doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Picking up hulls.................

My waterfowl guns are all SxS extractors. The empty hulls go straight into my pocket, new ones come out of a fanny-pack worn on the front. I reload some but not all hull types, regardless they all come home with me.

The problem of spent hulls as litter is not severe in the monsoon tropics where I hunt: dry-season grass-fires melt the plastic and anneal the 'brass', and subsequent wet-season inundation rusts or rots whatever is left. Its rare to find a hull more than a year old, despite the fact that most waterfowlers (sadly) drop them at their feet and walk away.

I like to think most of us pick up our empties whether or not we reload. I've gotten into the annoying habit of picking up all trash, especially if I'm on the way back to the car. It's annoying because I usually end up with more trash than birds in the bag. On popular dove areas, I have been known to take large plastic bags and a rake to clean up after the slobs.

I remove them from the grounds and all others I see unless there is pending danger. jas

I, too, am member of the clean plate club. I taken 'em home for the recycle bin. Chopper

I pick up hulls from the range and pocket all I shoot in the field. I know I don't like seeing empties lying around on my folk's property, so why would I assume it's ok to leave them on someone elses property! It's a matter of respect.
CH

Our little hunting group is manic about cleaning up, and anyone who hunts with us in our "secret" spots is drilled on etiquette. We always carry 32 gallon black plastic trash bags in the truck for hulls, water bottles, cans, feathers, etc. We clean our birds over a bag and zip-tie everything for the trip out. We always leave the area cleaner than we found it, and it has paid off on several occasions when land owners and managers have rolled up to see who was hunting on their land. We now have permission to hunt a few spots that are off-limits to others, and it doesn't get much better than that. We only reload 28 gauge, and seldom find any hulls that are usable. The exception is opening day of dove season when the city boys come out with their popguns and leave their trash all over the place.

I believe there is an old outdoorsman's creed that says something aabout leaving nothing behind. That includes empty shells, I reckon.

Greg and Fin: it called "Leave no trace" and amen
http://www.lnt.org/
http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/21-105/

I always pick up my hulls. If hunting with a double I will catch them and stick them with the dead birds in my game bag. At the end of the day it's fun to see how many shells it took me to get dinner. If I hunt with an auto I still try to pick up the shells but inevitably one always escapes me. For this reason I try to use paper hulls. Paper doesn't last long and I know if I loose a shell it will be gone in a few months.

I wish "they" made paper 16 gauge hulls so I could do the same with my Sweet 16.


My friend never picks up his hulls. His excuse is the wad does more littering than the hull. I feel leaving your hull behind is rude and it is the same as throwing trash out your car window. If I could find my wads I would pick those up too.

Best
Brian

Completely unacceptable behavior. Perhaps you could suggest that he hunt only with reloads that use fiber wads.

I have had game wardens thank me for picking up hulls that obviously were not mine, as they rummaged through my vest trying to count my doves.