Your SAR-1 should be a little easier to deal with in this regard, but I never reloaded for my SKS because it launched cases into orbit. And, of course, they impacted the ground pretty hard, at the end of their return trip.
On a good day, I might be able to locate about 50% of the cases. An average day would be more like 25%. A bad day would be 5-10%.
Overall, I only recovered about 40% of the brass cases that I ever fired in that rifle, and about 20%
of those were damaged and non-reloadable.
When import ammo tanked in quality, and the price quadrupled... I weighed the two most obvious options for that Russian SKS's future:
1. Reload.
2. Sell it.
I loved that rifle, and really wanted to keep it. But, it wasn't worth the brass chasing nightmare, and I wasn't going to buy any more of the trash import ammo or overpriced domestic ammo.
It took me almost 3 years to finally let go, but I did.
I traded it for a Marlin .30-30.
(And the new owner only put about 40 rounds through the SKS, before selling it for the same reasons.
)