range etiquette re semiautos

G

gringojosh

New member
I am looking at the Ruger Mini-14 Target as a range gun, but am wondering about the way it tosses shells. I wouldn't want to be the guy getting hit with all that hot brass as it comes flying out. What do you do if you shoot a gun like this on a firing line? Just try to avoid chucking shells at your neighbor?
 
Semi autos, rifles and pistols throw shells, we all know, or should know that.

There are means to reduce the effect. An example, I shoot rapid fire in the classic prone and setting HP positions. I try to line up my shooting stool to defect the brass.

I may move it if someone on the other side of me is dumping brass that affects me.

I like to direct my brass where it's easier to police but I'm more concerned where the bullet goes then where the brass goes.

Brass flies, it happens, do to the vast numbers of semis out there now we expect to get hit once in a while. We can't keep people from setting up next to us, if we try, then its us that's rude, not the guy shooting. We can't expect people to go home because we don't like their brass.

Its part of the game, try to defect it if you reasonably can, then don't worry about it.
 
If possible I set up at the station on the far right so as not to throw brass at others.

The range I use came up with a very inexpensive, practical solution. They made 4' square frames made with 1X2 lumber with window screen material. They hung them from the roof over the shooting benches between some of the benches. Not all, but about 4 stations have the screen in between stations. If you are shooting a semi, you are supposed to use a station with the screen to your right. They catch the brass and leave it in a pile in between stations and do not allow it to hit other shooters.
 
A buddy set up on the far right bench one day and pretty soon two guys came looking for him. His Mini-14 was throwing empties over the side berm & through the woods and pelting the benches on the next range over.
 
The Mini-14 and many of the ARs/AKs really toss the brass.

When I shoot those rifles, the range has a shield you can put on the side of the bench to keep the brass under control.

A friend of mine was shooting a Ruger 22 pistol and some guy came and set up to his right and just came unglued when he got hit by a couple of pieces of brass.

You can try to keep it under control but flying brass is one of the things that goes along with shooting.

I have never been bothered by 22lr but some guys shooting .40s do toss some brass my way and it does burn. Usually just a word with them and the problem is solved.

Some people, on the other hand, are happiest when they have something to complain about.

Geetarman:D
 
i use a brass catcher i made from pvc and a pillow case. my range also has screens between each firing position so you dont give someone a brass shower
 
I bring my two-rifle hard case and open the lid, placed to my right, assuming I can't get the right lane and there are no screens.

OTOH, if I am on the right, and the other guy's brass is hitting me, I stage the open case to my left.
 
My SR9c throws brass pretty authoritatively to the right. I had a father and his young son set up next to me at the range. When I realized I was showering them with brass, I apologized and tried to rig up a deflector, but the guy insisted it was no big deal, and just part of shooting.
 
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I got the idea about two years ago from an "old timer" (older than me, anyway) that took the bandanna off his dog and put it on his rifle right in front of me. At the time I was using a snazzy store-bought deflector which still works very well with the 5.56 Upper (drops`em right on the table). But the 6.5 Grendel's ejection path takes it just off the table even w/ that deflector -- hence the simple bandanna.

Never a bolt snag (the stoner design is all internal, and the gas gets ported into the bandanna just at ejection start to form a really nifty little "catcher's mitt" cavity) It quickly traps the casing and drops it right there. (You can see the gas residue on the bandanna in the pic.)

Works with any scope gap and/or carry handle.
 
I've thought about buying a portable folding target holder just so I can use it as a block for flying brass. I could use corrogated plastic sheets as the stop. The good thing is that it can double as a portable folding target holder. :D
 
Suggest to your range owners that they use screening between firing stations, as mine does ... I've been hit a few times by brass coming off the screen, but my neighbors shoot on, unaffected by my ejected brass ... it's a cheap and excellent solution ...
 
I have two small scars on my back where successive 308 casings landed on me in a HP match where I was wearing a thin polymer shirt and it melted through and burned me. It happens.
I have shot my mini with my local CMP club, I just go to the far right position, or the second from last as it almost always throws over the next shooter.
 
The small group I shoot with, 4 regulars, is usually the only ones there on Sundays. We each have a few bolties and a few semis. We tend to shoot from the same points, and we usually silently accept the rain of brass from the guy who brought his semi that day. What goes around always comes around, so you can be sure you will be showering someone else the next week. Just one of the joys of the range.
 
Don't you get to keep any brass that hits you? :)

I set my range back to my right to keep my brass close. I also try to move as far to the right as possible.

I like the screens and the mil-spec bandana, though. Doesn't Bro***nels sell a carbon fiber, after-market bandana?
 
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