Range brass pickup?

I am a RSO/instructor at an indoor range and RSO's have a great policy. We ask if you are saving your brass and we push all unwanted brass toward that customer. If you come into our range you WILL go home with far more casings than you started with.

What makes more sense, pushing it out of the bay and selling it as scrap for a couple bucks per pound or having a lot of very happy oft returning customers?
 
The OSHA angle is nonsense and the story about major fines to customers is equally.

I understand the idea behind "lost brass" facilities. When its crowded turn-over time is important and having people scurrying around trying to police their own brass is annoying. Further some people might actually care about "their" particular brass. I also don't need someone trying to hawk brass from active shooters as it hits the floor. For the vast majority of shooters its just not worth the hassle. I can see where the rules are formed and made and why. Frankly its a shooting range. The less different activities that are going on the easier it is to supervise and assure no accidents occur.

I can also see why exceptions are made: if you are shooting some non-standard caliber then the brass becomes more of an issue to you then most people. If you are shooting during some non-peak time it really doesn't matter if you pick up a couple dollars (really what is it) worth of brass. Giving away something that, even if sorted, is a minimal profit driver to make anything during non-peak hours seems to be pretty straight forward.

I don't care. I don't reload so...
 
Prndll, brass catchers do not catch everything. We had 4 pistols with us yesterday and each one throw brass in a different direction. The 380 I shoot throws it right over your head and behind you. My Taurus PT92 drops them right on the bench while my wife's XD Mod2 throws them half way up the wall.

If the range is busy I will collect what is in my lane or directly behind me and will not violate someone else's space. So yes there is a loss incurred when the range is busy.
 
I understand.

I have mainly two ranges that a frequent (occasionally a third). I've just never been all that worried about it. Maybe that will change. Who knows what life will be in the future? I've wondered about keeping it and melting it down for other things (maybe a brass keyboard for my computer). But I just don't have the time for stuff like that. It's hard enough for me to find time to be at the range to begin with. If the range wants it, I'll consider it a tip. An added thank you for letting me fire my guns within their four walls.

What does annoy me though (what I consider somewhat rude) is getting hit by other shooters' flying brass.

I have a friend that cannot stand firing her husbands .40S&W Glock because of flinging brass. She has become quite comfortable firing their .357 revolver. Atleast for the indoor range they go to.
 
mehavey, after reading that link to the OSHA citations it made me wonder if this wasn't the same dirtbag that I ran into. The range sited is very close to the second range that these new owners also own and hold classes. If it wasn't the same person well then he seemed to be very familiar with this case.
 
o matter who owns/runs the range they can have a policy.

Many have a after the shutdown cleanup by brass sellers.

You can keep your own brass, you are not supposed to pick up someone elses brass if they leave it.

I will ask, sometimes they will offer it as they see I reload.

The only issue we ever had was a shooter who was picking up our brass, that got pretty testy. Our cases were on the edge of his shooting area, but the accepted MO is that you let the shooter pick up his brass as yours is going right as well.
 
I am fortunate and do not have to go to ranges. I shoot on my property. Even then Mother Nature acts as the Range Manager and keeps some of my brass.
 
Sounds like a classic case of a policy that makes customer mad. The employee stuck enforcing the policy gets berated by customers that’s aggravated by the fact that it’s company policy and not some law.
Employee discovers that by saying that it’s an OSHA rule, most people won’t question it. worker has a much better day.
I’ve seen that happen at other businesses as well.
 
--how would you be able to 'know' what's yours if the shooter in the next lane is working with the same caliber (if that matters)?
Click to expand...

I shot in an old duffers bullseye league for a while where EVERYBODY reloaded and almost everybody shot .45 ACP 1911's. (and almost everybody shot 200 grain lead semi-wadcutters with just enough Bullseye powder to get the bullet down range with enough force to punch a hole in the paper target. Getting thru the cardboard backer was optional. :D)

Everybody marked their brass and after a course of fire everybody picked up the brass in their own lanes. If it was yours you kept it if it wasn't you set it case head up on the table behind the line.

We didn't think anything of it but one of the members brought a guest one night that described the range as 'Bang, bang, bang. Scramble, scramble, scramble.'

Marking your brass was everything from one guy with his own head stamp punch, to another guy that put a dab of 'Corvette Yellow' on his brass to most everybody else picking out a specific magic marker color and running it across their brass right before they shot it. Took less than 10 seconds to run the marker across all the heads in one of the plastic reloading boxes everybody seemed to use.

Most of these guys were protective about their brass. Firing powder puff target loads most of them had no idea how many times the cases had been reloaded. 10 or 15 times? Most would shrug and just say 'at least'. When new members showed up that didn't know about the markings somebody would solemnly tell them we had all named all our cases so we could tell them apart and then after a course of fire everybody would softly mutter different names as we picked up our brass.
 
mehavey said:
and here's what OSHA did cite "that other range" for:
https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/I...82_0608_12.pdf
See p 22 (-- which is a heckuva reach (IMHO) for even OSHA. ),
and p 42 (-- which shows that the employee's sweeping was -- itself -- an OSHA violation.
Click to expand...
Correct. And since OSHA only applies to employees, what would be a violation for an employee would be totally beyond OSHA jurisdiction for a customer.


BTW: What's described in this citation could be used -- deliberately so -- to shut down 99% of all indoor ranges.
Click to expand...
Considering that this was in Illinois and in 2012, my immediate reaction was that the Obama administration really wanted to put this range out of business. When you get to the lead contamination violations, it seems they used the same exposure as the basis for a half dozen separate charges, each with a separate penalty. Talk about piling on!
 
"He then goes on to start telling me that we are not allowed to pick up our range brass anymore because of some new OSHA regulation and that the other range on the other side of town was just busted with thousand dollar fines going to both the range, the shooter and anyone else that was present for not reporting it. Somehow I do not believe this and believe it to be BS."

Yep, it's BS. Or, an imperfect understanding of OSHA regulations regarding exposing EMPLOYEES, not customers, to lead.

There have been ranges fined in the past cited for knowingly exposing employees to both lead and noise issues (https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region3/05102016)
 
Well folk here's the scoop. Just got back from talking with the GM of the range and he remembered us being there Sunday and even which lanes we were in. So I explained what occurred and he tells me that he is fine with sweeping up our own brass or that of those around us with their permission, just not to go rummaging thru the barrel. And as it turns out the guy does work for them as an instructor and that is his only capacity. He told me he would talk with this guy about it.

So for now the issue has been resolved!
 
That's pretty much the way it's been at every range I've ever shot at. If it's on the floor, you can sweep it up (squeegee and a dust pan). If your neighbor OK's it you can take theirs too. You just can't rummage through the bucket. Although I have been allowed to do that a time or two. Usually when they remember they dumped some revolver brass in there.
 
I am in California and even with its draconian laws the pistol range I use allows members to pick up there brass. I don't know about non members.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top