Saving Brass

[CodeJockey]

Ok, I'm thinking of getting into reloading, so I've been trying to save my brass every time I go to the range. The thing is though, how do you guys manage to save brass from an autoloader? My guns fling the brass so far that it just get mixed in with all the other brass sitting on the ground in the area. Is there some trick y'all have established for saving this? I know this is a stupid question, but it is preventing me from buying the gear. I look forward to your answers.

[Kalrog]

Get down on your hands and knees and pick it up.

Actually, a lot of this depends on what your range looks like. Some have dividers that can keep it pretty close to you. Others it truly is a chase it down situation. Or get a revolver. They are much easier.

[Texasdoc]

with the outdoor range I shoot at I place down a tarp thats 10'x10' and when finished I just pick up the coners of the tarp and pour it into a 5 gal. bucket. when shooting at some ranges its loss brass as the range gets the brass.

when shooting IDPA or other types of shooting after the end of the day they let you pick brass as part of the clean up and its on your hands and knee's.

I hope this helps


Doc

[stroo]

I built a brass catcher with PVC and netting. Depending on the gun, it catches 50-90% of the brass. You pick the rest up off the ground.

[CodeJockey]

Thanks for the replies guys. The place I usually go is indoor, and most of the time I can get my brass from there, although it occasionaly bounces into the area with the lanes. The outdoor one I frequent is pointless. There is just way too much old brass there. Now, on my .357 Magnum, no problem. It's easy.

I think I'm going to hit Cabelas on my way home (I work 10 min from there) and see what I can find out about reloading equipment.

[NcongruNt]

The outdoor one I frequent is pointless. There is just way too much old brass there.

Or you could pick it all up? That would start a good collection for reloading, and any calibers you don't want (yet) you could save for later down the road or for a fellow reloader who has a use for them.

[CodeJockey]

Well, my concern there is that i'd have no idea how old the brass is, how many times it had been reloaded, etc. I mean maybe these concerns are unwarranted but since I really don't know much about reloading I just wasn't sure.

[Target1911]

I pick up all of the brass. If it is badly tarnished or full of crud, I toss it. The rest of it I clean and I inspect all of my loads after I have loaded them. I havnt had any problems yet. FWIW, I load 45acp and 9mm.

[TX Rancher]

I agree with Target1911…pick it all up and sort it. I’m assuming you are reloading only pistol. Leave the rifle stuff on the ground (too much chance of separation for me, so if it wasn’t mine, I leave it).

Any that are obviously bad, I leave at the range, the rest follow me home (if it’s acceptable to the range). I then throw the mess into the tumbler with a little Dillon polish and let it have fun.

Once it’s done, I sort the brass from the medium and then look at each piece under a magnifying desk lamp. It’s one of those with a circular magnifying glass in the middle of a round fluorescent lamp…works great for spotting imperfections.

I pay particular attention to the case mouth, looking for cracks, and also case head for signs of weakness. I typically shoot/reload 45acp and I’ve never found a case head problem, but I find a lot of case mouth splits. I’m too lazy to reload 9mm and just watch the sales…I can usually find the stuff cheap enough to justify not reloading.

Give it a try, you’ll be amazed at how fast you can sort brass under a lighted magnifying glass, and how easy it is to spot small imperfections.

Besides, by using other peoples “leave behinds� you can substantially reduce your replacement costs.

[jwp]

Picking up and sorting brass has been discussed some on the IDPA forum (http://p075.ezboard.com/bidpaforum). The "Shell Sorter" was well reviewed for sorting brass. You can read about it at http://www.shellsorter.com/. A couple of tools for picking up nuts have been discussed as looking like they should be good for picking up brass. One of them is at http://www.cleanairgardening.com/pecantool.html. Nobody on that forum has said that they've used one. However, one member said he'd talked to the company and they claimed it had been tested on brass and it worked, but the person he spoke to didn't know what caliber or calibers had been tested. I don't have either yet, but plan to get both. I hate bending over for brass, and I don't much like sorting it, either.

[Mike1951]

Call me a tightwad, but.....

I've seen inexpensive pecan tools work before, but $59.99?????????!!!!!!!!!!!

And spend $39.99 for three plastic pans to sort brass!!!!!!!!!!

I can sort my brass just fine the old fashioned way, thank you.

I could really use a tool to pick up brass, but it'll have to be much less than $60.

I found I can pick up 3-4 shotgun hulls with an extending magnet, but there isn't enough ferrous in centerfire primers.

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/pecanpicker.html $24.99

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H5 ... 10TBNVXAET $14.99

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H5 ... 53G93PW2Y0 $11.99

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CZ ... 53G93PW2Y0 $10.43

Of course, I can't vouch for how well any of these would work with brass, but I'll try something cheaper than $60.

[MoJo]

Get a Gopher. It's advertised on TV by that guy Billy Mays. I got mine at Walgreens for $9.95 it works like a charm.

[LarryH]

My better half has begun collecting brass, ours and others, on our range trips.

First objective is that she wants to learn to reload.

Second objective is to sell what she doesn't want/use to scrap metal dealers. Her goal is to earn enough $$$ to buy each of us a Kimber.

[Mike1951]

Second objective is to sell what she doesn't want/use to scrap metal dealers. Her goal is to earn enough $$$ to buy each of us a Kimber.

This is a real issue for me. I have no problem with selling to anyone who will reload it.

But selling it for scrap is just wrong. It goes straight to China, where it will never again be cartridge cases.

[WildBill]

Second objective is to sell what she doesn't want/use to scrap metal dealers. Her goal is to earn enough $$$ to buy each of us a Kimber.

This is a real issue for me. I have no problem with selling to anyone who will reload it.
But selling it for scrap is just wrong. It goes straight to China, where it will never again be cartridge cases.

I appreciate the concern about scrap metals going to China, but much of the brass at the ranges is not safe to reload. Much of it has been in the rain and dirt and is corroded. If it is simply the wrong caliber, but reuseable, that's a different story.

Many ranges allow shooters to pick up only their own brass, because they collect and sell the scrap to pay for operating expenses. As long as they don't mind, I don't see a problem with it.

Another thing to consider: Many scrap dealers don't know the difference between a live and used primer. One dealer insisted that I deprime and inspect every casing before he would buy it.