TexasCHLforum.com

Soccerdad1995 wrote:Just out of curiosity, is there a valid reason for ranges to ban steel and aluminum cases? I always assumed they were just being greedy and didn't want to sort the casings before they sent them in for cash. Is there an actual safety concern on these as well?

I don't want to pull this too far off-topic for too long and I'm also not knowledgeable about running commercial shooting ranges. I do know that Athena Gun Club cites OSHA regulations as a reason for not allowing aluminum or steel-cased ammo on their lanes, but I'm not personally aware of any OSHA regs about ranges that deal with anything other than lead and noise pollution. Both the bullet and the primer affect the lead situation, but I have no idea how the type of metal used for the case would...and if aluminum and steel are a problem, why is nickel (almost) never mentioned in range rules? (Dated by a few years, but here's a link to a National Shooting Sports Foundation publication addressing OSHA compliance for indoor ranges.)

Like you, my 'spicion is that it's mostly (if not all) about selling the reloadable cases. Some smaller ranges may actually sort the leave-behind cases, but my bet is that it isn't efficient for larger ones to do that, and that they contract with recyclers to take the spent cases in bulk. Consistently having a bunch of steel and aluminum in there would probably greatly diminish the monetary return the range gets, or even jeopardize the recycling contract.

We have folks on the Forum who work at/run ranges. Maybe one of them will set us straight.

The range I frequent bans steel cased ammo, so I asked why. Their explanation was that often steel cased ammo actually has steel in the bullet itself as well, which will cause it to chew up their backstop as steel doesn't deform as easily as lead. I decided to test this theory with the Russian surplus 7.62x39 that I was wanting to shoot. I removed one of the bullets from the casing, and sure enough, it stuck to a magnet. Not sure if this is the only reason, but it's the one I was given, and it seemed to check out.

LucasMcCain wrote:The range I frequent bans steel cased ammo, so I asked why. Their explanation was that often steel cased ammo actually has steel in the bullet itself as well, which will cause it to chew up their backstop as steel doesn't deform as easily as lead. I decided to test this theory with the Russian surplus 7.62x39 that I was wanting to shoot. I removed one of the bullets from the casing, and sure enough, it stuck to a magnet. Not sure if this is the only reason, but it's the one I was given, and it seemed to check out.

Well that actually makes sense. Thanks to you and Skipper. And I agree that I have probably pulled this thread far enough off topic.

I'm a big fan of Beretta. They offer a few other 9mm models than the standard 92FS that are definitely worth looking at.

Skiprr wrote: Like you, my 'spicion is that it's mostly (if not all) about selling the reloadable cases. Some smaller ranges may actually sort the leave-behind cases, but my bet is that it isn't efficient for larger ones to do that, and that they contract with recyclers to take the spent cases in bulk. Consistently having a bunch of steel and aluminum in there would probably greatly diminish the monetary return the range gets, or even jeopardize the recycling contract.

Yep, all three are recycling saleworthy, but not when mixed up together

getting rid of the steel case stuff is relatively quick and easy. Can you say "BIG magnet"? Separating aluminum from brass is a different story.....there's probably some rube goldberg device out there that can do it based on differing densities (sorta like panning for gold in dirt, except you're panning for brass in aluminum) but not quick/cheap.....

I ended up getting a Sig Sauer P320 Compact FDE chambered in 9 mm - shot about 75 rounds through it and it shot great. I shot a 250 on a standard Silhouette target that the DPS uses for qualification.

Combat pistol vs carry gun? I thought they were the same thing! Combat pistol= 1911 .45, carry pistol= 1911 .45, combat pistol= carry pistol

Anything that is not plastic and doesn't have a spongy trigger...

I agree

KHickam wrote:But, in this case I was speaking about a gun that you carry on your LBE in case it all falls apart.

Why would this be any different than your carry gun, which is presumably the gun that you'd be practicing with most often? At most it should be a larger version of whatever you CCW, e.g. a Glock 17 vs a Glock 19.

Anyways if you're going to put a vest and play Mad Max you should really be carrying around a rifle anyways and a pistol wouldn't matter much.

Have a rifle too - playing Mad Max - not really but I played soldier a few times in the desert and Mad Max did not have to carry near the gear we did - course we weren't as badass as Mel Gibson I guess.