Do you pick up your empty shells when hunting?

[Purebred Redneck]

So are empties litter or just part of hunting???


I personally think they are just part of hunting, however I pick them up when in my honey holes so people don't know I did a bunch of shooting there

[Jack]

I try to pick up empty hulls all the time. You can't reload them if you discard them.

[Bill]

I pick mine up along with whatever other empties I find. Sort them out and reload all those that I can. ;D The rest I give away to the in law's who also reload or throw out those that are not any good for reloading. Good thing my garbage man has a truck with one of those arms that pick up the garbage can and dump the can in the top of the truck or he would really get to wondering whats going on once in a while. I usually throw them in a box and when the box is full I sort them. The box isn't small.

[dovehunter]

I am absolutely anal about picking up my empty shells - shotshells or metallics. I try to pick up my spent rimfires cases too if I can find them all. I do this for a multitude of reasons:
(1) First and foremost, I just think it is the right thing to do.
(2) Many (if not most of the places I hunt) require that you pick up your spent cases anyway. I have known a couple of farmers who didn't issue permits the next year to dove hunters that had been repeatedly asked to pick up their empties and did not do so. Around here leaving a bunch of empty shells (or other trash for that matter) marks you pretty quickly as a slob hunter and will wear out your welcome in a hurry.
(3) I reload both shotshells and metallics and if you leave them, you have left a good portion of your investment laying on the ground.
(4) Particularly where dove hunting is concerned, if you run across a spot that has a couple of boxes of spent shells on the ground this is like waving a red flag saying that this is a good stand. If these empties are fresh, I'll pick them up too. You can never have too many good once fired hulls.

I DO NOT THINK leaving your empty shell cases behind is "just part of hunting".

[Jack]

I would point out, too, that back in Thee Olden Days, when men were men, sheep were nervous, and shotgun shells were made out of paper, empty shotshells left on the ground did eventually rot away.
Today, with plastic hulls, any shell you leave on the ground will still be there in 100 years.

[Purebred Redneck]

Oh I certainly agree about picking up empties when dove hunting. There's just so many of them.

[dovehunter]

Red:

Your statements seem to suggest that your philosophy is "it's just part of hunting" (and therefore okay to leave them behind) but no one has yet voted for that option. I was just curious.

[Purebred Redneck]

In fairness though the 3 of you reload those things
Be interesting to see what the other non-reloaders think.


I will say that I think it's different than people leaving sandwich bags and beer cans in the woods.
I think it is a combination of "it's part of hunting" and "things happen too fast".


When squirrel hunting, I try to wait until I get 2-3 of them all in shotgun range before I take the first shot. So things happen pretty fast. If I have a squirrel holding onto the tree with one arm and he falls, you can bet I'm going to hightail it over there and step on his head before he crawls away. By the time you get over to him and things settle down for a minute or so, there's ussually another squirrel moving somwhere and the whole process starts over again.
I don't think there's time to bend over and pick up shells or to go back and pick up shells. The exception to that would be if you're not wanting to advertise there's a blackberry or hickory patch to everyone else.

Rabbits are the same way.
1. It's very thick around here. So you either have to blast through the saplings and hope some lead gets to the rabbit or else you're shooting about 4 feet in front of where you last saw him in hopes that your pattern can blast through the weeds and still hit hopefully where he is. If you don't take those shots, you're never going to kill any rabbits.
And what those shots do is clip them in the hind legs a couple times. So you have to get over there pretty quick and decide if you want to try to a footrace / headstomp or to shoot him again.

2. Where's there one rabbit, there is usually 2-3. You load up as fast as you can because things can go down pretty quick --- even more so if someone is with you because they can jump one.

Again, I think it's sometimes impractical to pick up the shells and sometimes you don't even remember where you shot. I'm not spending 5 minutes trying to figure that out.

So yeah, I think it's largely part of hunting.

[Jack]

Red, here's another factor for you: if you used a break open shotgun, you won't have trouble finding your empties. Some break opens have extractors, where the shell is raise half way out of the chamber for you to pick out and put in your vest. Some break opens have ejectors that will fling the empty, but you can catch them easily.
It's the pumps and autoloaders that throw the hulls all over the place.

[jimiowa]

The correct answer is Yes,No,Maybe!!
Yes if I'm target shooting.
No if I'm hunting upland or birds, always on the move and since I don't own a dog usually in heavy weeds where you can't find them most of the time.
Maybe if I did pass shooting ,for Doves or waterfowl where they pile up at your feet in the blind??

[Purebred Redneck]

I use my single shot 20 ga for squirrels (never use the pump 12ga) and it has the ejector that will fling it over your shoulder. I keep two extra shells in my left hand for quick reloading.

Like I said, things usually go down fast.
Shoot, break it open, pop one in, close, shoot, break it open, pop one in, close, shoot, get over there.

[bounce]

I saw were dovehunter was looking for a slob hunter well hear I am lol. actualy I do generaly pick up hulls but if I don't find them fairly easy I don't worrie about it much. Now the break open ejectors I have had are not that easy to catch as they go flying oner the shoulder darn fast and if I'm reloading fast it's not going to get caught and has a 50% of geting left behind I would say, Now pumps I retive most and break open with out auto eject I probibly get all of them as I would actualy need to toss them and I would rarely do that. Simi autos I would lose plenty hunting but never hunt with one as I don't own any. My choice is the break open and remove the shells.

[jmarriott]

I will pick up mine and all the others I see on the ground.

I often loose brass when deer hunting because the leaves and the brass are colored alike. I also have that instant rush that comes for the shot and sometimes forget to even look at first.

[klsm54]

I don't reload shotgun shells, but I always pick up the empties. I save them for people that do reload.

I have a big problem with littering, just can't tolerate it... But I have to be honest... ... I've never picked up my 22LR empties. Can't really say I've ever noticed any rimfire cases laying around either, although I'm sure there are lots of them out there.

In PA, our game wardens love to hand out littering citations to those who don't pick up their MT shotgun hulls. They sit and watch with binoculars, especially fields where ringnecks have been stocked, just waiting for somebody to shoot and forget to pick up the empties. Last I knew it was $100.00 fine....

As far as not wanting anyone to know where I'm hunting, that has nothing to do with it. Hell, just ask me where I got those, squirrels, rabbits or birds. I'll draw you a map, or if I have time I'll take you there myself, maybe you can bag a limit too....

[twomoons]

I was taught not to leave any trash on someone elses property and that included fired shells. I wouldn't want brass and plastic in my hay bales and wouldn't do that to someone else either.