How To Collect And Save Spent Brass

[cjennings]

If there is an easy answer to this I am appologies. I swear I have searched for an hour...

I am looking at getting into reloading. My Challenge is how do I collect the brass that I have I just ejected. Most of the time I am a static firing line punching through ammo from a single position (plate racks ect). Surely there must be a way to collect all the used brass without having to pick it up off the floor by hand?

Edited October 19, 2005 by cjennings

[D.Hayden]

Welcome to the forums..

I've seen people lay down old sheets, and some people employ brass catchers (usually made out of pvc pipe, and small netting, like mosquito netting)

I'm sure there are lots of others..

Edited October 19, 2005 by BerKim

[IPSCDRL]

If you are standing in one location and shooting then a sheet or tarp on the ground works great. I like to use a nylon mesh "delicate laundry" bag for brass that I have picked up off the ground. All of the dirt falls through the holes in the mesh leaving just the brass. Look for them in the supermarket or local superstore along with the laundry items.

[Kevin Kline]

How to collect spent brass, I use my 10 year old son.

He loves it, thinks its a sport, plus, I pay him for the amount he gets.

[jkrispies]

I'll second the sheet. I've been using a king-size sheet that I bought from Wally-World for $12. My wife keeps promising to sew some weights onto it to keep it planted in the wind. If she does that, I might just buy a second sheet and have her sew the two together, as the king-size catches about 80% of the brass, and a second sheet should get it all, plus give me plenty of room to move around.

I like to practice by tossing foam balls in front of me and "making 'em dance" around the tactical area of my range. The brass that doesn't make it onto the blanket is usually from me taking aim at a ball that is either atypically close, or atypically to the left, etc., thus changing the angle of ejection. For the brass that makes it onto the sheet, the nice part is that all you need to do to collect it is to lift the four corners of the sheet together and walk off with it.

Now, if I were doing nothing but Bullseye shooting at a single, stationary target so that the brass always flew into exactly the same spot, I'd be more inclined to make a net out of PVC so that the brass doesn't come into contact with the ground. Making sure that there's no stones in your case prior to running it through the resizing die is kinda important!

[sargenv]

I mark all my brass with the marker thing from hosercam.com. But then I shoot on gravel or dirt, and not grass, so the colors of the markers really show up well on fired brass. A blue and green stripe shows up pretty good on a grey background. Sometimes I find my brass weeks after it's been fired.. "Hey, that's some of mine, cool!".

Vince

[cjennings]

When you guys are talking about a sheet, I am guess that it has to have some padding or thinkness to stop the brass from rolling around. I shoot on a concrete pad that is well maintained. As a result when brass lands on the floor, it bounces and rolls all over. I am thinking anything with a little give would stop the empty brass in its place.

My HK .40 is pretty consitent in where it throughs stuff.

Originally I was wondering if anybody was going to recoment any of this wrist strap type Catch All brass things. I also shot a HK SL-8 rifle in 5.56. There are alot of ar15 options out there, I think I might try to modify one of those.

[jkrispies]

I've never experienced an issue with bouncing, but I've always shot on dirt. I guess you could use an old comforter if you wanted... Frankly, I like a plain-jane sheet simply because I can roll it up tight enough to fit into my range bag if I'm so inclined.

As far as the wrist-thingy goes, I've never seen one. It seems to me like it'd get in the way of a fun day of shooting.

[Vlad]

Hmm .. on a hard floor, try a broom. Most indoor ranges have brooms and long handled dust pans for just this purpose.

[AWLAZS]

I use one of those cheap blue tarps and some tent stakes to hold it down.

[Skywalker]

The cheapest (until now) solution I have used: buy some anti-hail or anti-birds net like the one used to protect crops (it should be a 8/9 mm mesh size); they're usually sold in large sheets (I bought 2 10x4 m sheets), then cut it at your desired size.

Stuff net sheets in a big plastic trashbag and bring it along to the range.

