The Japan Self-Defense Forces has a strict 1-to-1 return policy. If a soldier is issued 30 rounds, they must return 30 spent casings or 30 live rounds.
If even one casing is missing, the entire range shuts down. Every soldier stays until that single piece of brass is found. Those nets and bags aren’t just for show, they are “efficiency tools” to avoid a 5-hour crawling through the grass!
The ultimate "No Brass Left Behind" policy. 🇯🇵
The Japan Self-Defense Forces has a strict 1-to-1 return policy. If a soldier is issued 30 rounds, they must return 30 spent casings or 30 live rounds.
If even one casing is missing, the entire range shuts down. Every soldier stays… pic.twitter.com/lE3PpBtSXK
I once read about some U.S. GI training with the Japanese military and spending an hour looking for a single piece of .50 BMG brass. This is the first time I have seen any video of the extremes they go to save their subjects from the dangers of empty shell casings.
If it were practical I would donate worn out shell cases to be spread over their cities via 1/4 scale B-29 drones.
I would drop an additional piece of brass on the range.
Fifty one when there should be fifty.
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Now you know why airsoft started in Japan. Access to the real thing is prohibited, so they made facimilies to play with
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I have been to free ranges in Southern California where the area in which the shooter stands is covered with brass, steel cases, and plastic hulls from shotguns so thick you cannot see the dirt unless the empty shell were trodden so heavily that dirt escaped over the shell.
I like Gerry’s idea of leaving an extra shell casing on the ground to be found by the soldiers policing all their brass, but it is likely a crime to import even a single shell casing, much like Massachussetts’s law that you cannot have a shell casing in your possession you aren’t licensed to possess, so the Japanese police will probably immediately suspect the western Bakayero and beat a confession out of you for some crime they’ve never been able to solve as well as for smuggling prohibited shapes of brass alloy into the country.
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There is a reason I would want to donate my brass via drones at night.
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If ‘Train like you fight” is true, then the corollary of “Fight like you train” can have interesting consequences.
Years ago, I saw of video of a guy taking a carbine class in his wheelchair.
As a Marine (pretty sure), he was wounded early in Iraq. Got into a firefight in some house-to-house fighting. Had chased an Iraqi into the backyard and ran his rifle empty. As he was carefully stowing his empty mag away, Iraqi popped up and shot him.
Why was he stashing an empty mag midst of firefight? Because training during the AWB-era emphasized keeping track of their mags (as they were contraband outside of the military) and his training and muscle memory took over.
That story has obviously really stuck with me.
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War is Hell! I can see the private explaining why his postition was overrun – “I had to stop firing because my net holder was shot.”
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Yep, when TSHTF usually people revert to the way they were trained the most. If Japan responds to a Taiwan invasion with troops on the ground at least a few of the Nipponese soldiers will die due to this absurdity. Having said that, during my military career I worked with both their Navy and Airforce and found their personnel to be well trained, well motivated and competent
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I know of that guy, he was a regular at the training instructor I preferred. (Pat Rogers, EAG Tactical)
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What is the rationale for the policy? It’s not as if there has been a spree of mass empty-brass attacks.
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My guess is that they’re worried about someone pocketing some ammo and claiming it was fired, then selling it on the black-market.
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I had a Japanese boss, he never carried a pocketknife. But was always very glad for me to use mine to cut the tape on packages…but only if nobody was looking. In fairness, at that company there were a number of very strict rules about blades, because of a certain amount of stitches due to on-the-job injuries resulting from misuse/abuse of box cutters, and if certain people saw a non-auto-retracting blade there could have been hell to pay. A lot of this probably had to do with the fact that it was in a particularly generous state for workman’s comp & insurance costs were through the roof, a lot of it was because we hired a lot of idiots & overworked them.
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I have such circumstances in some mil-fi fiction I’ve been working on in a scene where recruits are doing live fire for the first time. Required to turn in expended brass on stripper clips equal to the amount fired. One recruit is missing three pieces and the instructors start tearing into her before they find three live rounds concealed on her person. She’d planned to “pull a Pyle” on the main character.
The Japanese experience you describe I was unfamiliar with but the scene I describe above was inspired by my own experience with rifle ranges as a cadet with the Canadian Forces. Every piece of brass had to be accounted for. We did not leave the line until we had 20 pieces of fired brass in our blocks (we were shooting Enfields converted to .22) and later with the C1 and .308 brass (five rounds each).
I understand why the Japanese (and Canadians and probably a lot of Euro nations now) do it even if I don’t agree why. They don’t perceive firearms in the same way as American citizens do. To them, those are mighty things, terrible power and to be closely controlled and guarded. To us, it is “Hey, let’s have a fun contest on the KYL at 850 before chasing more boomers!”. We police our brass out of politeness and to have reloading stock. Not because we deemed representative of dangerous power we cannot be trusted with.
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lapd had a number of cops shot back in the day b/c they reached out from behind cover to recover their brass before moving to new cover, like they were trained to do, to keep the range clean. we had to account for every round issued when deployed to bosnia. i made more than a few bucks selling rounds i got sent from home to folks that lost some. we were supposed to unload,count and reload 210 rounds every day. not a few were fired in the clearing barrels around camp too, usually by officers.
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IIRC, the four dead CHP officers in one shootout (1970 ish) were found with empty brass in their pockets. (can’t recall the name of that shootout)
Also, that was back when they were practicing with standard power ammo in their revolvers, and loaded with magnum or +P for carry/duty. THAT is a spectacularly stupid thing to do. Your timing is screwed on everything due to recoil and accuracy differences.
My twisted sense of humor.
I would drop an additional piece of brass on the range.
Fifty one when there should be fifty.
Now you know why airsoft started in Japan. Access to the real thing is prohibited, so they made facimilies to play with
I have been to free ranges in Southern California where the area in which the shooter stands is covered with brass, steel cases, and plastic hulls from shotguns so thick you cannot see the dirt unless the empty shell were trodden so heavily that dirt escaped over the shell.
I like Gerry’s idea of leaving an extra shell casing on the ground to be found by the soldiers policing all their brass, but it is likely a crime to import even a single shell casing, much like Massachussetts’s law that you cannot have a shell casing in your possession you aren’t licensed to possess, so the Japanese police will probably immediately suspect the western Bakayero and beat a confession out of you for some crime they’ve never been able to solve as well as for smuggling prohibited shapes of brass alloy into the country.
There is a reason I would want to donate my brass via drones at night.
If ‘Train like you fight” is true, then the corollary of “Fight like you train” can have interesting consequences.
Years ago, I saw of video of a guy taking a carbine class in his wheelchair.
As a Marine (pretty sure), he was wounded early in Iraq. Got into a firefight in some house-to-house fighting. Had chased an Iraqi into the backyard and ran his rifle empty. As he was carefully stowing his empty mag away, Iraqi popped up and shot him.
Why was he stashing an empty mag midst of firefight? Because training during the AWB-era emphasized keeping track of their mags (as they were contraband outside of the military) and his training and muscle memory took over.
That story has obviously really stuck with me.
War is Hell! I can see the private explaining why his postition was overrun – “I had to stop firing because my net holder was shot.”
Yep, when TSHTF usually people revert to the way they were trained the most. If Japan responds to a Taiwan invasion with troops on the ground at least a few of the Nipponese soldiers will die due to this absurdity. Having said that, during my military career I worked with both their Navy and Airforce and found their personnel to be well trained, well motivated and competent
I know of that guy, he was a regular at the training instructor I preferred. (Pat Rogers, EAG Tactical)
What is the rationale for the policy? It’s not as if there has been a spree of mass empty-brass attacks.
My guess is that they’re worried about someone pocketing some ammo and claiming it was fired, then selling it on the black-market.
I had a Japanese boss, he never carried a pocketknife. But was always very glad for me to use mine to cut the tape on packages…but only if nobody was looking. In fairness, at that company there were a number of very strict rules about blades, because of a certain amount of stitches due to on-the-job injuries resulting from misuse/abuse of box cutters, and if certain people saw a non-auto-retracting blade there could have been hell to pay. A lot of this probably had to do with the fact that it was in a particularly generous state for workman’s comp & insurance costs were through the roof, a lot of it was because we hired a lot of idiots & overworked them.
I have such circumstances in some mil-fi fiction I’ve been working on in a scene where recruits are doing live fire for the first time. Required to turn in expended brass on stripper clips equal to the amount fired. One recruit is missing three pieces and the instructors start tearing into her before they find three live rounds concealed on her person. She’d planned to “pull a Pyle” on the main character.
The Japanese experience you describe I was unfamiliar with but the scene I describe above was inspired by my own experience with rifle ranges as a cadet with the Canadian Forces. Every piece of brass had to be accounted for. We did not leave the line until we had 20 pieces of fired brass in our blocks (we were shooting Enfields converted to .22) and later with the C1 and .308 brass (five rounds each).
I understand why the Japanese (and Canadians and probably a lot of Euro nations now) do it even if I don’t agree why. They don’t perceive firearms in the same way as American citizens do. To them, those are mighty things, terrible power and to be closely controlled and guarded. To us, it is “Hey, let’s have a fun contest on the KYL at 850 before chasing more boomers!”. We police our brass out of politeness and to have reloading stock. Not because we deemed representative of dangerous power we cannot be trusted with.
lapd had a number of cops shot back in the day b/c they reached out from behind cover to recover their brass before moving to new cover, like they were trained to do, to keep the range clean. we had to account for every round issued when deployed to bosnia. i made more than a few bucks selling rounds i got sent from home to folks that lost some. we were supposed to unload,count and reload 210 rounds every day. not a few were fired in the clearing barrels around camp too, usually by officers.
IIRC, the four dead CHP officers in one shootout (1970 ish) were found with empty brass in their pockets. (can’t recall the name of that shootout)
Also, that was back when they were practicing with standard power ammo in their revolvers, and loaded with magnum or +P for carry/duty. THAT is a spectacularly stupid thing to do. Your timing is screwed on everything due to recoil and accuracy differences.