Empty Cartridges

[super sharp shooter]

If we followed the logic of "I've paid good money to shoot not to tidy up" then do those same people just throw their litter on the floor wherever they are, town & city streets, pavement outside their house, at the cinema, theatre or restaurant? After all they pay their council tax and their admittance fees and some of that goes towards cleaning!

 

In my ever so humble opinion those "leave them for the hired help to pick up" are either bone idle ******** or their hand/eye co-ordination is so poor they can't catch the empties to throw in the bin, in which case should they have a gun in their hands?

 

Only shooters who could be excused from binning their empties at the clay ground are semi auto users and then only on the basis that it would hold up those waiting to shoot, no reason why the marker/scorer/referee should not be given one of those magnetic wands and during a lull pick up the s/a empties.

This of course is only a temporary measure until I am promoted to King when I will immediately ban semi autos from clay shooting, not just Hatstands but even the posh ones

 

Potter

I don't pay my taxes as I don't can't be bothered to work and I don't even use bins when I'm out. I also throw all of my rubbish out of my car window.

 

I love the fact that people make assumptions about people when they don't know them.

Edited December 19, 2011 by super sharp shooter

[krugerandsmith]

+ 1 apart from the last sentence

At one of the grounds I shoot at there are magnet sticks at every layout, I catch them if I am using the o/u and tidy up before moving on with the semi, unless another squad are waiting and then I apologise to the trapper if there is one, that is usually sufficient. At the others, where I usually just practice, I carry my own magnet stick and clear up myself, the only exception are shells that have been ejected beyond the safety ropes. Park lodge had such a problem with lazy ******* leaving shells everywhere, they just said "tidy up or we charge you more" and had magnet sticks available to take round. Magically, everyone (well nearly) started picking up, great how financial incentives can work, isn't it?

On another note, maybe the people who leave litters of shells around don't appreciate the safety issues. I am walking disabled, as are a significant number of shooters, and I find that a concrete stand littered with empty shells is like walking on ballbearings and grease, I have enough problems to cope with - SO PICK THEM UP please. Funnily enough, a lot of the shells I find littered around are 6.5's, not too common for close up sporting clay shots, game shooters surely know better! (not that I am pointing fingers ) Either way, litter is litter. Have a good christmas, everybody..

 

Bloke.

All my pals and myself use....Telescopic Magnetic sticks. Very cheap to buy.

[berties]

As long as you make a effort to pick them up!It depends on your relationship with the trappers and ground staff,at one ground we always give one of the trappers a shot to say thanks,so I personally do my thing and pick up

[Hamster]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned picking up their plastic wads too!

 

 

 

Or am I the only one who does that?

 

Precisely the reason I changed to 21 gram steel years ago, if you learn to minimise gun movement and take them all in the same spot it's then a matter of minutes sweeping the pellets up with a dustbin lid size magnet I have made specifically for this purpose.

 

All clay grounds nowadays provide bins so it's easy to slap them in as you shoot, but it does make you wonder what we used to do back in the 80's , no bins, no fuss, no cartwheeling arrrsse over head tripping on time bomb spent shells, took minutes per stand to pick everything up.

[Caisterboy]

Pick 'em up lazy so'n'so's!!!! Gameshooters from posh driven shoots are worst culprits - empty shells all over the place 'cos they're used to having minion's loading and picking up for them in case they get their hands dirty

My pet hate is people who for whatever reason have been taught that a great way to unload a gun is to tip the barrels up in the air & try and break the gun and hit a bucket with an upturned gun - ridiculous method, with gun waving around all over the place!!! I've had many a discussion with people about why that isn't a good idea - particularly when i'm reffing or standing behind waiting my turn!

Just my tuppence worth.

[Hamster]

 

My pet hate is people who for whatever reason have been taught that a great way to unload a gun is to tip the barrels up in the air & try and break the gun and hit a bucket with an upturned gun - ridiculous method, with gun waving around all over the place!!! I've had many a discussion with people about why that isn't a good idea - particularly when i'm reffing or standing behind waiting my turn!

Just my tuppence worth.

 

 

Same here, if you practice something long enough it becomes second nature and you can make it look effortless; except tipping shells in a bin with an upturned gun, it always looks horrible. :lol:

[Jega]

i always pick a few carts up at the end of my go not all of mine but a handfull and others aswell . at the end of the day a few muck in and tidy up ect i try make sure all carts around "pegs" are all picked

 

many hands make light work

 

 

 

Yep thats pretty much what me and my lad do ,leave it as you would like to find it.

