The snow is gone, and the brass is out.

trebor2880

trebor2880

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Slim pickin's on finding brass, after snow left, this spring.
Last year I collected 2 or 3 times as much.
People not shooting as much, or what.
Don't think i was beaten to the punch,
as I am just about the only cheap bugger at our club, who scrounges for brass.
Two hours bent over(no comments, please) picking up, once fired at best, brass,
netted me the equivilant of about 50 bucks worth of nunce fired new stuff.
And only one live round found, at least a dozen last year.
Now I have to wash out the sand, clean, dry and tumble.
Think it was a losing proposition this year.
Oh well, still more fun than pickin blueberries.:D
 
Our range had hundreds if .223 and 9mm about 10feet from the target board. I picked it up till my hands started to freeze. It had so much mud in and on them I tossed them in the pail. I don't have a 223 or 9mm and did not feel like cleaning it.
 
It's been working out well for me so far this spring. Found a couple of 6.8 SPC cases I had lost in the snow a couple of months ago. They're still in good shape. Then I discovered someone had been at the pistol range and shot 250 rounds of 9mm. I found 200 of them along with the boxes. Then I found 17 out of a box of 20 in .30-06 that someone had nicely set aside on the rifle rack. Sure made my day. 3 guys with handguns showed up to shoot as I was getting ready to leave. Might be some more 40's and 9's there when I go back. :D:D
 
today I collected:

180 x 223
120 x .45 auto
40 x 303
30x 308
30 x 270
all once fired

I have to much 9mm, so I didn't bother ...

:D
 
I always pick up discarded range brass or stuff laying out at local pits. Usually by fall I have a couple coffee cans full of brass which I sell at the scrap dealer. Often have enough proceeds to buy my deer license and a six pack.
 
real slim for me this year too. but im not reallly sure why there was so little brass there was more shooting this winter then last so i think there is starting to be more reloaders in the area and people are keeping there own brass
 
Locally over the past year there has been a big movement into reloading at the range I go to.

It used to be 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 people picked up their brass and left with it; the rest leaving it on the ground or collecting it and throwing it in the garbage cans. Now it seems like 4 in 5 people are taking their brass home with them.

A year ago I could go to the range and come home with 200+ mixed large rifle cases on a busy weekend. Now I'm lucky to get over 75 from one range trip.
 
I did pretty good over the winter, I have a couple thousand pieces of .223 and a pile of -06, 270, .40, .45... Lots of folks here take there brass home but the line I always here is "some day I will start reloading!"


When the puddles dry up I will go collect the 2000+ pieces of 9mm and .40 from the 5M line.
 
There's rarely any centerfire brass laying around at our range, and the brass disposal cans are nearly always empty. I suspect there are quite a few retired guys out there picking up everything they can find.

That said, there's rarely a shortage of 22LR and steel cased 7.62x39 laying all over.
 
Sent 300 9mm rounds downrange this weekend, brought home 1100 9mm brass. The guys on both sides of me were shooting 9mm, and they didn't need their brass.

Restocked my brass pails nicely.
 
I did fairly well this year at my range. It was an especially nice Christmas holidays as it seemed everyone was out with their new toys and lots of ammo. I picked up lots of 223, 308, 30-06, 7mm Rem and tons of 9mm and 40. Even some fool left two boxes of 45 ACP. Now it seems I always take an empty ammo can and stock up on whatever I happen to find.

Only thing that pisses me off is the idiots who can't be bothered to pick up their steel cases. I wonder why my club hasn't invested in a magnetic broom to pick it all up.
 
Lyallpeder said:
How do you guys clean the really dirty stuff?
Click to expand...

Tumbler, walnut and corn cob in it, and these:

turtle_wax__polishing_rubbing_compound_T230A_T241A_.jpg
 
Lyallpeder said:
How do you guys clean the really dirty stuff?
Click to expand...

I put it in a bucket with warm water and a small amount of acid. I have used phosphoric and sulfamic, at concentrations of 5g/l or less. The water removes the mud and grass and such, and the acid pickles the tarnish, either removing it outright or softening it enough that 1 hour in walnut makes it shiny as can be.
 
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