Lay down a pattern of net sheets next to your shooting.

At the end of the training, pick up nets full of brass and harvest your own from teammates' ones.

Definitely the cheapest, easiest, fastest way to recollect brass I've found until now.

Edited October 20, 2005 by Skywalker

[Genghis]

I bought a black minnow seine (net) at Wal Mart for ten or twelve bucks. It was about three or four feet wide and maybe sixteen feet long. I cut it in the middle and now have two nets of about 8 X 4. If I ever get a round tuit, I'll attach them side-by-side so I have one net that's about 8 X 8.

If you put it in the right place, brass falls on it. When you pick it up, dirt falls out. And it rolls up tight. It came with lead weights, but I cut them off.

[cjennings]

Hmm .. on a hard floor, try a broom.  Most indoor ranges have brooms and long handled dust pans for just this purpose.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have trying that, but brass is either rolling into the trap area, getting caught up with other brass, getting lost in cracks etc. Sweeping would likely get me 60% or so. While still cheaper than purchasing factory ammo the savings and cost justification vs. time would not be there.

Of course, that said there are garbage cans of unsorted once fired brass there I could pick through if I wanted.

Any chance the case feeder in the 650 would be able to pull out a specifc caliber?. If I have both the small pistol and large pistol plates, I am wonding if I had a mix of 9mm and 45 if the small pistol plate would be able to only pull out the 9mm... just a thought.

[docpyzon]

May not be practical but on the finished concrete floor would a shop vac work for you? I live in the country and shoot along the North and East sides of my garage. I used to use the sheet gathering method but found it to restrictive as far as movement. I used a skid loader to take the sod off (approximately 4" deep) 10 feet out from the sides of my garage and filled it with gravel. Now I can set up stages and transition along and around the corner of my garage and all my brass lands in the gravel. Takes me about 10 minutes to pick up 3 or 4 hundred rounds of brass when I'm done shooting. I still use a tarp once in awhile if I'm just going to shoot groups and not move around.

[shred]

The Prairie Schooner

One of these days I'll get around to sending the plans to Front Sight.

[kevin c]

...Originally I was wondering if anybody was going to recoment any of this wrist strap type Catch All brass things...

...As far as the wrist-thingy goes, I've never seen one. It seems to me like it'd get in the way of a fun day of shooting...

I have one, and yes, indeedy, it does get in the way. The one I have has elastic straps that go across the palm of the SH, and a leather pad across the back that holds up the little net. You have to fiddle with the wires to get the ejected cases to land inside. It messes up your grip on the gun, and forget about trying to draw.

I use mine mainly to catch a mag's worth of test loads going over the chrono, so I get not only velocity data but can inspect the cases for pressure signs w/o having to hunt all over the range for them.

But for volume shooting, I use some old small mesh camo netting I got off of Cheaper Than Dirt. Works pretty well, but the bird net/minnow seine sounds cheaper.

[cjennings]

Went to the Home Depot over lunch today, I really think I am going to build a collapsible PVC rig up that i can toss in the back of the truck. Using 1/2~3/4 pipe and a few connectors, then adding some light meshing should be the ticket. If I get adventurous this weekend I might take my first stab at it and post some pics.

Thanks for the insight guys.

Edited October 25, 2005 by cjennings

[tommygun2000]

I use a canvas tarp that is 12x16 when shooting. It catches all but a few that bounce off the edges.

When I'm done, I lift all the brass to the center and box it up.

I use canvas instead of the blue tarps because they sometimes melt.

[kevin c]

I use canvas instead of the blue tarps because they sometimes melt.

Yeah, I've heard that too. Supposed to happen most on a hot sunny day. The hot brass can melt the plastic and stick.

One thing I saw with the small mesh netting, and probably even more noticeble with a sheet or tarp, is the amount of spattered lead it gathers. I don't even have to be the one shooting. As a matter of fact, the steel can be on the next range over - the amount of lead caught in the mesh is amazing.