Match brass etiquette

Matt1911 · Oct 8, 2012

Donk: Any POS late 80's or early 90's American heap (preferably an Impala) that has large enough wheels installed until it resembles (and rides and handles like) a Conestoga wagon. This is done so it sits up high enough so as to be at the same eye level as the Playas with real juice ridin in their Escalades. Adding in a bad candy paint job and Wal-Mart sub box completes the transformation. With no money left over for necessary suspension and brake upgrades, the lifespan is limited to a few drug runs or the first Police chase, whichever occurs first.

Nice. I guess my rims need to be a little bigger and then I'll duct tape a walkman to it with some ipod speakers and we be rollin dirty dirty lookin fo shorties and sippin on 40's

Safcpt · Oct 8, 2012

In the old days (this is what I was told anyway), didn't the shooter throw down a bag for his brass and someone would pick his brass up for him or am I mistaken. When I first started loading 45ACP, brass was hard to find and I would pick my brass up while they scored my run and nobody seemed to care. That's when I was told that people used to set down a bag or something and someone would take it upon himself to pick up the shooters brass, but I haven't seen that happen. I haven't been to many matches though.

Burk Cornelius · Oct 8, 2012

Safcpt said:
In the old days (this is what I was told anyway), didn't the shooter throw down a bag for his brass and someone would pick his brass up for him or am I mistaken. When I first started loading 45ACP, brass was hard to find and I would pick my brass up while they scored my run and nobody seemed to care. That's when I was told that people used to set down a bag or something and someone would take it upon himself to pick up the shooters brass, but I haven't seen that happen. I haven't been to many matches though.

In theory that sounds good but I haven't seen it work that way. The person who told you that may have witnessed the Chambers method, which is similar

Chambers said:
I follow the shooter around catching their empties in a 5 gallon bucket while they are running the stage.

Wall · Oct 8, 2012

Safcpt said:
In the old days (this is what I was told anyway), didn't the shooter throw down a bag for his brass and someone would pick his brass up for him or am I mistaken. When I first started loading 45ACP, brass was hard to find and I would pick my brass up while they scored my run and nobody seemed to care. That's when I was told that people used to set down a bag or something and someone would take it upon himself to pick up the shooters brass, but I haven't seen that happen. I haven't been to many matches though.

I've heard that some clubs have a designated spot in the shooting rotation to shag brass for the current shooter. All others in the squad should be doing their jobs, either RO'ing resetting or getting ready to shoot.

If there's no designated brass shag spot in the shooting rotation, You should probably pick up YOUR brass right after your done shooting or after the squad is done with that stage or wait until after the match & have at it. Shagging brass between other shooters is pretty unfair to the rest of the members of your squad because your making them do your part in resetting the stage while your picking up brass. If you've got 1 or 2 guys picking up brass & only 3 or 4 resetting the stage instead of 5 or 6, It makes for a long day.

MrTheBigOx · Oct 8, 2012

Our range is pretty small and everyone is normally ready to shoot, so every one pitches in scores resets and picks up brass as we go. Well for pistol anyway the other stuff just gets chucked out of the way

ChrisC · Oct 8, 2012

We used to pick up brass after every shooter while others taped and reset. Didn't cause any delays. then people just seemed to stop caring about brass.

dennishoddy · Oct 8, 2012

Safcpt said:
In the old days (this is what I was told anyway), didn't the shooter throw down a bag for his brass and someone would pick his brass up for him or am I mistaken. When I first started loading 45ACP, brass was hard to find and I would pick my brass up while they scored my run and nobody seemed to care. That's when I was told that people used to set down a bag or something and someone would take it upon himself to pick up the shooters brass, but I haven't seen that happen. I haven't been to many matches though.

In the not so old days, for some of the club matches, when a shooter went thru, others picked up the brass, and gave it to the shooter.

That kind of went away when some declined the recovered brass.

Some folks don't reload, and brass recovery is not an issue for them. No problem.

No.343 · Oct 10, 2012

I shot matches in Ohio where the "in the deep hole" shooter was assigned brass pick up. I was surprised the first time someone asked for my brass bag.

Wall · Oct 10, 2012

No.343 said:
I shot matches in Ohio where the "in the deep hole" shooter was assigned brass pick up. I was surprised the first time someone asked for my brass bag.

This is what I was talking about

Zekernst · Oct 14, 2012

I will tell all first hand, don't pick up 9mm if somebody at the match is shooting 9 major! It bulges the bases quite a bit!

Riich · Oct 14, 2012

ChrisC said:
We used to pick up brass after every shooter while others taped and reset. Didn't cause any delays. then people just seemed to stop caring about brass.

That seems to be the case around here as well. (Unless you were shooting some flavor of .38 Super or a moonclipped revolver)

I generally wait to pick up what ever brass I find that I would use use, on the last bay that I finish on (after clean up).

Charlie-2-6 · Oct 29, 2012

Here's how they overhere in Europistan at the DSR matches: the guy who shot the run before yours picks up your brass, after you've shot your match, you take a bucket and pick up the next shooter's brass, (ejected) live rounds, mags & any other stuff he/she might have dropped during his/her run.
Since most of the matches are held indoor & the "brass - concrete floor - shoe" is not an ideal combination, the RO & range crew are pretty anal about picking brass.
The last match I shot was a testmatch for the organising club, so they were under close scrutiny from the APS-DSR federation AND were being tested on things like picking up brass. The went so far as that one of the "inspectors" asked me "to forget" picking up an empty casing just to test the organising crew & head RO.
Had they failed to pick up that single round, they wouldn't have been allowed to organise a match on their own.