Picking up your brass etiquette

[Parastang]

All,

I have been shooting competively now for two years. Two of the ranges I go to no one has any problem helping you pick up your brass after you run a stage. Time gets called out and the RO yells the time, and says "score, brass, and paisters". Everyone helps you pick up your brass and lost mags. No big deal doesn't hold up anything. in fact you can go look at your run and by the time you are done people are either handing you brass or your brass bag is full. Runs nice and smooth and I get to save some money.

But I have ventured to other ranges and there I am the only guy bending over picking up my brass or helping others. I get this crazy look like I just stole food from a baby.

So what the big deal? Why are people so lazy they cant help you save a buck? You would think the range would want this picked up and kept neat. And if you want your brass you brought it so what is so offensive about keeping it.

Thanks,

Jason

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

If you and I ever shoot together, you won't be the only one picking up brass. That is how I learned in this sport but I too see very few picking up. Whether I reload it or not, it does not stay on the range.

At a couple places I shoot, last squad on a stage is wading through brass. I don't like it at all.

[juan]

Very few people at our range pick up brass.

nobody wants 9mm to many major 9s running, 40 brass seams to grow on trees, law enforcment leaves them lay.

the few 45 and 38 super shooters pick there brass.

[Parastang]

40 brass seams to grow on trees,

That must be true cause I have a whole box I ended up with at the end of this year. And they were just the random ones mixed in by accident with the 45's. I usually trade 40 for the 45 with some one when the subject comes up.

I shot 45's so ya I am picking them up.

Jason

[JimmyZip]

Yeah I hear ya, but at our range, we just don't usually do it on match day. You are free to pick yours up, and as much of others as you'd like, but we want to get to the shooting before it gets hot. It was over the century mark at our match today. If you'd like, to stay and pick up a ton after the match, or come early and go to town no one would say a thing though. Those of us who shoot regularly get tons of brass when we go to practice, and stock up on all the new brass the shooting schools and police leave on the bays. I only buy brass when I am lazy or see a really good deal.

Just saying, but if you are in our area, and want to shoot, squad with me, or the open guys, and well, those guys pick up their brass, but I'll help you out. The limited/l10 guys, and the production guys usually just let it lay.

JZ

[joedodge]

our range is lost brass you are more than welcome to pick it up but its not required most brass after the match we focus on running the match and shooting

[Sarge]

The trend locally here is to focus on the shooting as well. We tend to stay around after the match if we want to pick it up. We shoot on gravel mostly and it is quite hard to pick it up very fast. It works for me because most shooters just shoot and leave. If I want to take the time I can pick all the brass I feel like messing with that day.

[joedodge]

exactly how it happens at our range

[Gadgetech]

The one IDPA match I've seen here the shooter would pickup his own brass before the next shooter came up. In many cases there was enough time to pickup the brass b/c the shooter was situated in one spot or didn't have far to go. The stages that had multiple levels of difficulty, you might find someone picking up a few pieces of brass but that was it.

[ihatepickles]

I care more about my score than the brass so I walk with the RO during scoring. When I'm not shooting, I'm pasting and setting steel.

You may not think picking up brass after each shooter slows things down, but I do think it slows down the match. If there's 12 people in the squad, sure there's enough people to help police brass, but my local squads are usually 8 or 9 people. The on-deck shooter is doing nothing, the next shooter is trying to clear their head, the RO and scorekeeper are walking the CoF along with the previous shooter, this leaves 3 or 4 people to reset the stage.

Don't infer people are lazy for leaving brass. I attend matches to win and I help all day long with squad duties along with match setup on my local stuff.

[junkie]

OP I think you have it right that is what we do at all our local ranges. You might ask what the deal is with the brass at the other range you shoot at.

[lugnut]

I care more about my score than the brass so I walk with the RO during scoring. When I'm not shooting, I'm pasting and setting steel.

You may not think picking up brass after each shooter slows things down, but I do think it slows down the match. If there's 12 people in the squad, sure there's enough people to help police brass, but my local squads are usually 8 or 9 people. The on-deck shooter is doing nothing, the next shooter is trying to clear their head, the RO and scorekeeper are walking the CoF along with the previous shooter, this leaves 3 or 4 people to reset the stage.

