Picking brass at range, not allowed!

In Indiana state taxes & hunting license money pays for those ranges. Most likely a few dnr guys making a few extra bucks on the side.
 
From what I have seen, reloaders will pick up their brass to reload it. Non-reloaders will not and it goes in our brass receptacles and is sold by the range. This brass is 95% once-fired, especially handgun. Very few non-reloaders purchase reloaded ammo. They buy inexpensive ammo (usually) for their weekend shooting.
 
If anybody at one of those commercial ranges had gotten huffy about me picking up brass, I'd have been doing a lot of revolver and .22 shooting there, until my "membership" ran out.

A "lost brass" IDPA or USPSA match is a different thing. A sack of brass is about the only thing the staff gets for their time.
 
The federal government, through the GSA, sells literally hundreds of tons of range brass. I believe that most of this is swept up from solid floor ranges, not scrounged from the dirt by hand.

Would the guy be rummaging around and collecting it for salvage value? Unless he's living on ramen, I can't say. If he is collecting it for himself and lying, he is probably selling it to a dealer who re-sells it.

Our scrap yard had about a dozen barrels of used brass, it was kept separate from any other metal. That's not going to be melted.

My range has a written policy, collect and remove all brass and debris. When I'm there and alone, I gather whatever is on the ground until I get tired. I get back what I shot and some more. I also gather the aluminum and steel, dump the aluminum in a bucket, toss the steel into the trash. There's nothing to be gained gathering aluminum brass, 45 cents a pound? I don't like waste, or I'd leave it there forever.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who does this, because sometimes the range is clean of all brass but buried elbow deep in steel and aluminum.
 
The story of the agency making their employees collect it and turn it in for salvage seems kind of funny.

The missouri owned and operated range has barrels at the range, little holes in top, and bolted shut. The three barrels are for steel, aluminum and brass, and there are signs to please collect your own brass and recycle it there. No crossing guards to collect it for you.
 
I believe that most of this is swept up from solid floor ranges, not scrounged from the dirt by hand.
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Depends on the caliber. If it's 5.56 or 7.62 the overwhelming vast majority of that was picked up by Joe and Lance Criminal at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune.
 
They sell it all, from any and every source. Some shotgun, but mostly 9, 40, 5.56, standard rounds for police and military. They sell it by truckloads. I think that one auction had ten barrels.

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/

Look the place over, they have brass every few weeks.

I personally go to it because it's one of the funniest places on the internet. They literally sell broken screwdrivers.
 
I recently moved to the Nebraska panhandle. The closest indoor range to me. If I am there by myself they let me police all of my brass. When I get there the floor is always swept clean. Any brass that is not mine I put into the sorting bucket they have. They sell the left brass at a reasonable price, along with lead. The place I went to in Texas the outside range let me have any that I wanted. provided I did not glean the grounds. I cleaned up the area, and put what I was not going to use into the barrels. The indoor range kept all that went ahead of the line. A guy that worked there was active with a floor squeegie making sure that if it hit the floor. It was going ahead of the line. (I shot there on rainy days, and kept it to steel case there.)

If there is a no picking up brass rule. I either do not shoot there. Or shoot steel case, or Berdan primed stuff.
 
At our private outdoor range, we would appreciate any member who would kindly pick up all the brass they could. So long as they aren't being a pain, thief or safety hazard. Then, I could actually find my own brass, without resorting to positioning and a tarp. It is tough to enforce everyone picks up their own brass, as we are busy enough at times to make that a safety hazard.

The private indoor range frequented allows you to pick up your own brass as long as you aren't a pain to other shooters. While someone with lots of time on their hands may want to pick up these places brass to sell, can't see it being worth the effort. Especially if you clean it first.
 
If it’s not your land, you don’t get to make the rules. If you are on someone else’s playground and want to come back to play, follow their rules.

If it bothers you the solution is simple, just find somewhere else to play.
 
In less time than it took me to read this thread, I was able to Google the Indiana DNR and find how to ask a question......

The DNR Customer Service Center staff can answer questions at (317) 232-4200 or (877) 463-6367. The center is at 402 West Washington Street, Room W160A, Indianapolis. It is open 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If you wish to e-mail your question, use the form below.
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I would assume this would give us an answer.


AK Man said:
. Most likely a few dnr guys making a few extra bucks on the side.
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Most likely why? Because a DNR guy is willing to risk his job by lying about DNR regs for a few bucks earned from scrap brass? If that truly is the case the dude needs to be reported, but unless you have actual evidence, making the accusation is lowball.

From what I understand, it is free to shoot at this range. If the cost is your loose brass, I can't see an issue as opposed to paying $20 an hour or more, or a high price membership fee.
 
I actually filled out the email form yesterday. See what they, if they reply to it.

