to waste.
I pick up brass. Go through the trash cans for plastic, aluminum, and brass. Also good boxes.
Throw out the food for the chickens and birds.
Over the years I've found lots of good stuff. Sometimes even cash.
Few months ago I found unused box of .223 and .22.

[Geezer in NH]

Not complaining, just astonished!
I here you there!!!!!:D

[robg]

Free is my price .not many reload in our club but I had to buy 4570 brass as I'm only guy shooting one .mine has only had my cast boolits fired in it ,bought rounds would bankrupt me but free lead and reloading make it fairly cheap to shoot.

[wv109323]

I belong to a small uspsa range. They do not pick up their brass and leave a lot of live rounds behind. At the end of a stage they must clear their weapon. I picked up several boxes of 9mm. I use it for practice. In one year I picked up 107 lbs. of 9mm brass and 40 lbs. of 40.

[Thin Man]

I enjoy finding orphaned brass as this tells me what the most recent trends are for calibers. The continuous flow is still autos v. revolvers, semi-auto rifles v. all others, must be a lot of ninja and preper types out there, also several signs of new shooters just getting into the game. Closer to hunting season I find all the usual favorites in calibers plus the occasional surprise. These give me a smile that there can be a few dedicated riflemen out there even in the remote locations, unless they are just there for hunting season.

[Bulldogger]

I think that much of the scrounging and saving during the hard times was people who "planned" to reload, but never bothered to get past thinking about it, and perhaps a few folks looking for trade goods as someone else pointed out. I don't wonder that we might also have MORE people shooting now that prices have come down a little on ammo due to the massive production rates and hoarding both coming to conflux.
Bulldogger

[HATCH]

What I run into here is that the ones that are leaving their brass don't reload and 1/2 of them are pay to shoot players.
Meaning they buy a box a ammo at the range, shoot it all up and leave.
No ammo in gun when they arrive, no ammo in gun when they leave.
I have a friend that did just that.
His gun was kept unloaded and he had No ammo.
I gave him a 30 cal ammo can loaded of 38sp 125 FPRN lead reloads
told him NOT to shoot it. just to hold on to it just in case.
Its still sealed on a shelf in his garage right now.
He still goes to the range empty, buys a box, and leaves empty

[lightman]

You'd really be surprised at the weight of used primers that most throw away. If your press collects and delivers the dead primer via a hose, just direct it into a jug. I have 3 X 2 litter bottles full and working on another.

I also save spent primers and I even dump the brass shavings left over from case prep into the primer jug. I know, its a very minor amount but I still do it. I often wonder how that scrap brass gets recycled back into other products? I occasionally deprime a case with a live primer and I try to keep that live primer out of the recycle bucket.

[WILCO]

In a small town in rural Wyoming, I have to make a choice when I go to the gun range. Whether I'm going to spend my time shooting or spend it picking up brass! I'm not sure how it is nation wide, but some folks forget we had to pay top prices for brass during the last administration. I can't believe all the shiny brass people leave behind.

Folks have extra cash. When it's plentiful, who cares?
Plus new shooters are constantly coming to the market.
I love it. The vast majority of Americans have had it. They all want firearms.

[Hickok]

The West Virginia boys don't leave any brass. I might find a casing once in a while hidden/overlooked in the grass. :redneck:

[15meter]

We have brass containers at both the clubs I belong to, had to put locks on them because the non reloaders were emptying them of everything right down to .22 long rifle brass to sell for their own gain. For a number of years they were open containers and if you reloaded and saw something in the bucket you could use you where welcome to it. The leftover was sold for scrap and the cash rolled back into club improvements. I've put over $2000 of free money back into the club since I started the brass recycling 10+ years ago. The thieves are now locked out to the detriment of the handloaders in the club.