Feuding over spent brass!?

gordo_gun_guy · April 15, 2009, 11:59 PM

Very disturbing incident at the public shooting range: I witnessed a dispute over fired brass almost escalated to fisticuffs.

I know the cost of ammo and components is getting rediculous, but I never guessed it would cause the breakdown of our normally polite gun culture.

Here's what happened:

The government run range collects and recycles brass. However, not being run as a for-profit operation, patrons are welcome to pick through the brass collection cans and take home what they want.

I was shooting revolvers in .45 LC and .22, and a 1911 in 45 ACP. One guy, shooting 50 yards down the line in the rifle section, would walk the entire line between relays trying to scavenge as much brass as he could get away with. He observed me placing my fired LC cases neatly back in the box and said in a creepy way, "you know those are worth their weight in gold right now, are you gonna reload them?". My curt reply was, "Yup, sure am buddy." I was about to give him the cold shoulder, but then I took pity and told him I was going to shoot a box of Blazer Brass 45 ACP and I wasn't taking home the brass. "Alright, I can load them up same as Winchester," he says. I shot all 50 round in the next relay, and he policed them up after, leaving me to think all parties were now happy. I also cased my 1911, being done with it for the day.

Unfortunately, due to a weak recoil spring, my brass had been flying two stations down to the right. Another shooter arrived and set up right there. He was also shooting a 1911, and it must have had the 24 lb spring because his brass piled right up at his feet....and he was a reloader. See where this is going?

Of course, when the next relay ends, Aggressive Brass Scrounger Guy immediately starts collecting New Guy's brass. And he is confronted as soon as New Guy returns from checking his target. By the gesturing, I could tell he was trying to explain about his former agreement to collect my brass. I could also see New Guy's look of extreme skepticism (since he's only seen me shooting wheelguns, carefully collecting my brass.)

Luckily common sense prevailed--this time--but I'm disturbed that the hoarding mindset is leading folks to act like this!

longranger · April 16, 2009, 12:07 AM

I'm glad I moved to Wyoming most of the time I have the range to myself.

Dingoboyx · April 16, 2009, 12:17 AM

so your brass hits the wall and ends up at your feet

Someone needs to invent a 'catcher' for overly excited SA,s that throw their brass out of sight

Mark your brass, so you can identify it, with a colored sharpie. When I have my brass de primed, I mark the outer rim of the primer pocket (& about a milimeter outward) with a sharpie, so my brass stands out like dogs you know whats, no argueing which is my brass

tiberius10721 · April 16, 2009, 12:27 AM

darn thats smart thinking.

Jim243 · April 16, 2009, 12:34 AM

With the price of copper, it is no wonder that many collect brass. I always ask before picking up someone else's brass. They are entitled to what they paid for unless they give you permission to collect it. Often after asking, they will come up to you with their spent cases and hand it to you.

hounddawg · April 16, 2009, 04:28 AM

If .45, 9mm and .38 cases are worth their weight in gold I have several hundred thousand under my bench and another hundred thousand in .40 sitting behind the garage waiting on enough to accumulate unless someone in the Chas. SC area wants it in which case PM me and you can have it for free. Local pick up only.

For anyone desperate for handgun cases check with your local indoor ranges. There are 2 in my area and one will sell me a 5 gallon bucket for $30 and the other $35. I bought one bucket so far and hand sorted it over several nights. I ended up with about about 2K .45 ACP, 3-4K 9mm, 1K .38 spc, and 40 or 50 .357 cases. I tossed the steel and aluminum and ended up with 1/4 a bucket of mixed .22,.40, and various odd stuff waiting for a trip to the scrapyard.

Rembrandt · April 16, 2009, 05:26 AM

Haven't checked brass prices for a awhile, got enough pistol brass to fill a bathtub....sounds like it's worth more in its re-loadable form than as scrap.

jaybird.78 · April 16, 2009, 05:31 AM

I have seen many spent shells with the sharpie trick on the bottom. Of course I only collected these after the "official" match was done and the participants had left.

Finders keepers

95% of the shooters at the private gun club I belong to are just A++. It's the other 5% that you have to be careful about. Good luck and be safe.

Now that I think of it, I have found 2 or 3 shells with markings on the side that damn near looked like some sort of factory pin stripe job. It was a red ring with a blue ring spaced just below. How did someone do that?

