-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
What's your brass etiquette when shooting at the range?
- Thread starter Rockrivr1
- Start date
I pick up my own.
If there is no other shooter there, I pick it all up to reload.
If there is another shooter there I ask if he is keeping his brass.
If he says "no" I ask if it's OK for me to pick it up and keep it.
If there is no other shooter there, I pick it all up to reload.
If there is another shooter there I ask if he is keeping his brass.
If he says "no" I ask if it's OK for me to pick it up and keep it.
MaxStravinsky
NES Member
We're required to clean up after ourselves at my club. Everyone seems to do it. One of the things I like about the place.
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,865
Oh....DJ Brad range? Hell, i don't even clean up my used toilet paper there why would I clean up the brass?
Last edited:
556USER
NES Member
The two clubs that I shoot at the most have a rule that states, if the brass is in the brass bucket it belongs to the club for salvage. If it is on the ground you may take it OR put it into the bucket. I usually keep everything that I shoot, even the calibers that I don't reload. I sell it to the salvage place when I have a 5 gallon bucket full. I also have made runs to the salvage place for one of my clubs to sell club brass. 10 buckets at a time sometimes. $$$$
I do all the above except leaving the brass I shot. At the outdoor ranges I have a net (seine) that is tight enough to catch .22lr if I shoot it. So I generally only take what I shoot unless I spot calibers I reload. Indoors I pick up everything as long as there is no one else shooting.
Since you mention the "pits" I know you are talking about our common range and I and the other members of the B.O.D. thank you.
We only wish that every member was so courteous. People seem to think that .22lr brass either deteriorates or that the "brass fairy" comes along and cleans up after them.
The brass in the buckets gets turned in by a member of the B.O.D. to the recycling place and all of that money goes to our Junior shooting program.
I used to work as an R.O. at many large pistol matches and they were normally "lost brass" matches with the workers picking up all of the brass after the match was over. I was fortunate enough to collect enough brass to reload for all of the main calibers I use.
Coda
NES Member
My range is off the back deck of my house. I set my decking boards @ 1/2" spacing so when I sweep the 9mm casings will fall in between.
It's an elevated deck and I have a pretty good carpet of spent brass underneath. I had a fellow NES'er up here to do some shooting a few years back who reloaded. He left with a pail full of brass.
It's an elevated deck and I have a pretty good carpet of spent brass underneath. I had a fellow NES'er up here to do some shooting a few years back who reloaded. He left with a pail full of brass.
I'm a scavenger, but it depends where I am. Outdoor pistol, I pick up what I shoot and leave what I don't want to keep (.22, 9mm, steel or Aluminum case), rifle and indoors I pick up all I shoot.
That includes .22, which I have roughly 1500 empty cases of that some day I will use to reload with black powder for an antique. I've wanted to shoot a S&W Model 1 for years and they're generally a reasonable price, but are black powder.
I think 80% of my .38 and 10mm brass is all free I got at the range.
That includes .22, which I have roughly 1500 empty cases of that some day I will use to reload with black powder for an antique. I've wanted to shoot a S&W Model 1 for years and they're generally a reasonable price, but are black powder.
I think 80% of my .38 and 10mm brass is all free I got at the range.
Last edited:
I taught my son to clean up our area and leave it cleaner than we found it. I save my brass (except 22 obviously) and the toss any other brass in the bucket. My son automatically grabs a broom and dustpan as soon as we’re done and starts cleaning up the area
This is pretty much what I do, and like others, I leave the place as clean or cleaner than when I got there. I'm the VP at my club, so I try to set a good example.
It's annoying AF when someone tries to scrounge my brass without asking. I was at the range a couple of months ago and a fat guy and his fat kids started picking up my brass.
ME: "Leave it. That's mine."
FATTY: "Do you reload?"
ME (pointing to the Dunks iced coffee cup with my ammo in it): "Do you think it comes in this?"
FATTY: "We sell it to a scrap dealer."
ME: "Saving up for a treadmill?"
FATTY: "What?"
ME: "What?"
BTW - A large Dunks iced coffee cup holds exactly 300 rounds of 9MM.
