Spent Brass Collection

One of the best parts about reloading ammunition by hand is that it saves so much money, due in large part to the fact that we can pick up free brass off the ground. One of the worst parts about reloading, however, is the fact that we have to pick up the free brass off the ground! It’s literally a pain.

I’ve tried a couple things to assist with this process, and I’ll begin with the one that I’ve used the most over the years….

The next time your wife decides to buy new bedding, grab that old flat sheet (aka, the thin bed sheet you sleep directly under) before your wife throws it in the trash. Handloaders are masters at recycling, and here is another example of how we can re-use rather than throw away. By strategically spreading this large sheet out where your gun tosses its brass, you’ll find that most of the cases will come to rest atop it, and what is missed will lay relatively nearby. 

At the end of the shooting session, simply fold it in by the corners, and your brass will collect in the middle with relatively few rocks and dirt mixed in, and it can be conveniently carried home just like that.

A word of warning with the top sheet technique, though, is that even the slightest breeze will flip the edges and make you grumble. Either bring some sort of weights (cheap cornhole bags work great, by the way) or sew weights directly to the edges (like cheap cornhole bags!) to keep it in place. It is possible to purchase picnic blankets with weights already built in, but in my experience picnic blankets don’t tend to be large enough, especially relative to a king- or queen-sixed blanket.

A second option can be found in the “rolling cage on a stick” that is designed to pick up the brass for you, without all the bending over. I have mixed feelings about these things, as they work okay but tend to pick up rocks right along with the brass. In doing a quick Internet search, it looks like the newest versions now come with telescoping handles, which looks very appealing for transportation purposes. If you shoot indoors or on a cemented area, then I’d definitely give one of these a try, but my feelings are iffy when it comes to getting them to work on the dirt.

Finally, I saved the best for last: bring your kids to the range! You had them for a reason, right?