Smarter then the Average Bear *PICS*

[Speedo2]

I ran into an old acquaintance at the range yesterday, a guy that I'd worked with at the local nuc plant and a person that I'd had a lot of respect for. Anyways, he had cobbled together a device that was pretty ingenious that I thought I'd share with this intrepid forum. It was a portable vacuum used to pick up brass. He called it his BRASS SNATCHER.

Basically it was/is a 20V Milwaukee battery powered vacuum that he'd removed it's filter bag and hogged-out its inlet a bit, with a couple of rigid tube inlet extenders fixed to its inlet. The brass was collected in its cyclone separator and thereby didn't go through its impeller. Its tank would hold around 200-300 9mm cases and he didn't have to do the chicken dance to pick up his brass. Since he was shooting a Mac-9, he had deposited much brass on the ground, and since he was a bit of a geezer (like me), he wasn't wrecking his back in the process.

He said that he had around $125 in it. He could probably put a snazzy sticker on it and market it to Franklin or somebody and make a small fortune. He demonstrated that it would pick up anything up to 223 brass. Anyways, I'm going to build one to save my own back. Photos at 11 (or sometime). -S2

 

[Krogen]

Looking forward to the photos. This sounds like a great idea.

 

[kraynky]

I don't have any electricity down at my range, so I use a wire basket (originally used to pick up walnuts) that I ordered from Dillon Precision. It occasionally picks up a stick or acorn, but it sure saves my back. Seems like it was about $40 bucks or so.

I would like to see pictures of the brass vac though. Sounds neat.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I don't have any electricity down at my range, so I use a wire basket (originally used to pick up walnuts) that I ordered from Dillon Precision. It occasionally picks up a stick or acorn, but it sure saves my back. Seems like it was about $40 bucks or so.

I would like to see pictures of the brass vac though. Sounds neat.

The OP said the vac is battery powered so no electricity needed at the range.

It does sound cool, waiting on the pics...

 

[Ron IL]

That sounds like a brilliant idea. I use the picking up brass as an exercise to keep my back working. But one of these days I will have to quit that. It would also be good for picking up all of those aluminum cases. Our range is almost an aluminum carpet. Between those and the pea gravel that is the floor, the walnut basket did not work very good. If a guy could find one of those at a yard sale for a couple bucks. hmmm

 

[boatbum101]

I put a plastic shower curtain down beforehand . Easy to fold up @ end of the day .

 

[AJ]

It sounds like a great idea.

 

[jag22]

Sounds nice but it means one more trip back to the car. I keep a small towel in my range bag, when it's time to go I sweep everything in a pile, fold up the towel to be nice pad and go down on one knee to pick everything up. No bending over, much easier on the back.

 

[Johnnu2]

At my range, they use a long handle broom and a 'dust pan' also on a long handle.... I think it's been in use for about 75 years.... but it still works.

You gotta love his ingenuity though.....
J.

 

[mikld]

I don't think it would work for me as I shoot outdoors. The "range" is dirt with rocks and trash that would get picked up too. Same with the "nut collector", I'd get 10% brass and 90% rocks and shotgun shells. So to save my back I made my "case picker upper". I used an old squegee telescoping handle and a piece of spring steel rod, 1/8" dia, tapered and 1" or so, bent 90 degrees. attached the rod to the "working end" of the handle and it telescopes down to about 36" and lives in the bed of my truck. I walk around and "hook" brass and deposit it in a coffee can in my other hand. A broom stick with a rod stuck in one end will work just as well...

 

[Engineer1911]

I shoot revolvers, don't have to bend over for anything. Bolt rifles deposit brass on the bench. Ar-15 has a brass deflector that tosses everything into a 20" circle on the ground.

My brass "group" is smaller than some of the other shooter's groups with scoped rifles -- just sayin' ! ! ! !

 

[Speedo2]

Update w/ pics:

Here's the Milwaukee vacuum. The device itself was $120, but with battery and charger it added up to around $210:

It does pick up a lot of dirt, 22's and aluminum:

I found it best to dump the container onto a bench, then hand separate the debris from the brass that I wanted to save, and then sweeping the remaining debris into a trash can.

My recovery rate was around 94%, but more then made up for my losses with other range pick-ups. I picked up around 2lbs of stray brass in about 15 minutes without hurting my back. "Payback" should be around 1-year, going to the range once a week in terms of scrap brass prices.

Of course, as Engineer1911 says, the best back saver is one of these things:

 

[Nemo288]

roto-pix!

I have taken the liberty of rotating those pictures.
Nice idea!

 

[Nick B]

I use a 7'X10' piece of precut screen I bought at Home Depot .