Don't infer people are lazy for leaving brass. I attend matches to win and I help all day long with squad duties along with match setup on my local stuff.

I'm in agreement with pickles here! I too think it does slow things down...damn we have to yell to get people to just tape and reset steel... plus- if people want their own brass I have no issue helping. Most of us leave it for the staff to have when the match is over... as a small token of appreciation. If the staff doesn't want it, someone will get it soon enough...

[Parastang]

Don't infer people are lazy for leaving brass. I attend matches to win and I help all day long with squad duties along with match setup on my local stuff.

Well if you are just standing there I see no reason not to help if a guy is keeping his brass. I have never seen it slow things down to the point we are there till the lights have to be turned on. When the range is reset than its time to go for the next shooter. Everyone clears out. Simple!

And yes I like to see where I scored too. If I am confident in how I did no reason to hound the RO about my score. I already know.

As far as gravel and heat I would likely loose my ambition to pick the stuff up really quick.

Remember these are lower level weekend club matches that have no more than local shooters compeating against each other for the best time. If I were to go to a bigger match where things were busy and all a'Buzz than thats differnt.

This toppic is about as bad as the 40 vs 45 debate. Ggggeeeeezzzzz!

Jason

[Chills1994]

parastang wrote:

....If I am confident in how I did no reason to hound the RO about my score....

I highly recommend that you do shadow the RO around the stage as he calls out "TWO ALPHA!" or "ONE ALPHA ONE CHARLIE!" ...

granted we are not playing some high stakes game where there is a brand new Chevy truck on the line, but you could get a one alpha one charlie turned into a two alpha just by standing close to the RO having a quizzical look on your face and going "Hmmn..." loud enough for him to hear it.

at the least, you get an idea of where your first shot is hitting and in a "controlled pair" you get to see where your second shot is hitting....do you need more weak hand grip added?

as far as the brass policy goes, you have two choices, if it is that big of a deal to you:

A. ask the MD about it, if he has any sort of official stance on it

B. when in Rome, do as the Romans do

as an MD, my official policy is as long as it doesn't interfere with paste'ing and resetting steel, yeah, sure, brass whore up all you want to between shooters....as long as it is your brass.

I reckon over time I would get enough people that always wanted to squad together that they would just work it out amongst themselves.

Ideally, I would prefer that people would wait on the brass whoring and help tear down stages instead. Once the props and walls are kinda put away (there is an IDPA match the next day after my match and we share the same walls and props), then people can swoop in like vultures and brass whore all they want.

[ihatepickles]

Well if you are just standing there I see no reason not to help if a guy is keeping his brass.

The only people that should be just standing there are the next shooter and the on-deck shooter. If I'm either of those people, I'm working on getting my head cleared out and going over my stage plan. I'm not going to be the one helping you find brass and I wouldn't expect or put pressure on either of these people to help me if I were picking up my brass. Again, I'm there to win. My shooting is more important to me than your brass. I don't mean this to be rude or mean, but I have a priority to shoot well. Everyone else is pasting and setting steel, which leaves no one to help.

I have never seen it slow things down to the point we are there till the lights have to be turned on.

I setup and break down my local matches. Being at the range working from 8am to 6pm sucks. We do final setup at 8am and shooting starts at 10am. Usually we're done by 2pm. If we're still shooting at 5pm because squads are moving slow, that'll easily keep me there until 6pm breaking things down.

And yes I like to see where I scored too. If I am confident in how I did no reason to hound the RO about my score. I already know.

You're entitled to make your run and observe your scores anyway you choose. I work hard to improve and push myself, I'm not leaving points behind if I can help it. I'm sure I catch at least a couple of extra Alphas every match by looking carefully at the scoring perforations. I have no issue with someone picking up their brass after their run.

Remember these are lower level weekend club matches that have no more than local shooters compeating against each other for the best time. If I were to go to a bigger match where things were busy and all a'Buzz than thats differnt.

I'm trying win regardless of the level of match. Again, if you want to pick up your brass it's your call. As to whether others should help, if people are available then that fine. I suspect if those extra brass hounds pasted and set steel the match would run faster though.

This toppic is about as bad as the 40 vs 45 debate. Ggggeeeeezzzzz!

This comes down to how many people need to commit their time to other people recovering their brass vs. running the match quicker. It's not a personal preference discussion if other people's behavior impacts the rest of the match as a result.

