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Bonus Range Brass — Thank you!

We have a public range that should be named "come make noise". It's not about hitting the target but those breaks on AR's are really loud!! The shorter the barrel and louder the break the better.

Anyways, I could pick up LC 223 or FC once fired brass till my back hurts. For my purposes shooting XTC I'll never buy brass.
I was about to write an identical comment! On any given weekend day at my public range, you can probably pick up a few thousand .223 cases without a problem. Guys come with as many as 10 loaded 30 round mags and empty them in about 20 minutes! On the pistol side, I have gathered hundreds of .38 Spl., 357 and 45 Auto cases. Forget 9MM cases which are everywhere!
 
I pick up brass while I let my barrel cool or during cold-range sessions. Some I will keep and process, the rest I send off to a brass recycler that gives me credit towards brass, etc.
This is my process as well.

Let the barrel cool, look for brass, and let my mind relax.

If I cannot use the brass, I try to find someone I know who could use is. If I cannot... well that's why I have around 150lbs of brass I have to start selling someday.
 
Best part was the dog and I had the place to ourselves the whole time. Dog found a fresh deer leg in the woods so he had a great day too! Lol.

There's a crazy amount of pistol brass there as well, but I don't pick it unless it's 44 Mag. Just stick with picking up good rifle brass for the most part.
I dont pick pistol brass up either inless its 44mag ir bigger like yiu say. At my old age my back starts hurtin pretty quick— i have switched to shooting mostly all revolvers. >> dump brass in bucket on table- still if i went to a range with lots on the ground id prob have to pic some. Why dont you teach the dog to get it for you— mite have to buy some milkbones though—:)
 
I always leave my crappy brass on range with loose pockets for someone to waste time picking them up to find out they are no longer good.
Just my two cents.
 
I try to make sure I leave the range cleaner than when I got there. Therefore, it is my practice to pickup 30 pieces of brass each trip to the range. I will excuse myself from that on muddy or snowy days.
I try to get centerfire first, but will pick up rimfire if that is my only option that day.
This is not brass I will load. It is purely to help with housekeeping at the club.
Eventually I have a 5 gallon bucket full and it goes to the recyclers.
The last bucket netted me $78
I will not be quitting my day job, but I think I have helped the range look better.
 
Went to the range to sight in some scopes today and another good haul of brass.

409 pieces of 5.56
83 pieces of 7.62x39
2 live rounds of 7.62x39 and 3 live rounds of 9mm

That’s a total of 809 pieces of 5.56 and 155 pieces of 7.62x39 brass I’ve picked up in the last 2 trips there. Thanks again to the factory ammo shooters :)

IMG_7619.jpeg
 
When I bought my first pistol years ago (45 ACP), I had been set up by my dad to handload for it. He taught me scavenge for brass at the range. I took the pistol to the outdoor range in the winter. There was probably 2 feet of snow on the ground. I hang the target, load up my mags on the picnic table. As I'm bringing the pistol up to shoot, I notice hundreds of tiny holes all around me in the snow. Stick my finger in one and pull out a .45 brass. Melted through the top layer and sunk in. I proceeded to pull out about 300 of them before I started shooting. Left no hole untouched. Haha. Jackpot!!
 
I started policing range brass about 6 years when I started to reload for my 223s. When finished, I put them in stackable ammo cans of 1k each. I've reloaded thousands of rounds for my own stock and given thousands to my brother and my sons. I'm a firm believer that when SHTF and the zombie Apocalypse strikes, ammo and clean water will be both indispensable and an excellent item for barter.

I've noticed that it's getting harder to find brass over the last year or so as people gear up. Living in rural Arkansas, our LGS is a smaller, but very well stocked store. He dumped his archery inventory and they've really expanded their section on reloading.
 
I took a long range rifle class a couple months back, 8 shooters total, all but two of us were shooting 308. Almost all of those were shooting Fed. Gold medal match. I’m not usually a brass scrounger but as I was packing up at the end I noticed all this shiny brass laying everywhere. I spent about 45 minutes picking up all that brass, 1 1/2 plastic grocery bags worth. I figured like most who’ve posted here that eventually I’ll find someone who can use them.
As an aside, this particular group and the instructor’s were surprisingly “anti” reloading and very much against barrel cleaning. I was there to learn and kept my mouth shut, but I’ll admit that there may have been a few eye rolls along the way though, LOL!
 
I can't seem to pass up pristine brass either. I have hundreds of 30-06 and 308 I'll use for something eventually. I pick up 223 also and put it to use either in a 223 or for forming 20 Vartarg. Our PD and Sheriff use the range so there is plenty.
 
Did they express any reasons for
The accuracy expectation was MOA and that most match grade ammo would get you there so hand loading wasn’t nessasary. And to be fair no one else in the class hand loaded so there was that. It was a great class and will sign up for the next level class. E
 
I can't seem to pass up pristine brass either. I have hundreds of 30-06 and 308 I'll use for something eventually. I pick up 223 also and put it to use either in a 223 or for forming 20 Vartarg. Our PD and Sheriff use the range so there is plenty.
Yeah the 223 brass is great for many varmint chamberings and that’s my main reason for picking it up. 223 range brass will feed a 20 PRAC, 20 TAC, 20 VT, 20-222, 300 BLK, 6x45, and whatever else anyone has wildcatted off the 223 parent case.
 
I pick up my own brass - even my 22 brass. The 22 brass does in the brass bucket along with anything I pick up that I didn't shoot. I keep only my spent brass.

My son knows that we're not done at the range until we've swept up the place and leave it cleaner than we found it. He'll start sweeping before I've even started to pack other stuff up, or tear down targets.

As for taking found brass, my club recycles it and takes it in bulk to the scrap yard and gets the money. So I don't take range brass because it's like taking money from the club
 
I pick up my own brass - even my 22 brass. The 22 brass does in the brass bucket along with anything I pick up that I didn't shoot. I keep only my spent brass.

My son knows that we're not done at the range until we've swept up the place and leave it cleaner than we found it. He'll start sweeping before I've even started to pack other stuff up, or tear down targets.

As for taking found brass, my club recycles it and takes it in bulk to the scrap yard and gets the money. So I don't take range brass because it's like taking money from the club
I don’t shoot at a club, I’m just out in public land, but I treat it exactly the same. I never leave a trace of any garbage and I’ll pick up other people’s garbage a little at a time in hopes that it will gradually get better. I wish everyone had our mindset at any range, public or private. We’ve had shooting spots on public land shut down because people trash it so bad. Happy and thankful to hear you are passing that behavior on to your son :)
 

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