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What do you do with your empty brass?

robsgunsrobsguns Member Posts: 4,581 ✭✭
edited July 2002 in General Discussion
This is something that came up when idsman and I were shooting yesterday. He told me that he'd been picking up and saving his brass, not throwing it away, for quite some time, either for future use for himself or in case he knew someone else that might need it. We were also talking about how shooters in the sport could do so much more to help others in their sport, and further the tradition and sport of shooting. The thing about the brass is something so small that to some it may not seem important, but to some its like being given gold, or finding gold. If you pick up your brass and have no use for it, do your friends and fellow shooters a favor, make it known you have it. You can either give it or sell it to whoever might need it. The same thing goes for shotgun hulls. Lots of people are happy to get used shotgun hulls also. Its good for the environment to recycle and what better way to recycle than to make it available for someone else's use without having to mine more of the material required. It will encourage shooters to talk with other shooters, might increase the comraderie amongst us, and will most likely do a lot for us in the eyes of non shooters when they see how close knit our family of friends and shooters can be.


SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
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Comments

  • NighthawkNighthawk Member Posts: 12,022 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree 100%.Have you ever wondered if members of anti gun groups spy on these forums.I know we have talked about the Goverment ease dropping,and thats fine maybe they will see were doing nothing wrong.But I wonder if certain anti gun groups ease drop as well.if they do acts of kindness between fellow sportsmen has to eat at their gut.Now if theres a dispute and anger presides over our normal personalitys,they must love to see that.I just thought robsguns and Idsmans good jesture toward their fellow man should be recognized and not unnoticed.There are alot of good people here and we all love guns. So we cant be stereotyped.

    Best

    Rugster
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  • William81William81 Member Posts: 25,510 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I pick up all of my brass and shotgun hulls. I reload some of it, swap, sell or give away the rest. I always have several thousand pieces around the house, much to my wife's chagrin....

    Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Liberals....
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  • RembrandtRembrandt Member Posts: 4,486 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    At our range (about 750 families) you run into all types of shooters...the more well to do come out, blast away and leave the brass with no interst in reloading...before the day is over another shooter will take the effort to scoop it up and haul it home for his reloading projects. The only brass left laying around are .22 hulls, they blend in pretty well with the gravel and make a nice surface around the shooting area. I've seen shooters spend hours scanning the grounds for a few treasures....the day all rifle and pistol ammo is made from unreloadable material, will be the day we see trashier shooting facilities.
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  • COONASSCOONASS Member Posts: 2,068 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Keep up the good work and also spreading it around..........We need many more like you at the range dirt pit etc...............


    coonass

    We Live in a World of Give And Take, But A Lot Of People Won't Give What it Takes.
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  • will270winwill270win Member Posts: 4,845
    edited November -1
    I eat my brass, it's a yummy snack.
    For real, I pick it all up for my use, or someone else to use.


    ~Secret Select Society Of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets~
    Will270win@nraonline.com
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Whenever I leave a range, it is in better shape than when I arrived. I scrounge every piece of reloadable brass I find, whether I load that caliber or not . . . I might some day ! If nothing else, I'm know from experience I'll encounter some deserving soul who can use it. If there are .22 hulls or something like that, I'll usually still pick it up & put in my scrap bucket, while that steel case crap goes in the trash. Why anyone leaves their stuff behind is beyond me. IMHO, it's no different than leaving trash in the woods.
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  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I send all of my brass in some calibers to a friend who reloads, the rest the range picks up and sells for reloading.
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  • robsgunsrobsguns Member Posts: 4,581 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Personally I can reload more calibers than I shoot, sold some guns. I keep all the brass, and if I decide to sell the caliber I sell the brass too. I only have one gun of each caliber except for .22 RF, 30-06, and 9mm Makarov. There is one gun that I would shoot more, but the brass loss bothers me to the point that I dont shoot it unless I spread a tarp out to catch it, thats my Makarov. That stuff is expensive, I havent even reloaded any of it yet, but when I do I dont want to have to buy any brass. Last time I checked Makarov.com bought Makarov brass for .05 per case, dont know if they still do. We need to get some sort of brass recycle web site set up. People that have it could trade for it, people that buy it could buy it, people that sell it could sell it.

    I'd really like to know how to contact people that I dont know in the areas I live in to give them stuff like that when I have it, that'd be pretty cool, although a lot of people wouldnt want a list like that. If we grew big enough here on GB we could see if admin would make some sort of provision for those that would like their physical address available on a list by area of the country, then we could just call people in the areas we live in and see if they are needing something we are getting rid of. Kind of like an internet gun club. I'd even be willing to pay to belong to something like that. Think about it, if all the different gun sites that I visit, 7 of them, had all their members interested in something like that, one website list of 'club' members, and there was a trade/give away forum, with physical addresses of people in a classification by area of the country, you wouldnt have any problem contacting fellow gun enthusiasts. But...lots of people are pretty protective of their privacy, so it probably wouldnt work too well.

    SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
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  • PJPJ Member Posts: 1,556 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Our range lets you pick up your own brass(which I do), but "All other brass is the property of the range".

    Pete

    "Be kind to your neighbor, he knows where you live."

    Edited by - PJ on 07/14/2002 16:21:49
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  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427 ✭
    edited November -1
    If I take my own ammo to the range I use, I give the brass to the range, which is also an ammo company , and they reload, then sell it back to me for the cost of reloading, saves quite a bit on buying factory ammo all the time

    "A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows"
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  • inspectorknuckleheadinspectorknucklehead Member Posts: 81 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    The folks at our range have attached a few buckets to the posts at the shelter. Everyone is encouraged to police up their brass, and if they don't want it, to drop it in one of the buckets. That way, anyone who reloads can scrounge through the buckets for brass. The resource is not wasted, and the range stays clean.

    John Colson
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  • agloreaglore Member Posts: 6,012
    edited November -1
    I pickup all my brass. I shoot cannons usually, so nobody else would have any use for something like 500 AHR brass or 475/416 Rigby brass.

    AlleninAlaska

    Free men are not equal and equal men are not free
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  • SP TigerSP Tiger Member Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I always pick mine up since I handload. At the range I'm a member of, there seems to be a lot of shooters who don't. So I pick up all I can. I usually spend more time picking up brass than actually shooting! Just a couple of months after I joined that particular shooting club, I was out there teaching my sister how to shoot and noticed whopping amounts of .40 S&W and 9mm brass. We started picking it all up, all the while I did not know if I was supposed to do it. About that time one of the range managers came up and saw what we were doing. I thought "Uh-oh", but he said "Take all you want, I've got another box full over there with about 1,000 pieces in it." Now I've got more brass than I'll ever know what to do with.

    Better to have and not need, than need and not have.
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  • robsgunsrobsguns Member Posts: 4,581 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    SP Tiger,
    Geez, your range should sell the stuff on ebay and use the money for improvements, since they dont do anything else with it, ya know?

    SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
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  • SP TigerSP Tiger Member Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yeah, they probably could. I think the only time there is that much brass out there at one time is after there has been a law enforcement shoot or some kind of instructional shoot. I haven't picked up much brass lately though. I wish more people left behind .223 and .30-06.

    Better to have and not need, than need and not have.
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  • JustCJustC Member Posts: 16,056 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    robsguns, couldn't you trim some 9x19 brass 1 mm and get a 9mm makarov case? I would see that being much cheaper if it would work.

    A great rifle with a junk scope,....is junk.
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  • robsgunsrobsguns Member Posts: 4,581 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'd have to check on Makarov.com, they address almost every subject under the sun on the topic of the Makarov. I dont think you can though.

    SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
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  • seductiveoneseductiveone Member Posts: 159 ✭
    edited November -1
    I through all my emties in the bed of my truck. I isn't pulluting and any one can help themselves to a hand full but some may a little rusty.


    "Respect my authority"
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  • SUBMARINERSUBMARINER Member Posts: 1,362 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    reload .40 but the 9's get brought home for hard times got powder and primers and bullets but right now i can get walmart bullets for 9 cent each and i can reload 9's for 8 cents each it is too much trouble..40's are a different story,lots cheaper to reload

    SUBMARINE SAILOR,TRUCK DRIVER,RUSTY WALLACE FAN AND AS EVERYONE SO OFTEN POINTS OUT PISS POOR TYPIST e-mail:WNUNLEY@USIT.NET
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  • sparkie_40sparkie_40 Member Posts: 27 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:
    reload .40 but the 9's get brought home for hard times got powder and primers and bullets but right now i can get walmart bullets for 9 cent each and i can reload 9's for 8 cents each it is too much trouble..40's are a different story,lots cheaper to reload

    SUBMARINE SAILOR,TRUCK DRIVER,RUSTY WALLACE FAN AND AS EVERYONE SO OFTEN POINTS OUT PISS POOR TYPIST e-mail:WNUNLEY@USIT.NET


    please dont support wal-mart. their ammo is normally old and they dont maintain their stock. by that i mean they dont turn it over, they leave it lay in one position until it sells. this is not good for ammo. plus they pay their people bare bones wages, work them only the hours that keeps wal-mart from paying benefits. they treat them lousy. wal-mart has killed the little guy in the small towns of america. support your local gun shop, or reload. it helps us little guys. so you have to pay a little more, its worth it when you can just go into your local shop, drink some coffee and shoot the bull with people like yourself. plus you get a free education. lots of knowledgeable people to talk with. thanks, and i hope you aint offended by this.

    anti-gunners, want my guns? come get em, if you're able.
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