Range Brass......Why Would You?

I am wondering why anyone would pick up range brass for reloading purposes?

First.....how would you determine if it has already been reloaded and how many times it has been fired?

Then there are mixed headstamps....case thicknesss....neck tensions....etc.

Just wondering why so many people do it.

Overheard a guy last week picking up brass and noticed a split and he said, “it isn’t too bad...I bet I can get another firing out of it.”

Because almost every time, it is once fired.

Handloaders will take their brass with them. People that buy ammo, will leave it there.

Clean it, size it, trim it, load it. It was no money, just some time.

Plus, my place would look trashy if I left all the brass lying around. .223 and .308 are by far the most available brass lying on the ground.

On your range....that is different. You are there to see and know it is once fired.

When I get to my last loading of my brass.....I leave it at the range for recycling.

FREEdom brass

Because none of that matters. If you only shoot a certain headstamp, sort it and toss/sell the rest.

My ARs and pistols all get mixed headstamp.

Don't pick it up. No one is trying to convince you to.

I'm cheap.

I wouldn't say all or even most but a lot of the brass has crimped in primers at least in the 223/556 making it easy to tell if it's once fired

I can say that I have never picked up any brass that I can remember that was worn out. I would guess that lots of 223/ 308 brass is second fired as there are folks like Black Hills who reload once fired and sell it as such but still it’s good for several more reloads.
Even if you picked up someone’s old worn out brass once you primed it you would know immediately and could toss it.
I have been known to ruin a piece of brass on occasion especially when working with no load data and running a ladder of powder charges trying to find where excessive pressure is. I can tell next reloading of that brass once I hit that piece and the primer slides in too easy. I always toss it and move on.

Of course I don’t go looking for problems so the guy who picked up a case with a split neck was either joking or an idiot.

We've got some farm property where my nephew has set up a shooting range, so I don't often go to a commercial range. The few commercial ranges I've visited don't want anyone scavenging brass other than their own. They want to collect and recycle it themselves. However, when I go out to the farm and my nephew and his buddies have been there recently, I collect brass. I'm not shooting in any competition, I just shoot hogs. If my accuracy is off by another ½MOA I don't really care. I've collected hundreds of .223 brass and converted it to 300 BLK and not noticed any issues.

Way back I would go to several indoor ranges, (night time usually) I have asked to pick some brass up, or to buy some from them.
Yep, I wanted to save some $. I asked what they were being paid per pound, and offered to match it. Most of the time they told me to just grab some. I changed scopes before a State Draw hunt, sighted it in at a Indoor 100 yard range. Went back to the counter and ask if I could take the brass around the bench, he told me to clean up "my mess" I did, when I left he laughed and said, your welcome!
Score 40+ rounds of 300 Weatherby brass, and their boxes! Today I go to a private club range, or my son's property.

I wouldn't put any unknown brass in my precision rifle but my 6.8 is just for killing hogs. She's a dirty gal that takes on any and all brass.

Ive picked up some in the past, but don't frequent public shooting ranges too often. Put a little work into most factory brass and it shoots just fine. If you pick up enough you can sort it and toss what you dont want and keep the rest matching head stamp. Many times I have "picked up" range brass it was as easy as walking past the trash can and snagging a couple boxes with the cases already stuck back in the shell holders.

I have even loaded and shot mixed head stamp brass hunting. At 100 yard feeder hunting etc. you can get away with a lot! At one point I had 6 or 7 loads ranging from factory 130 grain bronze points to handloaded 90 grain speer tnt HP's and 150 grain partitions that would shoot a whole about the size of a quarter at 100 yards if you interchanged them randomly. It doesn't always work that way but sometimes it does.

Sure pick it up, clean it, use it traded it give to others to used

I appreciate the replies.

Having only precision rifles framed my view.