Sevens · April 16, 2009, 07:03 AM

Well, it would be easy to make those rings if the shell is chucked in to anything used for case trimming... be that a stand alone trimmer or a hand drill or what have you. This would be quite easy to do on any piece of brass that you'd need to trim on occasion... like .223.

If it was a piece of .45 that had the rings on it, that would be a whole extra step. Very time consuming, especially in the volume that most people load and shoot .45.

kraigwy · April 16, 2009, 07:20 AM

Quote:

I'm glad I moved to Wyoming most of the time I have the range to myself

That dosnt always work, not with a grandson like mine.

I was shooting a high power match at Lander. I took my 7 year old grandson with me. He asked if he should pick up my brass, I says "sure", he wipped out the whole firing line, had a whole bucket of brass.

It was hard to convice the other shooters I didnt set him up to do it.

jmorris · April 16, 2009, 09:47 AM

Quote:

There are 2 in my area and one will sell me a 5 gallon bucket for $30 and the other $35.

Exactly where is this? Do you have phone numbers?

Sport45 · April 16, 2009, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Now that I think of it, I have found 2 or 3 shells with markings on the side that damn near looked like some sort of factory pin stripe job. It was a red ring with a blue ring spaced just below. How did someone do that?

Was that at Bayou Rifles in Juliff by any chance? I used to mark my Garand fodder (mostly SL-55) that way. It doesn't start out looking so uniform, but once enough ink has transferred to the chamber they all start looking the same when they're ejected.

jtuck · April 16, 2009, 11:36 AM

This is why I'm glad I have my own shooting range. The only person I have to blame for lost brass is me!

James R. Burke · April 16, 2009, 02:54 PM

I am in a small town so we never have any of those problems that I seen. Most of the time I know when the range is empty, and thats when I go. The people that dont want the brass, the vol for the range picks them up, and sells them for .5 cents. They make sure they are not disgarded reloaded brass, and use the money to keep the range fixed up. It cost 5.00 a year to be a member. Cant go wrong. There are about eight benchs that are roof covered, and a shooting shack. Pretty much a honor system, that works great. Plus its about three miles from my house. It works great when you are working up a load.

jaybird.78 · April 16, 2009, 03:43 PM

Quote:

If it was a piece of .45 that had the rings on it, that would be a whole extra step. Very time consuming, especially in the volume that most people load and shoot .45.

It was pistol brass, I thought it was strange, I see sharpie a lot on the bottom but this was not sharpie. It looked like fine pin stripes on the circumference of the brass.

Half the fun of going to the range is to scrounge for brass.

Fox1 · April 16, 2009, 03:46 PM

I shoot at one of 2 small town ranges and, usually, there is no one else there.
If anyone does show up, it's always proper courtesy to let the previous shooter recover all of their brass before you take the range.

The best thing is that at one of these ranges, some shooter(s) are leaving behind once fired 9 mm, 45, 40 S&W, 223, 270, 30-06, and 22-250 cases all the time!

If I happen to be driving by that range, but not shooting that day, I will still stop and walk the range for the "freebies" they leave behind!

BurkGlocker · April 16, 2009, 03:53 PM

I've been going to the range for the past month trying to scrounge for brass and havent found anything. Well, this past weekend I went and my wife was with me, and I went looking again and found about 400 empty 45 ACP on the pistol range. As I walked out to the 100 yard line, I saw all of these nice, shiny nickle plated 45 ACPs, almost another 200. PAYDIRT! Apparently someone was running drills on the range, because there was brass everywhere. As I finished picking up the last of it, another guy showed up and saw me loading the empties up in my car and proceeded to explain how jealous he was. As he put it, "A day late and a nickle short"... I felt kinda bad for not sharing, and me not being a stingy person, I went to the car and split it halves with him. He just about had a comeapart with excitement. Made me a new shooter friend. LOL!

Cloudpeak · April 16, 2009, 04:38 PM

Quote:

I'm glad I moved to Wyoming most of the time I have the range to myself.

I thought I saw you at the range last month. Dang. It's getting crowded around here. Might be time to move

Cloudpeak

gordo_gun_guy · April 16, 2009, 11:08 PM

Quote:

This is why I'm glad I have my own shooting range.

That would be one of my key retirement goals....

elkman06 · April 16, 2009, 11:16 PM

Quote:

I'm glad I moved to Wyoming most of the time I have the range to myself.

I thought I saw you at the range last month. Dang. It's getting crowded around here. Might be time to move

Shoot, I can see both of ya from Green River..
elkman06

Dr. Strangelove · April 17, 2009, 01:28 AM

Aggressive Brass Scrounger Guy - there's one at every range. No matter where you go, there will be people who try to take advantage of others. That issue, along with muzzles constantly being pointed at me and people walking downrange while live fire is going on, is why I have just about completely sworn off public ranges.

I used to get a bunch of free brass from the public ranges. I would just ask folks if they reload if I saw they were shooting a caliber I loaded, and more often than not, they would put the used cartridge box with the brass neatly in the little styrofoam/plastic tray on my bench as they left. But - I always asked.

Other than safety issues, nothing bothers me more on the range than somone scooping my brass while I'm downrange. I will ask for it back, and I will involve the Range Officer if needed.

Sevens · April 17, 2009, 09:54 AM

Quote:

As he put it, "A day late and a nickle short"... I felt kinda bad for not sharing, and me not being a stingy person, I went to the car and split it halves with him. He just about had a comeapart with excitement. Made me a new shooter friend. LOL!

Great story, you are cool -- some of the posts I see (Dr. Strangelove at the end, too) read like some folks I'd love to bump in to at a range.

Typically, my experience is right in the middle. No big problems with anyone, but don't meet a lot of outgoing types, either.

Sometimes in reading posts (mostly in the other areas, not so much in H&R where most of the discussion is tech in nature) I see folks that I would get along famously with... and also spot the goofs many miles away. It's not all that different than being at the range!

BurkGlocker · April 17, 2009, 05:50 PM

I went to the range with my wife today just to shoot five rounds and leave (my house is only 2 miles from the range so its easy to get out there), but some of the guys were over there talking and saw me putting out water jugs and one of them came over there to see what I was shooting and we got to chatting, and I noticed that they were shooting .45, .40 and .223, and asked them if they reloaded and he said, "No, but I think its getting around to the time that I start, but go ahead and get them if you want."

Uh huh, and I did...

Hell, he even let me pop a mag off in his AR-15 carbine (with no sights on it BTW, LOL). But I am going to give my buddy at work the .40 and .223, since those are his primary calibers. And since I am going to give him those he'll probably let me hunt on his land this weekend, too.

ISC · April 17, 2009, 07:16 PM

I take a broom and a dust pan to the range when I go. I always pick the range with the least number of shooting, wait for a cold range, and then sweep up any brass that is on the ground, always asking if anyone is saving theirs first. After that, I know exactly what brass is mine as I shoot, When I get home I have the kids sort brass while we watch a movie they helped pick out.

Steviewonder1 · April 17, 2009, 09:41 PM

I sweep out the bay I am assigned to, then collect everything that falls into it. 95% of it is mine.

April 15, 2009, 11:59 PM	#1
gordo_gun_guy Senior Member Join Date: July 31, 2007 Posts: 250	Feuding over spent brass!? Very disturbing incident at the public shooting range: I witnessed a dispute over fired brass almost escalated to fisticuffs. I know the cost of ammo and components is getting rediculous, but I never guessed it would cause the breakdown of our normally polite gun culture. Here's what happened: The government run range collects and recycles brass. However, not being run as a for-profit operation, patrons are welcome to pick through the brass collection cans and take home what they want. I was shooting revolvers in .45 LC and .22, and a 1911 in 45 ACP. One guy, shooting 50 yards down the line in the rifle section, would walk the entire line between relays trying to scavenge as much brass as he could get away with. He observed me placing my fired LC cases neatly back in the box and said in a creepy way, "you know those are worth their weight in gold right now, are you gonna reload them?". My curt reply was, "Yup, sure am buddy." I was about to give him the cold shoulder, but then I took pity and told him I was going to shoot a box of Blazer Brass 45 ACP and I wasn't taking home the brass. "Alright, I can load them up same as Winchester," he says. I shot all 50 round in the next relay, and he policed them up after, leaving me to think all parties were now happy. I also cased my 1911, being done with it for the day. Unfortunately, due to a weak recoil spring, my brass had been flying two stations down to the right. Another shooter arrived and set up right there. He was also shooting a 1911, and it must have had the 24 lb spring because his brass piled right up at his feet....and he was a reloader. See where this is going? Of course, when the next relay ends, Aggressive Brass Scrounger Guy immediately starts collecting New Guy's brass. And he is confronted as soon as New Guy returns from checking his target. By the gesturing, I could tell he was trying to explain about his former agreement to collect my brass. I could also see New Guy's look of extreme skepticism (since he's only seen me shooting wheelguns, carefully collecting my brass.) Luckily common sense prevailed--this time--but I'm disturbed that the hoarding mindset is leading folks to act like this! __________________ Gordo In need of a new pithy quote....

April 16, 2009, 12:17 AM	#3
Dingoboyx Senior Member Join Date: March 7, 2009 Location: South East Queensland, Australia Posts: 1,513	Take the far right cubicle, so your brass hits the wall and ends up at your feet Someone needs to invent a 'catcher' for overly excited SA,s that throw their brass out of sight Mark your brass, so you can identify it, with a colored sharpie. When I have my brass de primed, I mark the outer rim of the primer pocket (& about a milimeter outward) with a sharpie, so my brass stands out like dogs you know whats, no argueing which is my brass __________________ Muzza If you cant blind them with brilliance, Baffle them with BS Be alert...... there is a shortage of LERTs

April 16, 2009, 07:03 AM	#9
Sevens Senior Member Join Date: July 28, 2007 Location: Ohio Posts: 11,756	Well, it would be easy to make those rings if the shell is chucked in to anything used for case trimming... be that a stand alone trimmer or a hand drill or what have you. This would be quite easy to do on any piece of brass that you'd need to trim on occasion... like .223. If it was a piece of .45 that had the rings on it, that would be a whole extra step. Very time consuming, especially in the volume that most people load and shoot .45. __________________ *Attention Brass rats and other reloaders:* I really need .327 Federal Magnum brass, no lot size too small. Tell me what caliber you need and I'll see what I have to swap. PM me and we'll discuss.

April 17, 2009, 05:50 PM	#23
BurkGlocker Senior Member Join Date: May 18, 2008 Location: Sheppard AFB, TX Posts: 568	One good turn deserves another... I went to the range with my wife today just to shoot five rounds and leave (my house is only 2 miles from the range so its easy to get out there), but some of the guys were over there talking and saw me putting out water jugs and one of them came over there to see what I was shooting and we got to chatting, and I noticed that they were shooting .45, .40 and .223, and asked them if they reloaded and he said, "No, but I think its getting around to the time that I start, but go ahead and get them if you want." Uh huh, and I did... Hell, he even let me pop a mag off in his AR-15 carbine (with no sights on it BTW, LOL). But I am going to give my buddy at work the .40 and .223, since those are his primary calibers. And since I am going to give him those he'll probably let me hunt on his land this weekend, too.

April 17, 2009, 09:41 PM	#25
Steviewonder1 Senior Member Join Date: February 16, 2009 Location: John's Creek, Georgia Posts: 328	Range Brass I sweep out the bay I am assigned to, then collect everything that falls into it. 95% of it is mine.

April 16, 2009, 12:07 AM	#2
longranger Senior Member Join Date: November 4, 2008 Location: Buffalo WY Posts: 1,056	I'm glad I moved to Wyoming most of the time I have the range to myself.

April 16, 2009, 12:27 AM	#4
tiberius10721 Junior member Join Date: December 22, 2008 Posts: 228	darn thats smart thinking.

April 16, 2009, 12:34 AM	#5
Jim243 Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2009 Location: Just off Route 66 Posts: 5,067	With the price of copper, it is no wonder that many collect brass. I always ask before picking up someone else's brass. They are entitled to what they paid for unless they give you permission to collect it. Often after asking, they will come up to you with their spent cases and hand it to you.

April 16, 2009, 04:28 AM	#6
hounddawg Senior Member Join Date: March 1, 2009 Posts: 4,232	If .45, 9mm and .38 cases are worth their weight in gold I have several hundred thousand under my bench and another hundred thousand in .40 sitting behind the garage waiting on enough to accumulate unless someone in the Chas. SC area wants it in which case PM me and you can have it for free. Local pick up only. For anyone desperate for handgun cases check with your local indoor ranges. There are 2 in my area and one will sell me a 5 gallon bucket for $30 and the other $35. I bought one bucket so far and hand sorted it over several nights. I ended up with about about 2K .45 ACP, 3-4K 9mm, 1K .38 spc, and 40 or 50 .357 cases. I tossed the steel and aluminum and ended up with 1/4 a bucket of mixed .22,.40, and various odd stuff waiting for a trip to the scrapyard.

