Firearms Stack Exchange Archive

Collecting spent casings outside?

I shoot at an outdoor range that requests that we pick up our casings. I currently spent ten to thirty minutes cleaning up after firing. The handgun I shoot does not drop brass in the same spot so I also have to wander all over the bay looking for it. In addition many others don’t pick up their brass, so I always end up picking up twice as much as I fired. While I like helping police up, I’d rather spend more time shooting.

How can I collect spent casings outside in a quick and thorough manner?

Answer 940

There are a couple of schemes that work to some extent - a lot has to do with your range.

  1. Ground cloth. The simplest solution is just a sheet spread out on your ejection side to catch spent brass. Works best in 'bays'.
  2. You can build a PVC frame and make a net bag to fit inside it to catch brass. (Don't use cloth or it will be a sail and blow over all the time). Fine for stationary shooting.
  3. You can get a tool like the Brass Wizard (also sold as the "Nut Wizard" - it was originally designed for picking up nuts. Works great except in rock.
  4. Bring along a friend that's a reloader. You can watch him clean up all the brass, happily.

None of these is a great solution - if such existed, I'm sure we'd all be using it.

Answer 943

There are also various “brass catchers” that mount to a variety of weapons or attach to your hand. They don’t seem to be particularly cheap for what they are.

A couple of examples for pistols (also available for rifles etc..):

I have no personal experience with their effectiveness or convenience during use.

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