Driving past my range today. Just a big non-supervised public range in the woods. Picked up at least 400 9MM cases. Some Perfecta, some Blazer brass, Hornady, and Winchester. More left behind but I got tired of getting them. It was rainy today and rained a lot this past weekend, so some were half buried in the mud. I rinsed them several times to get the mud off. Then dunked them all in a clean bucket of water for a final rinse. Dried them all off and into the tumbler they went. Even got about 30 .380 cases. Don't reload that yet but I will soon.

If you pick up every piece of 9mm you find you will soon be over whelmed with it. Anymore I don't even try with 9mm or 40 S&W. Anything else i'll scoop up.

I know the feeling.....a few years ago I stumbled into a couple bays at the local range just after a very large LEO tactical training live fire event. Got a bucketful of once-fired .40, wads of 223 & couple handfuls of 308....felt like the pirate treasure trove

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I only reload 9MM and .38. I left lots of .40 and .45 brass there.

I keep all of the brass that I can pick up. I usually trade the stuff that I don't load to friends.

What kind of brass scrounger are you!!

Grab it all!

There's Gold in them there Hills!!

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Still Running Against the Wind

A fellow club member and his son were at our range shooting their new
9mms. After firing about 500 rounds of new Federal brass ammo they left.
Said if I wanted it it was mine.
What a deal!
Jim

Probably because they were too lazy to clean up after themselves.

Ed

I normally would, but it was raining and I was already drenched,
And I figured leave some for others. Spread my good fortune and all. I checked them after only one hour in the tumbler and they are already bright and shiny.

My excuse is I'm too old to keep bending over on my private range. If I can get my visiting great-grandson away from the tractors long enough, he likes to pick up the "gold".

If I could get electric down to the range in the spring, I'd use the Shop Vac to pick up brass. I'd get nothing but dirt with it now.

I have no way of reloading so I donate my brass to whoever needs it

When I was putting in time as an RSO I had regular shooters who would give me their brass when done for the day. I got all the 38spl,9mm,40S&W and 45 acp I could ever use. After awhile I had to start refusing it because I only have a limited amount of storage space.
Jim

Right place, right time. I use the public ranges provided by the PA Game Commission and years ago, before shooting I would scoop up a fair amount of handgun brass. Not any more. There are people who drive around to these ranges to pick up brass. Good luck finding a 9mm, .45acp, etc.

When I started reloading and shooting in the mid 1960's , Sunday mornings was my only free time. I usually had the public range to myself and would sweep up everything the Saturday shooters left.

Hardly anyone reloaded and boxes of revolver , pistol and rifle brass would be left on the concrete floor and in the trash barrel.
I took home a 5 gallon bucket full each trip.

My kids were real good scroungers !

I have never had to buy any handgun brass !

If you can scrounge , go for it ....just good old recycling and money saving to boot.

Gary

That's what I do. Even if I can't sell or trade it for reloading, it's still brass. Has a pretty decent scrap value.

I'm not to proud to pick up brass that I can reload

I was at a shooting school several years ago when ammo had gone sky high. Only one guy was shooting a .45 and he was shooting new ammo. I asked the owner if I could pick it up and he said sure. He said that after our class was over, some locals would swoop in and get it. I still have that 1 fired brass somewhere.

Back in the mid '70s, my dad & I went to a North-South skirmish being held at Fort Eustis, Virginia. After getting the camper set up, I wandered over to the pistol range where a soldier was shooting a .45. I asked about brass and wound up with a 5 gallon bucket full of WCC (Winchester) once fired brass-all head stamped '72-74.

I'm still reloading it.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I tend to pick up my 9mm brass but I don't reload. I was inspired by a photo of a 1911 sitting on a bed of spent brass so my collecting is mostly for that for now. I imagine at some point I will find someone to give it to or trade with.

But one day at my range a fella had a gadget he called an ammo broom that he bought online. He rolled it around and picked up the brass and left the rock and dirt behind. Looked like a nice little gadget for those who don't like the bending or who are not fortunate enough to have kids or grand kids to do the picking up.

A quick search found the gadget that he had under ammo broom, nut wizard or brass wizard. Can't speak for personal use but it did look like it worked for the fella using it.

But my trusty revolvers are easier for brass collection.

One of these eliminates 99% of the brass policing hassles.



They have a weighted base that also accommodates a tripod so it can be used sitting at a bench or standing. I never leave home without mine.

Ed

I'm getting better about leaving .223, 9mm, 380 and 40 brass where it lies at the range despite it being thick most weekends. I still constantly scan (and crawl) for .45acp and 38 special though:-)

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Dave

Very good luck here, please put me in for this great karma!

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NICK-SWCA-NRA BENEFACTOR LIFE

after a while you'll stop, 9mm brass is everywhere.....

