AR15 brass catcher

[TomD]

I'll do the 1st serious shooting of my 6.5 Grendel upper this coming weekend. I've got a couple of boxes of factory stuff but mostly I'll be shooting reloads. And since my brass is new Lapua that cost $1 per round, I really want to keep it. At my home range north of Atlanta, I found that when shooting AR's from a bench, I could place a range box beside the rifle about a couple of feet to the side and angled to the rear and the empties would hit it and bounce and land behind me. It maybe would take a shot or three to get the placement and angle perfect.

Won't be at a nice civilized range this coming weekend and just bought a brass catcher. It occurs to me that I've watched, for decades, hundreds of fanatic AR competitors, a fair number world class, who reload shooting both practice and competition. And I've not seen the 1st brass catcher being used.

Why not? Anyone here both reload and shoot AR's in competition? If you're shooting an AR in grass, it kicks it out there and you'd lose 60% + of your brass. Reloaders ain't gonna put up with that. Why have I never seen a brass catcher in operation?

 

[Someone_else]

If you're shooting an AR in grass, it kicks it out there and you'd lose 60% + of your brass.

Is it possible to take a lawnmower there and clear the grass first?

 

[TomD]

Is it possible to take a lawnmower there and clear the grass first?

Mostly no.

 

[Goldhedge]

Go early and roundup the grass?

Is there some unwritten rule that one can't collect their brass?

 

[southfork]

Or use a brass catcher. https://www.gunmann.com/ar-15-brass-catchers/

 

[newmisty]

Or use a brass catcher. https://www.gunmann.com/ar-15-brass-catchers/

SF, did you even read the op?

 

[southfork]

SF, did you even read the op?

Me bad,, just glanced the first part, sorry

 

[TomD]

Go early and roundup the grass?

Is there some unwritten rule that one can't collect their brass?

No rule at all, it's considered normal, even mandatory, to police your own brass. But the extraction out of this Grendel is energetic to say the least, out of the rifle going 20'+ at 2 o'clock and not a tight group at all. Even after a hard search, I'd probably lose 35% and that sucks with $1 each Lapua brass. Not my property so I can't mow or roundup.

With my bolt guns, I'll wear a barrel out with 100 pieces of brass and still have every piece. A good thing, you wouldn't believe the amount of work that goes into prepping "tight neck" competition brass. With 6mm PPC, that I shoot a lot of, the brass starts off with an entirely different round, a .220 Russian. Step 1 is to expand the neck to 6mm. Then fire form it, put a bunch of fast pistol powder in it and cap it with cotton balls or crème of wheat cereal (really) and fire it in the rifle to literally blow the brass cartridge up to fill the new chamber. (called fireforming) Then turn the cartridge necks on a lathe so the cartridges, when loaded with a bullet, are EXACTLY .002" smaller than and perfectly concentric with the chamber they are loaded in. Then trim all the cartridges so that they are all the same length to within .001". Equalize the primer flash hole and you're almost there.

Do all this and buy a $4000 rifle custom built for you and a $2000 scope, several thousand more for other gear, spend a few years learning to shoot wind conditions, travel constantly to matches and you might be a successful benchrest competitor. Disclosure, really successful BR shooters will also buy 10 or more $400 barrels every year looking for the "Hummer".

I've had 2 hummers during my intensive competition days. It's amazing what a good shooter you become. Had one that lasted for two seasons in the early 2000's. You still have to have your shooting technique down and wind reading but that barrel would print consistent 0.25" 5 round groups at 200 yards. Not a single .25" (at 200 yards) group but 5 in a row, in competition, when EVERY shot counted. I could do low teens (0.13 or less) at a hundred with that gun.

I shot that gun mostly for another game, VFS, varmint for score. In that, you'll shoot 5 targets at 100 and 5 at 200, ten targets total. Each target will have 5 bulls eyes on it, the 10 ring will be 1/2 moa (1/2' @ 100 & 1" @ 200) with a dot (X-ring) in the center. I shot one (maybe the first) of the first 500-50X (perfect score, hit the X all 50 times) ever shot. In the early 2000's it was a really big deal to shoot 500, no matter the X count. Think about it, hit a 1/2" bull 25 times in a row at 100 yards and then follow it up with hitting a 1' bull 25 times in a row at 200 yards. Every shot counts.

 

[negative1]

Buy one of these. Use it set up the long way on the bench (ejection port side). It catches brass really well and folds up really small.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/st...VA3iGCh3qZgq4EAQYASABEgIBqPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds