Atavar
Member
OK, I’ll admit it I’m bored with a touch of cabin fever.
Right now here in the great white north there is knee deep snow at the range packed down on traffic paths.
I am planning the spring brass gleaning trip to kick start my reloading therapy. I have actually had great luck in the past cleaning up brass that has spent the winter buried under snow and ice where shooters have been too lazy to pick up after themselves.
I have four 5 gallon buckets ready, not because I anticipate 20 gallons of brass but they help in the process.
As soon as the covering snow goes away I head out to the range.
I am old and less limber than I used to be so I start with a first pass getting the easy brass with my handy dandy rolling cage brass picker upper.
Then I dig up the stomped/washed into the dirt brass with a small bow rake and a small spring rake followed by another pass with the picker upper.
All the brass goes in to the first bucket that has the wire spreader for the picker upper on it.
The next step is to run the brass through the cartridge sifter trays to do a coarse sort by caliber. This is the reason for four buckets.
When I am tired of picking up I put a gallon or two of water in each bucket and stir and agitate and strain to remove as much dirt, sand and gravel as possible to save work at home.
Brass is sorted in to gallon baggies. I leave the labeled sorted baggies of calibers I don’t use (I keep 9mm, .45, .300wm) on the bench in the shooting house, unsealed so they have a chance of drying. It just wouldn’t feel right to dump it in the scrap barrel.
If you have any spring gleaning tips or tricks I would love to hear them.
Right now here in the great white north there is knee deep snow at the range packed down on traffic paths.
I am planning the spring brass gleaning trip to kick start my reloading therapy. I have actually had great luck in the past cleaning up brass that has spent the winter buried under snow and ice where shooters have been too lazy to pick up after themselves.
I have four 5 gallon buckets ready, not because I anticipate 20 gallons of brass but they help in the process.
As soon as the covering snow goes away I head out to the range.
I am old and less limber than I used to be so I start with a first pass getting the easy brass with my handy dandy rolling cage brass picker upper.
Then I dig up the stomped/washed into the dirt brass with a small bow rake and a small spring rake followed by another pass with the picker upper.
All the brass goes in to the first bucket that has the wire spreader for the picker upper on it.
The next step is to run the brass through the cartridge sifter trays to do a coarse sort by caliber. This is the reason for four buckets.
When I am tired of picking up I put a gallon or two of water in each bucket and stir and agitate and strain to remove as much dirt, sand and gravel as possible to save work at home.
Brass is sorted in to gallon baggies. I leave the labeled sorted baggies of calibers I don’t use (I keep 9mm, .45, .300wm) on the bench in the shooting house, unsealed so they have a chance of drying. It just wouldn’t feel right to dump it in the scrap barrel.
If you have any spring gleaning tips or tricks I would love to hear them.