I cant seem to find 45 Colt longs or .357 Sig brass
it seems they are not shot very much at the range I belong to.
A member who shoots .357 Sig saved me some, about 200.
Now looking for .308 brass for my M&P 10. 10mm's are probably the hardest to find, don't shoot them myself

Lazy, no, I think they knew a reloader would come along and snag it. What ever the reason is ok with me. Nice once fired Fed 9mm is a treat, especially when it`s free.
Jim

When stationed at Quantico many years ago, a neighbor was the WTB commander.
He authorized me to sign out any open range on weekends.
One Saturday went out to a pistol range. Surprise.
Scattered all over were nickel plated 357 Magnum cases, in groups of 6.
Picked up about a 5 gallon bucket load of them.
Thank you FBI!

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

I'll take any brass I can get. Years ago when I slowed down on reloading and had to clean house, I threw away some brass. Now that's un unpardonable sin.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

"after a while you'll stop, 9mm brass is everywhere....."

this very week end, [Father forgive my sins] I shot entire match with new factory loads 9mm Blazer brass. Have BUCKETS of it at home, as well as being simply too geezered out in the knee to chase it down....so I donated it to the on-site live posse buddies who wanted to mess with it...

Seemed like a win-win at the time.....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

In the 3 years I've been a member of the local Conservation Club ($30 annual membership), I've picked up over 20,000 pcs. of 9mm brass. About 25-30% I give to a buddy, after it's been de-primed and cleaned of course :-) I helped him get set up to reload his own, and he appreciates it. Not to mention all the other brass that gets left behind-all once fired factory!! Life is good for us reloaders/scroungers :-)

I use to collect range brass at a public Pa. Game Commission shooting range. One morning a guy and girl were there picking up everything, including the steel and aluminum cases.
I asked them why they were saving everything.......and they said it was part of their public service for some crime they committed. They take it back to the police station as proof of their work.

If you shoot at a private gun club to which you pay dues and about which you care, think about this. One club to which I belong had an elderly member slip and fall on discarded brass littering the concrete at one of our outdoor ranges. He suffered a broken hip but fortunately did not sue the club. Instead, he (correctly) blamed slob members for his injury.

But you know damned well that he could have won a financial settlement if he had brought litigation against the club given the anti-gun tendencies of those making up juries these days. A lot of gun clubs are not properly insured (Is yours?) and such an award could bankrupt and close them, all because of members who do not recognise their littering habit for exactly what it is.

I just don't get how anyone can just let the stuff fly (toward others many times) and wind up on the ground and then put insulting icing on the cake by leaving without cleaning up after themselves. I even use my catch net when shooting my bolt-action 22s. It beats picking up any of those little critters that roll off my bench.

Sorry if I ruffled any feathers but if you've ever served your club as an officer or director, you know how costly careless members can be.

Ed

[QUOTE=Tinhack: If I could get electric down to the range in the spring, I'd use the Shop Vac to pick up brass. I'd get nothing but dirt with it now. [/QUOTE]

Tinhack: Consider getting one of those roller cages w/the long handle. They're only forty-five bucks plus shipping. I'm with you on age & have found one of those do-dads a great boon for us old pharts!

Hank M.

I don't reload 9mm anymore. I try to keep 500 brass cleaned, deprimed and swaged, to give to people just starting reloading. In 223, I do it with bags of 200. All the 40 brass goes away fast too. Everything else is mine!

Ivan

Brass can be a pain in the butt....

When I first started as a firearms instructor for our academy we mostly used commercial reloaded ammunition, and most officers shot .38 specials. All shooters on our range policed their brass and we turned it in for credit towards our next ammunition order. In the early '90's it was mandated that all training was done with commercial ammunition, no reloads. This was also about the same time that everyone was switching to semi automatics. I was range master by this time and brass was my responsibility. Initially I got five cents per round and the local gun shops would pick up the policed brass to sell in their shops. Then it was down to one cent per round, then they were over loaded and didn't want it any more.

For awhile I sold it to a well known commercial reloader but it had to be sorted and then shipped. They paid me for the brass in credit towards their ammunition, which worked well as most of our ammunition for our sniper rifles came from them. I would have a couple of my range officers pick up 1/2 dozen prisoner trustees for a day when it was closed for maintenance. They would police all of the brass and sort it... then back home to jail for the night.

That deal eventually fell through and I was stuck with literally truck loads of once fired brass. We serviced 39 agencies and some of my bigger classes had 70 students and they would shoot 1,500 rounds each per week. It was nothing to have 40-50 five gallon buckets of assorted brass in my storage building. It was literally a huge pain in the butt. I shot a lot of I.P.S.C. and I.D.P.A. during those years and when friends were crying about brass, I would bring them a whole bucket of once fired .45, 9mm or .40 brass. At the time we shot Federal GM .308 out of all of our sniper rifles and I bought it in bulk. That was the only brass most guys were even interested in. Most of the other stuff I couldn't even give away.

