Now everyone is a scrounger?

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chris in va

New member
Seems more and more people are scrounging brass at the range I use. Last year it was just myself and maybe one or two other guys harvesting, but last weekend it seemed like every other person was hunting their caliber. The last few stalls were picked clean of everything but 22LR.
 
L

l98ster

New member
My range is open to the public thursday, friday, saturday, sunday. The other days are strickly used by every local police station and county police for training.

When I go there on thursday morning, there is usually a new 5 gallon bucket half full of once fired .40s&w.

Since I have been shooting there twice a week for the last 10 years, I have made good friends with the range officers. They give me anything I want as far as brass is concerned.

This is not to mention all the other brass that is left by everyone else. Seems that brass is NOT a problem for me.

-George
 
F

FrankenMauser

New member
I've seen the same phenomenon plenty of times. Just wait for the reloaders that don't enjoy doing it to burn out, and ammo prices to stabilize or dip a bit.

Suddenly, you'll be ankle deep in beautiful brass again. The "flavor of the month" reloaders will be going back to their "cheaper" factory ammo, and dropping brass like it's the plague.

Brass availability ebbs and flows...
 
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Young.Gun.612

New member
Range I go to has rules posted. No collecting brass unless it is of your caliber and the type of brass you use. They resell it.
 
W

Wildalaska

Moderator
My problem is with the guys who crawl between the benches while you are shooting to crow your carefully sized brass:eek:

WildbackyoubeastbackAlaska TM
 
D

Dodge DeBoulet

New member
At our club, there seems to be a slow, round-robin progression in calibers . . . 9mm brass was plentiful, but .40S&W was scarce. .45ACP was a bit easier to come by. Now the .40S&W seems to pile up and the .45ACP is tough to scavenge. 9mm is becoming a bit scarcer.

If current trends continue, in a few months .40S&W will become harder to get, .45ACP will be plentiful, and 9mm will be impossible to find :D

(or not . . . a bunch of us reloading regulars are now rabid 1911 fans)
 
T

teeroux

New member
Last action pistol match I attended everyone shot and the plan was everyone would pick up their brass after everything was said and done. Well someone must have not agreed with that cause they picked up my .45 brass in two of the bays and left everyone elses alone. The worst part was I was the only one shooting .45ACP.:mad:
 
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alloy

New member
Doesn't matter much to me, I got more than I could ever use and still...the guy next to me gave me 150 match federal 308 cases the other day, last week I picked up about 50 one morn....so I still seem to end up leaving with more than I went there with one way or the other and that's fair enough.

But the thought of it all going to the local recycler is a bit nauseating and I got my thoughts about where all those pesky .22 and the rest might be going lately in this economy...cause the range is looking awful devoid of the shiny stuff since about last winter.:barf:
 
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SSgt Facebreaker

New member
I used to give my brass away to the guys scrounging at the range...if no-one happened to be scrounging while I was shooting I even dumped it back in the factory boxes and piled them somewhere in the open to provide easy access.
Then, about two years ago, I realized how much money I was wasting and began slowly accumulating reloading equipment and saving my brass. Given the state of the international metals market and the percentage of the world's lead, tin, and copper that China owns, I doubt the price of ammo will drop significantly in my lifetime.

I wish I'd started loading years ago...
 
R

riverwalker76

New member
That's why I shoot on my own property. You don't have to worry about brass thieves, and if I miss one I find it later when I look again.
 
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ZeSpectre

New member
I always find it interesting to watch the "power curve" at work. The people who decide to buy up a ton of ammo after the price has already gone up, the people who decide it's finally time to start reloading after ammo starts showing up on the shelves again, the people who decide to get their realtors license after the market has peaked...oh, I digress.

I have only been reloading a few years but I've already seen the brass cycle a few times. Some days I'll go to my local range and it looks like someone went through with a vacuum. Other days I'll be there when nobody is around, but there are nice neat little piles of various caliber brass.

I'm just tired of finding steel cased that -looks- like nickle and you can't tell the difference until you get home with the magnet :rolleyes:
 
L

Lavid2002

New member
I still pick up all I can :p

Im lucky I shoot the popular calibers

*.223
*.308
*.45ACP


For every other popular caliber I find like 9mm, 40 S&W I will swoop it up, what I dont need i'll sell. Besides, Im 100% sure I will own a 9mm in the future.
 
C

CowTowner

New member
I'm a part-time RSO. The full timers gather the calibers I need and set them aside for me. Sometimes, life is good.
 
B

briandg

New member
I was at a range recently, and everyone was snatching every bit of reloadable brass. they seemed to all be shooting reloads, too.

I had a guy pounding me with .45 acp shells as I was firing my 9mm. As I collected mine, I collected his as a courtesy.

I thought he was going to draw a hideout gun on me when he saw me picking up his brass for him.

"Hey, buddy, those are my shells you're grabbing there!!!!"

Good lord. :rolleyes:
 
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ScottRiqui

New member
My local range sells brass at $3/pound, and they seem to think that a full five-gallon bucket weighs 35 pounds, so I bought a buckets' worth of mixed brass and am now set for 9mm, .45 ACP, .223, .40 and .38 Spl.

They also let you pick out the calibers you want, and since I just bought a 380 ACP, I may go back there with some brass-sifting screens and buy a pound or two of just .380.
 
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spacecoast

New member
Picking up all I can and seeing what I got when I get home is a lot of fun. I especially like scraping it out of the nooks and crannies, and on the indoor range there's an I-beam overhead that catches a lot of it in the air.
 
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