Hit the Motherlode for Range Brass!

[AveragEd]

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

 

[Hang-Fire Hank]

BRASS PICKER-UPPER

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.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

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

 

[stykshooter]

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.

 

[dswancutt]

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.

 

[jimbo728]

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

 

[LostintheOzone]

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.

 

[DWalt]

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.

 

[Batmo]

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.

 

[hdwhit]

Fort Eustis, Virginia

Had not seen that name in a long time.

It's changed a lot since the Vietnam era.

 

[Fishslayer]

My excuse is I'm too old to keep bending over on my private range.

........

 

[Houlton]

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.

 

[austintexas]

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

 

[SW CQB 45]

Forgive me father for I have sinned

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.

 

[feelinlucky]

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 crapper.

 

[MyDads38]

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.

 

[AveragEd]

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

Ed

 

[hoc9sw]

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

 

[rwsmith]

My range in the woods.....

...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.

 

[StakeOut]

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?