I don't know how I stand the excitement!!!

[Questor]

Today I found 50 once-fired nickel plated 38 special cases just lying on the ground for me to take home from the range. What a thrill! I happily got on hands and knees to box them up and take them home. It's a small pleasure that just makes my day.

Anybody else get a big kick out of finding a windfall of free brass?

[Graybeard]

I absolutely REFUSE to take home range brass unless I see the guy shooting it and can ascertain it's brand spanking new factory ammo he's shooting.

You might recall the story of me blowing up a TC contender using range pick up brass. No more, never ever again. I'll buy my brass new or buy the ammo and shoot it up.

[victorcharlie]

I always pick up brass such as 45acp or 38 spl...........If nothing else, I can trade or sell it at the gun show........

besides, brass ain't cheap!

[beemanbeme]

I'm a range scrounger myself.  Often you can tell if the brass has been reloaded or is 1x.  Not so easy now what with case cleaners and such.

[Tn Jim]

Bill, I must not have been here long enough to remember the Contender blow up. Would you mind telling the story again?

[Don Fischer]

I don't use any pick up cases unless I see them being fired. Well that's wrong. I pick up a lot just to see what people are shooting. When I shoot my own stuff, I never let them hit the ground. I have this thing about cases hitting the ground.

[Graybeard]

Bill, I must not have been here long enough to remember the Contender blow up. Would you mind telling the story again?

Happened back in the early 80s as I recall. Back in those days I picked up every case I found on the ground and took it home. Cleaned them up, inspected and loaded. I had more lots of mixed case heads than all the same in those days. I treated them all the same. If it said .44 Magnum I loaded it with the same load. As I recall at this time I was using 24.0 grains of W296 under a cast lead bullet weighting on average 242 grains dropped from Lyman 429244 mould.

There were two cases in the batch I was loading that were marked S&W on the head stamp.

When I load I put 50 cases in a block and drop the powder from a measure. I then examine them under a strong light to check that all have same appearance to check for over/under charged cases.


In the case of the two S&W hulls both looked way too full but all others looked same. I assumed I had some how over charged them even tho I didn't understand how. So I dumped the charges and inspected the cases to make sure ther was nothing inside them. They were clean and had no foreign objects in them. I dropped the charges again and again did the visual exam. Again they looked too full. So I measured the charges to be sure they had the correct charge and loaded them.

When I dropped the hammer on the first one the TC fell open the Pachmayr fore end landed about 20' in front of me. The charge had exploded the barrel out the top at the screw holes for the rear sight. It protruded upward a good deal and I think it damaged the lug as I recall.

I returned the frame and barrel to TC explaining what had happened. They replaced the barrel and declared the frame undamaged. No charge. It's not fun to have a gun explode in your hands, trust me on this. I wasn't injured and neither was anyone else near me but it could have been a LOT different.

Since then I do not pick up range brass and I do not mix case heads in batches. If I have for some reason an odd ball case brand with small quantities of them I trash them in a manner that no one else can ever get them.

[Questor]

GB:

Thanks for sharing the cautionary tale. It's why I don't use high-pressure cases that I find at the range. In the case of 45ACP and 38special target loads with brands like WW, Remington, and Federal I don't hesitate to use them because they're low-pressure rounds. I can tell when they're new. One time, however, I had such a windfall of brass and on examination I found that about half of them had been reloaded enough to have split case mouths. That means perhaps 10 reloads. Those went into the recycling box.

I find lots of .223 and 9mm brass for the taking at the range and I do pick it up for recycling, but will not use it. A problem such as the one you had with the 44 could easily happen with either of these two cartridges.

[stimpylu32]

I came across a deal some years ago from a guy in NM that runs a private range that only sells factory ammo to shoot in rental guns , he does not reload for the range and only a little for himself . so he sells the brass in bulk to a few reloaders that he knows , so once a year i get a 50 pound box of mixed brass 9MM , 380 , 40 S&W 38 spl , 357 mag and .223 .

Some i load some i give to friends and none are loaded to max . I like this range brass .