Jmorris, I understand if it was posted then yes agree. But not even a regular sheet at the registration table. Everyone has to see it there if non are to be posted at the range itself. Also, if they are worried about us stealing, then they are doing the same as well. At least don't do it in front of everyone else saying that we can't do it and you do it yourself just because you are DNR but most will agree that they will do what they want to do. That is my view, probably not will agree with me, that is ok too. Not to be whining... as mentioned I don't loose focus why I am there to begin with and if I don't get some then I don't worry about it. Won't lose sleep over it. Heck, I don't always go there looking to get brass either way.

buck460XVR, yeah, I agree with you. I don't have no evidence. I could have easily recorded the guy but it wasn't my intent to do so either way.

I don't do much hand gun shooting so I never tried a tarp. Wonder if they would make a big deal out of that as well. Never seen that been tried before. I did see a few times on hot days, some folks put up a pop up tent. Probably the biggest I have seen is a 6x6.

I guess we have a "luxury" range compared to others. We have some strict ones as well, but don't go to those.

That range, people don't pick up after themselves. They shoot and leave their brass on the dirt/gravel ground. You can see there are a lot of old brass compared to most recent shot brass. Easy to lose your brass with the rest.
 
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Tarps work well, as does rigging up a clear shower curtain on a take-down PVC pipe frame; doesn't take up as much room if you have to share the shooting area with others and let's you and everyone see each other for safety, going downrange, etc.
 
You could even use a folded piece of cardboard and set it to deflect the brass back and left so that it literally drops at your feet. I wonder about a large umbrella even.

There are plenty of easy solutions for simple problems.
 
Just a thought; is a State agency, the Dept of Natural Resources, really going to get into brass recycling? If a government agency tries to sell brass either for scrap or reloading, it will cost the taxpayers twice as much as what money is gained (expensive civil service)....
 
The Indiana DNR ranges used to sell the brass first come first serve at 5.00 a bucket mixed brass.
Supposedly someone broke in to the Kingsbury facility and stole the brass.
I know for a fact one of the range masters there was taking the brass and selling it at one of the local gun shows... I seen him there doing it.
When he was working at Kingsbury he would bring in his wife.. and if you ask to buy the brass mysteriously he would state they had not cleaned it up. His wife was in the back of the booth cherry picking all the brass.
Now they say that at Kingsbury it goes to auction.

At Jasper Pulaski they just changed out all the shooting tables to small little steel tables. Range master said when they are done upgrading the facility there will be buckets... you can pick your own brass up but not others... otherwise will be collected and sold to help off set costs.
Willow Slue range is same way but super anal about picking up even your own brass.

Things are changing and not for the better
 
Just a thought; is a State agency, the Dept of Natural Resources, really going to get into brass recycling? If a government agency tries to sell brass either for scrap or reloading, it will cost the taxpayers twice as much as what money is gained (expensive civil service)....
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Of course they do.

I just posted a few entries back that the federal government sells millions of pounds of brass scavenged from various government owned ranges. I posted a link to an address that hosts GSA auctions, there are probably hundreds of other locations at state capitols or other centers that sell it.

I also pointed out that my range has collection buckets, that they collect it in oil drums. Every state run range will have those collection points and the weekly crew will sweep up what they can. When there are a couple drums stored in the sheds, a crew will load the barrels to a truck and deliver $1,000 or so of either salvage metal or brass for sale to processors. The proceeds will probably go into a general fund or into an earmarked fund.

This is how it works. There isn't a huge amount of money being made by it, not enough to meet payroll, but the it has to be done anyway. It's what government does.

Check the links.

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucalsrh/?sl=51QSCI18539009

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucalsrh/?sl=41QSCI18505003
(scrap steel for salvage)
Condition is used, parts, are missing and repairs may be required.
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They sold a pallet of discharged, non rechargeable batteries once. A broken toilet. A crashed private plane. a gutted blackhawk carcass.

A government agency is not allowed to discard certain things, at certain places, for certain reasons. My wife's office is being renovated; every desk, every cubicle, cabinet, piece of equipment goes right back on the truck that brought the new things in. Then, the men and women at the state prison either refurbish it or sell it at auction so someone else can salvage it.
 
If it’s not your land, you don’t get to make the rules. If you are on someone else’s playground and want to come back to play, follow their rules.

If it bothers you the solution is simple, just find somewhere else to play.
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Oh how I wish that were true . There have been hundreds maybe thousands of things that have been found unconstitutional that people have tried using that same reasoning with . I would have never thought anyone on this board would be OK with suspending the 4th amendment . It does not matter where you are at . Your property is just that , yours . I'll ask the question again . What else of yours should it happen to fall to the ground are you ok with the state or owner of the property keeping and selling for there profit or for what ever other reason they claim is reasonable ? If nothing else , then why is a persons brass acceptable for them to keep ?
 
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Old 454, (finally, someone from Indiana... haha) yes it was at JP Range.

I haven't been to Kingsbury since the beginning of the year. Not planning on going to Willow Slough either.
 
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