April 16, 2009, 05:26 AM	#7
Rembrandt Senior Member Join Date: August 10, 2002 Posts: 2,108	Haven't checked brass prices for a awhile, got enough pistol brass to fill a bathtub....sounds like it's worth more in its re-loadable form than as scrap.

April 16, 2009, 05:31 AM	#8
jaybird.78 Junior Member Join Date: April 11, 2009 Posts: 13	I have seen many spent shells with the sharpie trick on the bottom. Of course I only collected these after the "official" match was done and the participants had left. Finders keepers 95% of the shooters at the private gun club I belong to are just A++. It's the other 5% that you have to be careful about. Good luck and be safe. Now that I think of it, I have found 2 or 3 shells with markings on the side that damn near looked like some sort of factory pin stripe job. It was a red ring with a blue ring spaced just below. How did someone do that?

April 16, 2009, 11:36 AM	#13
jtuck Junior Member Join Date: April 16, 2009 Posts: 3	This is why I'm glad I have my own shooting range. The only person I have to blame for lost brass is me!

April 16, 2009, 02:54 PM	#14
James R. Burke Senior Member Join Date: January 3, 2009 Location: U.P. of Mich/Quinnesec Posts: 1,897	I am in a small town so we never have any of those problems that I seen. Most of the time I know when the range is empty, and thats when I go. The people that dont want the brass, the vol for the range picks them up, and sells them for .5 cents. They make sure they are not disgarded reloaded brass, and use the money to keep the range fixed up. It cost 5.00 a year to be a member. Cant go wrong. There are about eight benchs that are roof covered, and a shooting shack. Pretty much a honor system, that works great. Plus its about three miles from my house. It works great when you are working up a load.

April 16, 2009, 03:46 PM	#16
Fox1 Senior Member Join Date: September 27, 2008 Posts: 300	I shoot at one of 2 small town ranges and, usually, there is no one else there. If anyone does show up, it's always proper courtesy to let the previous shooter recover all of their brass before you take the range. The best thing is that at one of these ranges, some shooter(s) are leaving behind once fired 9 mm, 45, 40 S&W, 223, 270, 30-06, and 22-250 cases all the time! If I happen to be driving by that range, but not shooting that day, I will still stop and walk the range for the "freebies" they leave behind!

April 16, 2009, 03:53 PM	#17
BurkGlocker Senior Member Join Date: May 18, 2008 Location: Sheppard AFB, TX Posts: 568	I've been going to the range for the past month trying to scrounge for brass and havent found anything. Well, this past weekend I went and my wife was with me, and I went looking again and found about 400 empty 45 ACP on the pistol range. As I walked out to the 100 yard line, I saw all of these nice, shiny nickle plated 45 ACPs, almost another 200. PAYDIRT! Apparently someone was running drills on the range, because there was brass everywhere. As I finished picking up the last of it, another guy showed up and saw me loading the empties up in my car and proceeded to explain how jealous he was. As he put it, "A day late and a nickle short"... I felt kinda bad for not sharing, and me not being a stingy person, I went to the car and split it halves with him. He just about had a comeapart with excitement. Made me a new shooter friend. LOL!

April 17, 2009, 01:28 AM	#21
Dr. Strangelove Senior Member Join Date: August 1, 2008 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 1,436	Aggressive Brass Scrounger Guy - there's one at every range. No matter where you go, there will be people who try to take advantage of others. That issue, along with muzzles constantly being pointed at me and people walking downrange while live fire is going on, is why I have just about completely sworn off public ranges. I used to get a bunch of free brass from the public ranges. I would just ask folks if they reload if I saw they were shooting a caliber I loaded, and more often than not, they would put the used cartridge box with the brass neatly in the little styrofoam/plastic tray on my bench as they left. But - I always asked. Other than safety issues, nothing bothers me more on the range than somone scooping my brass while I'm downrange. I will ask for it back, and I will involve the Range Officer if needed.

April 17, 2009, 07:16 PM	#24
ISC Junior member Join Date: August 5, 2007 Location: Florida Posts: 1,982	I take a broom and a dust pan to the range when I go. I always pick the range with the least number of shooting, wait for a cold range, and then sweep up any brass that is on the ground, always asking if anyone is saving theirs first. After that, I know exactly what brass is mine as I shoot, When I get home I have the kids sort brass while we watch a movie they helped pick out.