Mr. Brownstone
NES Member
All of the above on any given day, depending on circumstances.
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2023
- Messages
- 311
- Likes
- 426
My sister and I were taught life's lessons early that you make the mess you clean the mess!
That doesn't offend me at all, I wish more .45 was SP. The large primers are much harder to get bow and feel like a waste in the ACP, like I'm robbing myself of shooting 10mm and big bore revolvers.
Our brass buckets are modified propane tanks with a funnel that goes down into the tank.....the funnel is locked so the brass rats can't get to it
Same thing though anything on the ground or floor isnfair game to take once it's in the brass buckets the club owns it and scraps it. If you volunteer on the Monday work party part of their weekly job is to empty the brass cans and sort out all the metal cases so they can scrap the brass. It gets spread out on a big table and a magnet is used to get the steel ones then picked over for any aluminum. It's a fast process but If you help....and need a little for your own reloading bench they'll let you take some.
Lone Wolf McQuade
NES Member
Brass that is left behind, or donated goes into a bucket behind the firing line. At some point it gets sold for scrap, with the $$ going to our Jr. Rifle Program.
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,865
Usually leave those in front of your game cams to lure your big bucks in and shoot them with my AR pistol and thermal scope around 3am on Sundays.
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,865
We have big blue plastic drums that we use and just put brass in the bunghole so the rats cant take it. The whole drum is labelled "for Youth Programs" and on occasion we cut the top off and it goes to scrap. Anyone caught ratting a cut off barrel is quickly shamed.Our brass buckets are modified propane tanks with a funnel that goes down into the tank.....the funnel is locked so the brass rats can't get to it
Same thing though anything on the ground or floor isnfair game to take once it's in the brass buckets the club owns it and scraps it. If you volunteer on the Monday work party part of their weekly job is to empty the brass cans and sort out all the metal cases so they can scrap the brass. It gets spread out on a big table and a magnet is used to get the steel ones then picked over for any aluminum. It's a fast process but If you help....and need a little for your own reloading bench they'll let you take some.
If not, the cut on the barrel is especially rough so at least if they are stealing, the beard hairs on their neck get pulled.
Last edited:
I once had to bark at somebody for trying to grab my .458 socom Starline brass at one of the NES shoots. "Dude, WTF? Do you even know what that is?"
It's expensive but I've yet to have a case failure despite many reloads.
Post above regarding shotgun hulls and old targets in the brass buckets sounds like my main club.
allen-1
NES Member
We have "ranges" and "pits" at my club. The ranges have concrete floors, benches and roofs. There are barrels, brooms and dustpans to pick up the brass. You're welcome to pick up your own brass; you're expected to clean up after yourself. Brass you don't want goes in the barrel and the club sells it.
The pits are just littered with brass. I tend to pick up at least the number that I've shot after a session so that I can reload them, but I often pick up more because it's just sitting there.
Matches are "brass free", no brass ratting until the stages have been cleaned up and everything's put away. Some small number of shooters will sometimes stay behind to pick up brass.
We had an event recently, "CanCon", which was a weekend of suppressed firearms only. Sponsored by Recoil Magazine, attended by a LOT of vendors. I worked it as an RO, and picked up some brass late Sunday after teardown was complete.
The pits are just littered with brass. I tend to pick up at least the number that I've shot after a session so that I can reload them, but I often pick up more because it's just sitting there.
Matches are "brass free", no brass ratting until the stages have been cleaned up and everything's put away. Some small number of shooters will sometimes stay behind to pick up brass.
We had an event recently, "CanCon", which was a weekend of suppressed firearms only. Sponsored by Recoil Magazine, attended by a LOT of vendors. I worked it as an RO, and picked up some brass late Sunday after teardown was complete.
I police my own brass. Additionally, I'll pick up any unclaimed brass, even if I don't reload for that particular caliber as I'll trade it for something I do reload for. We have plenty of open, public ranges in MO, often you can have a hey-day scoring brass. Came up one time, no one at the range, and just piles of 45 Colt and 45/70 brass at two of the lanes. Yes please and thank you.
Similar threads
