Brass ratting, it's a disease

allen-1

allen-1

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I went to the range yesterday to practice with my G48 for a match this weekend. And I did practice. But I also kept picking up brass. Because the bay was just littered with it. It was all over the place, and I couldn't just walk away from it. Never mind that I have a kitty litter box full of cleaned 9mm, and another one full of dirty 9mm - I still picked it up.

Ran it through the sorting baffles last night, and found this oddity:

IMG_0777.jpg
 
I’ve been a Brass Rat for years. I don’t go out looking for it but when I go to the range I pick up mine and any other leftovers. Over the years I accumulated a fair amount. Because of that I had enough to spare to hand off to some shooters getting started in reloading this year. Giving them a head start. Shooters that laughed at me two years ago for reloading 9mm saying it was not worth it are crawling around like spider monkeys now searching for brass, and looking for primers and powder.
 
Knob Creek said:
I’ve been a Brass Rat for years. I don’t go out looking for it but when I go to the range I pick up mine and any other leftovers. Over the years I accumulated a fair amount. Because of that I had enough to spare to hand off to some shooters getting started in reloading this year. Giving them a head start. Shooters that laughed at me two years ago for reloading 9mm saying it was not worth it are crawling around like spider monkeys now searching for brass, and looking for primers and powder.
Click to expand...

I've posted before that I started reloading because my wife bought me a press as a Christmas present, (yeah I'm Jewish - she isn't). She told me to go de-stress from work by loading in the garage, and she told the kids, (my grandchildren who were living with us at the time), "stay out of the garage while Grandpa's reloading".

She bought me an XL650 setup for 9mm, casefeeder and all - yeah - my son had some input into what she bought me.

The first couple hundred rounds were marginal and I used them only for practice - running factory for matches. I googled, I talked to friends, I learned. The rounds became consistent and I started running them in matches. Now I didn't have to worry about stopping by the store to get ammo for a match - I just loaded it. The money wasn't the issue, it was the knowing that I had ammo.

Then... and now...

Now price is an issue - and availability. And I don't care. I have primers, powder and brass. I load 9mm, .38spcl, 357Mag, .357Sig and .45ACP.

I literally have bins of brass in the garage, in all of the calibers that I reload. Some dirty, some clean.

I just got back from the range, another practice session for the match I'm shooting Saturday. And I managed to not pick up any brass - although there was lots of it in the bays. There are way more shooters at my club than reloaders.

What makes this year different than others is that I won a certificicate at last years match. 100$ worth of brass from a company - for 12 months. Yeah $1200 worth of brass over a year. So I've been getting commercially cleaned brass each month for the last six months or so, and another six to go...
 
andrew1220 said:
It sure is a disease. Scored 30 pieces of 44 mag and 20 pieces of 7.62x54r brass at the range today. Left a ton of 38 spl behind as I only use 357 mag brass
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got about of 200 .223 again, at 50yds range. seems to be all IMI M855 or M193, looked pretty fresh. deprimes fine.
also found about a dozen of .308 cases too, at 100yds range, and what was so odd - somebody was shooting 30-06, and it was about of 30 cases on the ground, just left out there.
i collected them and left them on the bench, looked like brand new cases to me. i know it is not an expensive brass, but, you do not see it just left on the ground very often.
 
I’ve been a brass rat since I was 5 years old. Every Sunday with my dad and uncle. I don’t reload but still pick it up, it’s part of your DNA after a while.
 
paul73 said:
got about of 200 .223 again, at 50yds range. seems to be all IMI M855 or M193, looked pretty fresh. deprimes fine.
also found about a dozen of .308 cases too, at 100yds range, and what was so odd - somebody was shooting 30-06, and it was about of 30 cases on the ground, just left out there.
i collected them and left them on the bench, looked like brand new cases to me. i know it is not an expensive brass, but, you do not see it just left on the ground very often.
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That depends : I know several members cant be bothered to bend over to get the brass. Their pockets are deep and ammo cost is laughable for them.
 
DarrenL said:
What range? Asking for a friend.............
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allen-1 said:
I went to the range yesterday to practice with my G48 for a match this weekend. And I did practice. But I also kept picking up brass. Because the bay was just littered with it. It was all over the place, and I couldn't just walk away from it. Never mind that I have a kitty litter box full of cleaned 9mm, and another one full of dirty 9mm - I still picked it up.

