Picking up brass

kurt

kurt

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Is picking up brass from the range a bad idea? I was told it was bad because you never know what someone elses gun does to the brass, now that I have some experience reloading I dont see the problem if you see a guy shooting a tikka 270 and he is throwing his super x brass in the can is it going to be a problem? Obviously you would need to FL size for the first reload but is this a bad practice? I wouldnt pick up old mangled cases but stuff that looks fairly clean and passed inspection should be ok even out of a semi or a pump action shouldnt it.

thanks for the input in advance
Kurt
 
I pick up range brass all the time, as do a handful of other members. Just make sure you can identify signs of stress and incipient head separation.
 
If you are sure it's once fired factory ammo, then it's not a big deal...

If you are not, then chuck it. I have left lots of brass at the range that has been fired several times, and was relegated to "practice, do not use again" brass
 
Regardless of how many times you think it has been fired, check it for signs of splits and cracks then anneal it and full length resize. I would then sort the brass into batches by weight (unprimed) with jumps of 1% case weight. Smaller jumps if you are fussy. Case weight is a measure of internal case volume which in turn governs chamber pressure and therefore consistency from shot to shot

cheers mooncoon
 
I'm using lots of brass I picked up at the range, if it passes inspection it gets used.
 
no one seemed to be doing anyhting with the brass in our range bucket so me and a friend took everyhting worth relaoding gave some away and keep what we use and will use in the future as long as it passes inspection its all good just be careful:)
 
I love it when I find like new factory boxes full of empties in the brass bucket at the local range. On one exceptional day I scored 40 glossy once-fired Remington 375 H&H cases and 60 like-new Winchester 30-06 cases in their factory boxes. :D
 
Primer pockets

Most brass from my experience can be fairly judged once the primer has been punched out. A dirty triangle mark with the rest of the primer pocket clean usually means once fired. If it's as dirty as a fireplace than it usually has had more than about 3 firings.

If you use the brass for full house loads your taking your chances but if your shooting fart loads than any brass will do. One guy I know used a 22-250 case that had a split in the mouth. I asked him if he was nuts and he stated he used it for more than 10 firings with the split! All his loads however were very very light.
 
I always "crimp" the necks on my multi-times fired brass before disposing of it in the range bucket. That way, it can not be mistaken for once fired staff.
 
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