My point is this, if every other part of running a match is taken care of first, then by all means brass hound. I don't see things running that way very often though.

[Chills1994]

^^^ just curious....how many stages is your match and/or how many shooters do you have show up on average/regularly?

[leas327]

I care more about my score than the brass so I walk with the RO during scoring. When I'm not shooting, I'm pasting and setting steel.

This is also what i do.

Right now I'm shooting .40 and have got it cheap enough that the brass I loose on match day isn't signifigant. i want to see the score debate any questions and generally learn more about the game. I understand why guys that shoot the supers and .45 pick up brass. I left my .45 lay when I first started and it killed me. But I counted it as the price to pay to learn and am glad I did.

[ihatepickles]

^^^ just curious....how many stages is your match and/or how many shooters do you have show up on average/regularly?

We get 40-60 shooters and host 6-7 stages with a squad per bay. We try to have 8-10 shooters per squad.

[shred]

Around here a number of the experienced shoot Open. They like to get their brass back. Either they spend their time fishing for it, or if others help pick it up, they can take RO & scorekeeping duties as well. That seems like a pretty simple skilled-vs-unskilled labor trade.

If local match squads can't spare a brass person or two, they're too small. If you really want to maximize your ability, you'll have to do it in a 12 or 16 person squad at Nationals or the World Shoot with a whole lot more downtime and associated pressure than a typical club match.

[Chills1994]

to our OP, once you have been doing this for a few years, you will have at least one 5 gallon bucket each of 9mm, .40, and .45 ACP, so bending over or kneeling picking up brass looses it's appeal after a while....

from a different forum entirely more focused on the "tactical" nature of guns ....the discussions from amateur to professional usually follow this trend:

toolset--->skillset--->mindset

[prreed10]

Some places may have a lost brass policy.

Here are my thoughts on it. I ran an IDPA match for 3 years at my local club. We ran open squadding and allowed shooters to pick up their own brass between shooters, as long as it did not interfere with the match and you picked up only what you shot. One thing I hated was having to shoo the brass chickens so I can run a shooter. The other thing was watching a shooter who hasn't fired a shot yet pick up a handful of 45 brass and stick them in his bag. We reserved any brass left on the ground for those who helped set up/run/tear down the match.

We had one shooter who had to be constantly reminded during the match to not pick up brass that he did not shoot. He was exclusively a 45 shooter. It's evil, I know, but I used to put aside all the small primer 45 and 45 GAP I culled when I was sorting at home and would hand it to him when he was picking up someone elses brass...

[Supermoto]

When I was shooting super, I spent a lot of time picking up brass. Now that I am shooting 40, I leave it on the ground. If someone else hands me brass, I tell them to keep it.

I have seen the whole brass thing get ridiculously out of control to the point where people were accusing others of stealing.

[Graham Smith]

The trend locally here is to focus on the shooting as well. We tend to stay around after the match if we want to pick it up. We shoot on gravel mostly and it is quite hard to pick it up very fast. It works for me because most shooters just shoot and leave. If I want to take the time I can pick all the brass I feel like messing with that day.

Pretty much the same here. There are a few who shoot 38 Super and .45 that make a point of picking up their brass. But more often than not, people just leave it until the end of the match and pickup up all the brass they want on the stage they finished on.

I've only seen this become an issue a few times when people were out picking up brass while others were busy tearing down the stage. That's really poor behavior. There was also an issue when someone who wasn't even in the match was found out picking up brass on an idle stage. He was promptly booted off the range.

[Chills1994]

from dictionary.com

lar·ce·ny   [lahr-suh-nee] Show IPA

noun, plural -nies. Law.

the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another from his or her possession with intent to convert them to the taker's own use.

[Dan Hefta]

The trend locally here is to focus on the shooting as well. We tend to stay around after the match if we want to pick it up. We shoot on gravel mostly and it is quite hard to pick it up very fast. It works for me because most shooters just shoot and leave. If I want to take the time I can pick all the brass I feel like messing with that day.

That's exactly what happens at our local matches, our squads adverage 10-12 shooters and we try to get through the match as quickly as possible, if there is a backup and we have to wait then we will get busy and pickup brass during the match. I never get any of my brass back when I am running my club... Too busy helping put everthing back!