[Guest cookoff013]

if the hulls go out the cage we cant touch them or we got shouted at.

 

so they are just left till the end of the day.

[Sco77w]

Same here, if you practice something long enough it becomes second nature and you can make it look effortless; except tipping shells in a bin with an upturned gun, it always looks horrible. :lol:

 

and apparently its not too good for your ejectors either.

[Mr Potter]

I don't pay my taxes as I don't can't be bothered to work and I don't even use bins when I'm out. I also throw all of my rubbish out of my car window.

 

I love the fact that people make assumptions about people when they don't know them.

 

SSS,

 

I might not know those people but I don't think I made any assumptions. If you care to re-read the post I think I asked a (possibly rhetorical) question, "then DO those same people" and finished the sentence with a question mark.

 

But please feel free to assume I'd made an assumption as I still think o/u & sbs users who don't put their empties in the bin at clay grounds are either bone idle or arrogant If they then go on to drop litter in the street or throw rubbish from their cars then I wouldn't honestly be surprised.

 

The argument used in this thread that we aren't asked to pick up our wads or spent shot is just plain ridiculous not a good analogy to make at all so I won't waste the few minutes of my life required to refute it.

 

Potter

[Thunderbird]

I shot a flush the other day and we were told there would be a mass pickup at the end.

 

It was sooooo weird not catching my carts and binning them. Just felt wrong!

[Hamster]

SSS,

 

 

The argument used in this thread that we aren't asked to pick up our wads or spent shot is just plain ridiculous not a good analogy to make at all so I won't waste the few minutes of my life required to refute it.

 

Potter

 

 

Just so you know from the start I started binning my shells as soon as it became fashionable, I say this because when I started in the early 80's it was a non issue pure and simple. We all enjoyed ejecting our shells, nobody fell over them, nobody got accused of living in a pigsty and nobody had to spend hours collecting others rubbish. What in reality happened was a quick, and I mean quick, sweep up at the end by all of us at the straw balers or if it was a competition then the scorer generally tidied up in between lulls of boredom when nobody was shooting his stand.

 

Now that you know where I'm coming from and that I am not opposed to binning them, could you explain to me why the analogy of spent plastic wads is so ridiculous? It seems to me a case of out of sight out of mind?

[Mr Potter]

Just so you know from the start I started binning my shells as soon as it became fashionable, I say this because when I started in the early 80's it was a non issue pure and simple. We all enjoyed ejecting our shells, nobody fell over them, nobody got accused of living in a pigsty and nobody had to spend hours collecting others rubbish. What in reality happened was a quick, and I mean quick, sweep up at the end by all of us at the straw balers or if it was a competition then the scorer generally tidied up in between lulls of boredom when nobody was shooting his stand.

 

Now that you know where I'm coming from and that I am not opposed to binning them, could you explain to me why the analogy of spent plastic wads is so ridiculous? It seems to me a case of out of sight out of mind?

Straw baler I started at was the same, we all had to take our turn at trapping and at the end of the day we all had to pick up the unbroken clays and, as in my opinion, a futile gesture the largest pieces of the broken ones!!

 

I think there is a distinct difference in what goes on at registered competition shoots and that at small club type shoots. At the smaller club type shoots if there is a problem with plaswads they just ban them and have a fibre only rule, I've never heard of a club that insists on picking up plaswads but I suppose this forum proves there is nowt as queer as folk

As I said the little club I started at we had to pick up clays both unbroken and the largest bits of broken ones but not the plaswads, it was grazing land but to this day I don't know why we did it, when we'd finished it didn't look any different and I suppose we had about 2 small buckets of broken clays.

 

At registered or competition shoots I would be interested as to your opinion as to what point in the proceedings you would pick up the wads? After every shooter, blow a whistle, stop shooting on adjacent stands and wander out into the field/shrubbery/woods etc. until you come back with your six, eight, ten wads then next shooter please. You could wait till the end and then ask all those left on the ground to comb the fields, oh after they'd picked up all the empties round the stands of course. Not going to happen is it? Empties not binned are unsightly and although not exactly a tripping hazard I have had to kick enough of them out of the way to get a stable footing on the stand. In my little world I don't want to stand in a pile of rubbish when I'm shooting especially when the effort involved in catching your ejected carts and throwing them in the bin is virtually nil. I'm not sure if it's a rule but in the FITASC disciplines refs will admonish you if you don't bin them (not sure about semi autos but they will be banned soon anyway)

 

So to sum up, at competition shoots registered or otherwise, bin the empties or don't shoot and at straw balers do what the **** you want if you are happy standing in the middle of a pile of waste and the (often unpaid) organiser is happy to clean up after you that's his or her stupidity. As for picking up plaswads please feel free but try not to hold me up whilst your doing it.

 

Potter

[Hamster]

 

At registered or competition shoots I would be interested as to your opinion as to what point in the proceedings you would pick up the wads?

Potter

 

 

 

That is precisely my point, you can't. You can't retrieve plaswads anymore than you can spent pellets, yet they are a waste product, the latter potentially harmful in large enough quantities if it were to cause seepage into waterways. Yet we don't make such a fuss about them, many including myself would be loath to shoot felt/fibre on performance and recoil grounds. We have no way of cleansing certain grounds from lead or steel for that matter yet we seem oblivious to their build up.

 

My only issue whenever this delicate subject of binning shells comes up is the mild hypocrisy that goes with it. All I'm saying is that at least with spent cartridge cases they are almost always instantly recoverable so no real harm is ever done even if one or two fail to catch theirs or use auto's for instance. One of the things that used to really wind me up is certain grounds used to hang a black plastic liner on a nail and expected you to dispose of your shells as you shot. Fine in theory but in practice they soon filled up or twisted shut in the wind, and if you happen to be trying to concentrate at a registered comp that's the kind of distraction you can do without. The other minor distraction is their placement, I'm right handed but can understand if left handers feel cheesed off having to contort and alter their otherwise fluid movements to live with the bin being in the wrong place.

[Diceman]

We are a fibre only club because the land owner wants it that way. We pick up unbroken clays because it saves us money and we pick up plastic wads whilst we are at it because some people are too arrogant to believe that the rules apply to them too. They don't half get whiny when we catch them at it and ban them though.

 

Most people use the bins too because they are smart enough to realise that less work at the end of the shoot means fewer trappers means lower costs.

 

We have some left handed shooters too and they are really smart because they have come up with a cunning plan to ensure that the bin is where they want it before they start to shoot...

[cant hit rabbits 123]

We have to bin all our empties, unless you're using an auto, then they are picked up at the end. The clays just naturally break down after being exposed to the elements for two weeks as far as I know, as there's little left in the way of broken clay about at the begining of the day of the next shoot. As for plastic wads, they all get picked up by the mower when the grass is cut every other month or so.

[Mike525steel]

...i think they burn them after

 

I hope not. I don't think that's legal anymore

[landyboy]

I hope not. I don't think that's legal anymore

 

yes they sure do along with any owls, water vole, shell ducks or hungarians shot on the day

[Peathag]

Same here, if you practice something long enough it becomes second nature and you can make it look effortless; except tipping shells in a bin with an upturned gun, it always looks horrible. :lol:

 

 

Yep - I have witnessed many an imbecile spend more time and effort trying to eject the spent shells from his upside down shotgun at arms length (where there is no leverage) to open the gun than actually trying to hit the targets - absolute muppets. I always pop my shells in the bin unless I am shooting a semi or a flush in which case it sometimes will be done afterwards being careful not to baulk the next gun in the cage.

[david hunter]

at my local ground they pick them up with a ride on mower.

[nabbers]

if I could pick up my lead after I'd fired it, I'd be a richer man!

[Sandbank]

I think it is a balance between good manners and what is realistic. Depending on my mood, I shoot O/U or semi on local clay grounds. With an O/U one does not have to be that dexterous to deflect spent shells into the palm of the hand and bin them. However the ignorance of some is unreal, I have been hit in the face whilst waiting to shoot by cases ejected over someones shoulder.

 

On the 'fancy, expensive' ground where I often shoot I do not feel too guilty about ejected shells from my semi. However was mortified to see the ground staff picking them up with magnetic 'thingies', I really thought it was brass (LOL). On the 'once a fortnight' grounds run by enthusiasts, I stick to the O/U and do my best to minimise the mess I leave behind. Most of these grounds are fibre wads only so at 63 years old, I am pleased I do not have to run at 1000 fps to catch the plastic ones.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Sandbank

[Mr Potter]

if I could pick up my lead after I'd fired it, I'd be a richer man!

Trust a Yorkshireman to think of that.