[miatakix]

Hey guys,
For anyone that does IDPA or IPSC or such, do you know if there is a general guideline for etiquette on picking up spent brass? I brought my own handloads for the first time tonight, some Bullseye plated roundnose 45 auto loads in virgin Starline brass, and at the end of the first two rounds I went to go find some of my brass, and it was almost all gone (I found 3). Someone had already picked up most of it when I wasn't looking.

I guess I could go look for it right after I shoot, while the scoring and such is going on, but I think I'd really rather think about what I just did and watch the scoring.

On a positive note, after doing some dryfire practice this week...I actually shot a pretty decent 2nd round, probably had the best groups of the whole crowd, and wasn't horribly slow. It's nice to not feel like you are hopeless all the time ;D Don't ask about the 1st and 3rd rounds, hehehe.

 

[miatakix]

I think I'll start coloring my caseheads on the brass I'm going to use at IDPA with a Marks-A-Lot marker or something to make it easy to find and pick up. Then I can tell folks to leave my red-headed brass for me, hehehe.

 

[Barenjager]

Often times the club or range will set policy on brass pickup. This is especially true with indoor ranges.

During regular monthly matches at the various clubs I participated at, it was common practice for those competitors who were not "on deck" or "in the hole" to pick up brass and magazines for the shooter who had just finished so that he may witness the scoring of his targets. Everyone pitched in, kept things moving along, and you would get most of your brass back.

At larger matches, area, regional, or national competitions, it was not unusual to have a no pick up rule and brass was left on the ground or raked aside between squads. This was done to eliminate as much down time as possible, a necessity when a hundred competitors or more were scheduled to shoot. Most often the range officers and setup/break down crews would share these "spoils" as a little payback for their hard work.

Roe

 

[miatakix]

Hmm, thanks, Roe. Yeah, we're indoor and local, so it'd seem like it shouldn't be a problem. Guess I'm just going to have to be more watchful and get on it. I don't think we have too many reloaders.

 

[DWB]

Every IDPA or IPSC match I have participated in was outdoors. There was never a "stated policy" on recovering brass. After going through the same situation 10 or 12 years ago, losing the better part of 150 or 200 pieces of pretty, shiny, once-fired brass, not recovering much of it, and getting into a pi$$ing contest with one of the more well established shooters, I started taking old, near-crap, mixed-lots, of what I call "range brass" - - all of it from questionable origins.

I mark (on the boxes, or coffee cans) "range brass - IDPA OK" for those times. After a while, I made it a pretty firm point to all the "Range Brass Whores" (as a buddy calls them) ahead of time, that we will all pick up brass, regardless of calibers, sort it by caliber, divvy it up (reasonably) evenly based on what chamberings we had shot, and call it good. Some of the folks had taken the time to specifically mark their brass in some way, and we made a reasonable effort to get it back to them, but they had a tough time of recovering all of their own brass - - except for the guy that shot the .357 Sig. Even then, he still didn't get all of it found.

The one guy that was a more well established shooter objected to this, but his objections were drowned out by raucus booing, jeering, and a few contentious remarks. Seems I wasn't the only one tired of him acting like a hoarder.

Depending on the number of shooters, you might ask them how they would like to resolve the issue that would be kind of even handed and reasonable. I don't think asking or talking with them about it is out of line.

 

[miatakix]

Thank you, DWB. Hmm, I've never reloaded with mixed lots of brass, maybe I'll have to do that. I guess I've always been concerned about rounds that might have been run through Glocks, which seem to have excessively loose chambers sometimes. It's not like I'm running anywhere close to max loads at the moment, though. I assume accuracy is reduced, no?

 

[DWB]

Thank you, DWB. Hmm, I've never reloaded with mixed lots of brass, maybe I'll have to do that. I guess I've always been concerned about rounds that might have been run through Glocks, which seem to have excessively loose chambers sometimes. It's not like I'm running anywhere close to max loads at the moment, though. I assume accuracy is reduced, no?

For all intents and purposes, yes, but (in my opinion) not enough to negatively impact the type of shooting done in an IDPA, IPSC, or Steel Challenge match. In some cases, you might be putting yourself at a slight disadvantage at some of the more distant targets, but even then, I don't recall too many course set-ups with targets much farther than 25 yards.

An easy way to work around mixed lots of range brass is to sort the brass by brand (even if it has some questionable origin or history) and still categorize it as "range brass", meaning brass that you don't mind swapping, losing, or re-using. Takes some time to organize, but after you have acquired enough "range brass", load with whatever load you commonly use, and throw Winchesters in one coffee can, Remmies in another, Feds, etc... Over the last decade or so, I have acquired enough to have nearly full 3Lb coffee cans of winchester, federal, and remington brass that I consider "range brass". Just a matter of keeping a note in the cans to try and maintain some semblance of information so I can rotate out older ammo as I use it, then reload another lot as my loaded supply dwindles.

Save your "primo" brass with known origins and known history for your private range sessions, your serious target work, etc. where you can take the time to search for it, pick it up without holding up the next shooter, or worrying about somebody else latching onto it. Use the "range brass" when you have many shooters, limited time to search, pick, and sort amidst the organized chaos of a match - especially if it is outside, or with "Range Brass Whores" in attendance. ;D

 

[Charlie98]

"Range Brass Whores" (as a buddy calls them)

That's what I call them. I was shooting at a public range in Ohio many moons ago, I had my .45 (which I had just finished firing) in my shoulder holster and was finishing up with a few mags through the HiPower. So, the resident Brass Whore saw I was shooting a 9mm, came up behind me (while I was shooting, mind you) and started picking up my .45 brass. We had a brief exchange of words and a little show and tell with the .45... He didn't pick up my brass anymore.

Depending on the number of shooters, you might ask them how they would like to resolve the issue that would be kind of even handed and reasonable. I don't think asking or talking with them about it is out of line.

I think it's entirely reasonable... you can't be the only one that would like to recover his brass.

 

[Combat Diver]

Its been nearly 20 years since I shot ISPC and used to do it as Barenjager states. Brass, mags, speedloaders are picked up as shooter and RO score targets, then given back to the shooter. At times I was the only one throwning .357 mag brass out of my Coonans or dumping .41 mag out of the 58/657s. Still sort my wheelgun brass but not for my autos anymore. It all goes through the Dillon and into ammo cans in bulk.

CD