I eventually had to start selling it for scrap, just to get rid of it. I actually got between .45 and .80 cents a pound for brass. I would have one of my range officers take a truck load of buckets of brass to the scrap yard... usually 600-750 pounds, four times each year. The stupid part was that the way my accounts were set up through the City, I couldn't put that money back into my ammunition budget, I had to put it in my range maintenance budget??? As a result, we did have a envious facility... buildings painted and kept up, trees, shrubs, more steel plate trees and pepper poppers than we could use.

I retired last year and prior to doing so I arranged a deal with a scrap yard from out of state that services a lot of police ranges. They brought in one-way drums and left them on sight. The officers policed their brass and poured it into the funnel shaped tops, with the only provision being that they wanted no aluminum cases. Every month or two they sent a flat bed truck with a Tommy lift on it up to pick up the barrels and leave empty ones, and then just sent me a check.

As a result, I have more brass than I or my sons will ever use here at the house.... .45, .40, .9mm,. 357 Sig, .223, .308. But we do go through a lot of it and enjoy the loading aspect.

I can beat that. I found 375 41 Magnum in the trash at our range. 275 where primed. Popped out the primers and they cleaned up real nice.

WOW! That`s a find!
Jim

I'm a brass rat too. I pick it all up even if I don't reload it. I'm amazed at the number of people who leave it. I've became over whelmed with .223/5.56 brass. I must have 15 or 20 lbs of it and only been collecting it a year. One day I was looking at all that .223 brass and decided I needed a rifle to shoot it. One thing led to another. You know the rest of the story.

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That's just somebody talkin.

At present I have five buckets full of 9mm, .45 ACP, .38 Special, .357, etc. brass, and more .30-'06, .223, and .308 brass than I can use in two lifetimes. I have access to an essentially unlimited supply of .40 S&W fired brass (from the Border Patrol) which I don't bother to pick up as I have no guns in .40 S&W. I still try to leave the range with as much brass as I fired that day, but I don't pick up any more than that, unless it is something nice, like nickel-plated.

I was going to buy some 38 short colt brass to try in my new 8 shot revolver...but the Brass Gods came through. As I was testing some loads for the new pistol at my local range a shooter asked if I saved 38 special brass. I ended up with 500 once fired Winchester 38's which I trimmed to 38 short colt length. Hey they were free and I had the time...only took about 2 hours. One of the best parts was the Winchester brass for whatever reason fit my .025 moon clips. Typically they take the .020 moons. So yes I pickup range brass and with my revolver and moon clips I don't have to bend over at all.

Had not seen that name in a long time.

It's changed a lot since the Vietnam era.

........

Not free but Texas Brass has processed 9mm brass for about $50 per K. This stuff is sized and cleaned. Looks just like new. I've gotten 4K from them and have found 3 bad cases.

I was stationed at Rota, Spain in 1969, I was in an Air Force detachment and used to use the base range to shoot. they had 55 gallon drums of .45 acp brass. I am still shooting '69 head stamped .45 acp brass. Some of it is getting a little brittle and splits when I shoot it and it goes in the scrap bin.
SWCA 892

I have been hoarding for years.

I actually had an intervention with myself (plus the wife said to stop) where I passed up brass these past two years and having withdrawals.

I am ensuring I have something to do when I retire. (when that will happen....not anytime soon) I have about 5-7 more buckets at the house. I am cleaning out my backyard building and moved these buckets to storage.

Many of the buckets are actually separated and the 9mm buckets are HEAVY. I will probably never reload .223 / 5.56 and will start moving them soon. I mainly load 9mm, .38, 45acp and some 44 Special/Mag.

this is a collection which started in the 80s. this is all range pickup and I need to invest in a wet brass cleaning system.

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if you're gonna be a bear...

Any reloadable brass will easily sell on the Buy & Sell sections of several gun/reloading forums if you price it reasonably.

I just sold 15 pounds of 223/5.56 brass I swept up on the range for $50. I've sold 9mm and 40 in the past too.

Leaving brass laying is like flushing cash down the *******.

Just went to the conservation club this past Sat to check the brass barrels. Came home with another 1 gallon plastic pail, full of handgun/rifle brass. A 1 gallon pail is 12-15 lbs., depending how "heaping" it is. This trip, I'm guessing 11 lbs-3/4 handgun and 1/4 rifle. Am so glad there are so few reloaders who frequent the club! And so glad ammo is so plentiful for those who don't lol. :-)

I'm surprised your club doesn't claim discarded brass for themselves as scrap metal. Both local clubs to which I belong do.

Ed

My range recycles the brass (you can only pick up what you bring) and uses that to reduce membership costs.

...can also be a gold mine, but it takes me an hour to get there. So when I'm waiting for a lane, I pick up brass. If I go later in the day and outlast the people there towards evening I spend a while 'brassing' undisturbed. Also, it's so nice having the range to yourself that it's worth staying til dark.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Ah,the mother load.

I like FREE!

One year I drove home from Camp Perry OH with 8 x 8 gal garbage bags full of military Match 45acp cases and a few full cans of loaded ammo in the back of my International Harvester Scout.No decrimping needed on match cases.I think they were RA60 Match that year?

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN