Brass Catcher D’ecolletage

My brass catcher consists of a three-legged folding, all metal music stand as the base and its telescoping tube for height adjustment (discarding the music holding top part), a wire frame made from VERY heavy gauge construction wire (from Lowes because Home Depot didn’t have anything stiff enough) that is stuffed into the top of the telescoping tube, and a laundry bag with drawstring and two five pound barbell exercise weights from Walmart.

At the range I set the music stand as far forward and right as possible on the table top and then slide the two five pound barbell weights down over the music stand’s central column for stability. I insert the telescoping tube with the wire frame and set the height so the bottom of the “mouth” will be even with the ejection port and finally attach the laundry bag. My gun case and spotting scope also have to be positioned carefully to my left so I can look through the scope without moving my feet.

The downside of this arrangement is that one of the music stand’s three legs is pretty much in the middle of the table and I can’t keep my elbow stiff when raising the gun to firing position. That will be a “show stopper” problem in International Dueling Fire. I’m not sure what I’ll do for that but, for Bullseye, I just have to work around it (until I can afford one of them more pricey “real” brass catchers).

Even though the “throw” is not that consistent from my 45 [limp wrist?], the net catches (or deflects) close to 100%, but only because I can stand with my hand within 1" of the open mouth of the net with the net slightly angled so it leans over toward the gun. At first, I was annoyed at having to be sure I stood exactly the same way each time (so the brass catcher would work) but then I realized that was actually an advantage for consistent shooting.

This assemblage, if you’ll permit my French, is much more convenient than having to scrounge around on the floor for brass, but not nearly as nice as that supplied, unintentionally, by the D’ecolletage of another shooter several months ago, but that’s another story.