Ran it through the sorting baffles last night, and found this oddity:

View attachment 549922
Click to expand...
Lets talk about brass
1. Your not a “Brass Rat” until you start picking up other peoples brass and putting it in your bag before its cooled off. Then shrugging your shoulders when the shooter asks about their brass.
2. Brass Scrounge: will come in often and sweep/pick up every stray piece of brass with soul intention to scrap it.
3. Brass Advantage Collector: will snag the neatly piled brass left behind and generally only pick up cals they reload for.
3 clubs I go to have brass collection for Jr program and I can only hope who ever is in charge is doing right by that. Cartridge brass is up in price a bit again so its a good source of cash flow.
1. Club is a good source of 223 9mm and 45 because of the “LEO” training. They leave their shit everywhere.
 
mac1911 said:
1. Your not a “Brass Rat” until you start picking up other peoples brass and putting it in your bag before its cooled off. Then shrugging your shoulders when the shooter asks about their brass.
Click to expand...
I did this inadvertently when I first started reloading.

I had just showed up and I had the range to myself. There was a good amount of brass all over the place so before I even unpacked, I scooped everything up. On the rifle side (Andover Sportsmens Club) there was quite a bit of what I thought was 357 mag brass. I thought "damn someone mustve been banging away with the lever action for a while". Finished loading everything up into a plastic freezer bag which I put on the shelf with my stuff and started shooting.

A little bit later a guy came in, walked down the other end, walked back to me and asked if I had seen any 30 carbine brass. In hindsight I shouldve asked what it looked like, as at the time I had no idea I just knew it was a rifle cartridge so my brain was probably thinking bottleneck case. I reply "No" and he looks at me, looks at this freezer bag bursting with brass, looks back at me with a pause and says "...ok" and leaves. I get home and start sorting brass. Of course the 357 brass was actually 30 Carbine brass. I cringed hard and put it in a container figuring I would mention it to the guy if I saw him again. I havent bumped into him and tbh enough time has passed by now that I prob wouldnt recognize him if I did.

Not the biggest deal, but I felt scuzzy about it. Im sure I looked like the stereotypical brass rat who had scooped up his brass and then lied about it right to his face.

(If youre out there, sorry bro and I still have your brass if you want it lol)
 
headednorth said:
I did this inadvertently when I first started reloading.

I had just showed up and I had the range to myself. There was a good amount of brass all over the place so before I even unpacked, I scooped everything up. On the rifle side (Andover Sportsmens Club) there was quite a bit of what I thought was 357 mag brass. I thought "damn someone mustve been banging away with the lever action for a while". Finished loading everything up into a plastic freezer bag which I put on the shelf with my stuff and started shooting.

A little bit later a guy came in, walked down the other end, walked back to me and asked if I had seen any 30 carbine brass. In hindsight I shouldve asked what it looked like, as at the time I had no idea I just knew it was a rifle cartridge so my brain was probably thinking bottleneck case. I reply "No" and he looks at me, looks at this freezer bag bursting with brass, looks back at me with a pause and says "...ok" and leaves. I get home and start sorting brass. Of course the 357 brass was actually 30 Carbine brass. I cringed hard and put it in a container figuring I would mention it to the guy if I saw him again. I havent bumped into him and tbh enough time has passed by now that I prob wouldnt recognize him if I did.

Not the biggest deal, but I felt scuzzy about it. Im sure I looked like the stereotypical brass rat who had scooped up his brass and then lied about it right to his face.

(If youre out there, sorry bro and I still have your brass if you want it lol)
Click to expand...
Terrible.....How do you sleep at night?......






[laugh][troll]🤡
 
headednorth said:
Not the biggest deal, but I felt scuzzy about it. Im sure I looked like the stereotypical brass rat who had scooped up his brass and then lied about it right to his face.

(If youre out there, sorry bro and I still have your brass if you want it lol)
Click to expand...

You can make amends by giving me the 30 Carbine brass. [rofl]
 
allen-1 said:
Ran it through the sorting baffles last night, and found this oddity:

View attachment 549922
Click to expand...


Did you find a pair of soiled underwear too at that range?

I pick up all my own brass.. but I don't usually keep brass that I pick up at the range. I'll dump that in the bucket because I just don't know how many times its been loaded or what the loads were.
 

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