Getting *all* Your Brass Back

[born-in-45]

The coolest and best thing I've seen yet for brass collection was a roller contraption that you just roll over the brass like a lawn mower. It has what appears to be a giant plastic "brush" with "tenticles" on the ends that just picks up the brass as small as 9mm and as it rolls it uses a "rake" to wipe the brass into a catch can.

The "contraption" is actually made to pick up pecans. A couple companies make them and you can get several different sizes in both push types as well as "pull behinds". You can find them for a couple hundred bucks. We purchased one for our club range and it does help immensely in maintaining the range (limiting brass on the ground). Some use it after a practice session to retrieve their brass relatively easily.

[Chills1994]

Will those pecan contraptions work... will they pick up just the brass, or will they pick up gravel too?

Stripes around the case work the best for identifying YOUR brass.

You can buy a double striper from Nolan's website, hosercam.com or you can cobble one together like I did here in this thread:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...l=brass+striper

Here's the pic:

Although it is time consuming to spin each round by hand and if you don't wear gloves, it can be a mess.

One of these days (I keep telling myself) I am going to make a gadgett that stripes the rounds as they come down the ramp off the press and into the loaded round bin.

Edited April 9, 2007 by Chills1994

[JDBraddy]

Will those pecan contraptions work... will they pick up just the brass, or will they pick up gravel too?

I have one, and they work as well as anything I've tried. They will pick up the occasional stone, but not often enough to be bothersome. The biggest probelm I've had with them, is brass sometimes gets stuck beween the tines holding them apart, so ones you have already picked up will slip back out between the tines. So if you pick up more than three or four, you have to dump them, or you'll end up dropping as many as you try to pick up. What I usually end up doing is hanging a small 1.5 gal bucket from my belt, usually with the handle over the base of a magazine in a mag-pouch, pick up 3-5 with the pecan contraption, dump them in my hand to let any sand or dirt in the cases fall out, then drop them in the bucket.

[JDBraddy]

The coolest and best thing I've seen yet for brass collection was a roller contraption that you just roll over the brass like a lawn mower. It has what appears to be a giant plastic "brush" with "tenticles" on the ends that just picks up the brass as small as 9mm and as it rolls it uses a "rake" to wipe the brass into a catch can.

The "contraption" is actually made to pick up pecans. A couple companies make them and you can get several different sizes in both push types as well as "pull behinds". You can find them for a couple hundred bucks. We purchased one for our club range and it does help immensely in maintaining the range (limiting brass on the ground). Some use it after a practice session to retrieve their brass relatively easily.

This is anothe type pecan contraption then the one I described using above, the one I describe above is a slinky type sping, bunched up in a clamp on one side, spreading the tines on the other side to about 1/4" apart. then the clamp is secured to the end of a pole or stick, they cost about $4-$5. My club has one of these lawn mower style contraptions, I don't particularly care for it. They do pick up large quantities of brass very quickly, but they also pick up gravel and rocks. Anything in any kind of depression, or partially imbedded, such as a piece of brass that has been stepped on, gets left behind. Also, they do not discriminate between shiney new brass, and weathered dark stuff that's been there for years. I spend more time bent over, sorting through what they pick up, looking for a few pieces of usable brass, than it would take me to pick it up by hand. I've had the best luck using an adjustable leaf rake, and one of those janator type swivel dust pans. I can rake up the brass from a large area, then sweep it into the dustpan, then dump the dust pan out on a 1/4" masonary cloth screen, or table top somewhere, and pick out the usable brass at my leasure.

[DanM]

Do what I did. I made friends with the RO where all the cops shoot. All the brass I want. 9, 40, some 45 and 223 The other day I came across about 200 .38 supers. Even though I don't own a gun in that caliber, I still keep 'em, lol...

[-terry]

When I'm shooting at the range, I hang a jacked approximately in front of where my brass flies. It stops most of the brass, which falls to the floor in a pile.

[Steve Moneypenny]

9mm brass is cheap.. and some people give it away.. no way i would waste my time picking it up at a match when it can be had for under $15 per K. on my home range i pick plenty up myself.