Do you find yourself excited when you see free brass in the dirt ?

Excited ? .... more so then finding a penny.... Lol ( made out of mostly zinc... ) is typically worth less then once fired 9mm....sooooo... a hundred 9mm once fired cases at 2.8 - 6 cents a piece... is $2.80- $6.00.

I consider abandoned brass ...a treat. Especially if it is still crimped once fired .223 or .308.
 
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I reconditioned about 800 rounds of 9mm range pick up brass this afternoon. After a ss pin tumble, they're drying on a towel here with me in my secondary tv room ("grandpa's room"). I think I'm going to leave them there longer than the usual two day drying period - just to remind me to stop collecting 9mm range brass. :D
 
when you get tired of all that 9mm brass and want to just "do the right thing", which is happily send them to me:), let me know. i'll be waiting patiently for your inner philanthropist to come out.
 
i'll be waiting patiently for your inner philanthropist to come out.
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Hehe. Could be a while ;)

I wish I could learn to just collect it and not bother reconditioning it for loading. But I'm OCD. I don't like having brass laying around in a not-ready-for-loading condition. In fact, I don't like to do any loading if I have brass still in need of reconditioning. I'll do it. But not often. It's actually not pure OCD. There's actually a method to my madness. It keeps me disciplined so my load area doesn't become an out-of-control mess. Work before play, so to speak.

As for 9mm: No loader can have enough 9mm brass - I know this. If the zombie apocalypse comes, it's the single most important caliber to have. But personally, 9mm is purely a utilitarian cartridge. My primary carry pistol is a 9; and so I practice with it. But other than that, I have little use for 9mm (I also have a safe queen Beretta 92fs). Fact is, I have a bunch of factory 9mm ammo as well. So I hardly even load it.
 
I used to pick up brass at the public range, still do for some handgun but not rifle anymore. During the spring, summer and fall I have a private range all to myself. At first I would get a little giddy when I seen brass lying around until I realized that it was just my brass that I didn't find from the time before..(duh)
 
OOOH, Nick, you have committed a grievous error. Stockpiling brass for the zombies is not enough, you have to have at least 1.5 bullets for every round of brass, at least that many primers, and a keg of powder. Remember to schedule time in between waves of attacking undead to pack new rounds.

Do you have to have hollow points for brain shots? :confused:
 
OMG! That auction closed at $5! The guy who bid is going to pick up well over $1,000 in brass at SCRAP prices! God knows how much that will be worth as he starts running it out in lots of 250!
 
FlyFish, I'm with you, dude. I just love collecting brass. And speaking of picking up brass, when I was in hoch schule (high school) near Ft. Hood, TX, I was fortunate to find three 90mm brass artillery cases on the military reservation. I gave one to a friend so I'm down to two. These large brass cases are hard to find because they are now made of steel or a steel alloy.

I'll tell you how addicted I am to finding brass. Between Deckers, CO and Woodland Park, CO, there is a fairly large area (.250 X 3 miles - approx.) in the Pike National Forest where shooters have been going for many years. This is not an organized range. When I go there, I wait for shooters to leave their area and if I don't see them picking up brass, I will make a B line for that spot. I'm perfectly content to sit in my truck and wait. Now and then, I will ask if I may have their brass. If I'm bird dogging someone, I will park as close as I can without upsetting them. The trick is to be close enough so another shooter or brass collector can't ace me out of the spot. And yes, I've even collected brass at night with a flashlight. Some of these shooters shoot until it's almost too dark to shoot.
 
And yes, I've even collected brass at night with a flashlight.
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Wow, that brought up some memories.

Specifically of going to the outdoor police range at 2 am, shinning over the wires, and crawling around on my belly for hours harvesting buckets of once fired commercial brass in all major calibers.

I finally gave away the hundreds of .40 and .45, but I'm still sitting on thousands of good commercial 9mm and .38. I've only rarely bought new brass for handguns.
 
I shoot at 3 ranges, 1 indoor and 2 outdoor.
The indoor range sells firearms, and components, a few years ago I was picking through the brass bucket and one person who works there was complaining that I was picking brass. I explained to them that if I was picking brass in a caliber I didn't own there was a good chance I would be shopping for a new firearm soon. I also told them that there was no use for me to buy components if I didn't have brass to fill. They haven't bothered me since.

As for the outdoor ranges I only pick up my Lapua or Lake City brass to bring back. The indoor brass is much cleaner.
 
One time a young mouthy shooting range RSO gave me crap for picking up brass to take home. My calm reply was "Sir, I came here with MY handloads, I'm leaving with MY brass , nothing more , nothing less. He thereafter left me alone to scrounge my brass. Still nonetheless, I loose brass shooting indoors so I avoid it.
 
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