Re Alum 0r Steel??

[trixter]

I am sure this has been covered before, and I read those comments them. What I am wondering, and quite a bit of time has passed. Has anyone re-thought this? The scarceness of ammo is still effecting us all. I have dummy loaded some steel cases in 45ACP (10) and they all measured out OK, they dropped 'plunk' in and out of my Lyman case gauge. I have not done this with the aluminum cases yet, but I picked up about a dozen this morning and I think I will try it this weekend. For my brass reloads I use 4.2 gr of Bullseye behind a Lee TL 200 SWC, and if I reload any of the aluminum cases will probably do the same.

Anyone else actually reloaded aluminum?

What were your results?

I hate to just toss them.

[Green Frog]

Most aluminum cases (notably Blazer™) have a special, non-reloadable primer arrangement, with 3 flash holes IIRC) They are best tossed so you don't break your decapping pin.

Froggie

[375RUGER]

About 1/2 of your Al cases will split on the second firing, FYI. Don't you have enough brass?
.
Some of the Blazer is boxer primed, single flash hole, 45ACP.

[375RUGER]

About 1/2 of your Al cases will split on the second firing, FYI. Don't you have enough brass?
.
Some of the Blazer is boxer primed, single flash hole, 45ACP.

[leadman]

I think CCI is going away from the berdan primers and using boxer more now.

[Recluse]

I despise Blazer anything ammo and can't toss that aluminum garbage--fired or unfired--far enough or fast enough.

I don't even like the thought of ramming steel cases in any of my firearms, or my reloading dies, so it gets tossed as well.

I know folks who've reloaded both, but I'd much rather trade or barter or do whatever it takes to round up some actual brass for reloading as opposed to steel or aluminum.

:coffee:

[blikseme300]

The scarceness of ammunition seems to have increased the number of range pickups I now have. In the past year alone I probably picked up more than 500lbs of mixed cases. The steel and aluminum cases are tossed in the trash as they are not worth the trouble.

[Uncle Jimbo]

About 1/2 of your Al cases will split on the second firing, FYI. Don't you have enough brass?
.
Some of the Blazer is boxer primed, single flash hole, 45ACP.

And the other 1/2 will split on the first firing. Save yourself a headache and just throw them in the recycle box.

[btroj]

I have enough brass to not need to mess with steel or aluminum cases. No thanks.

[bangerjim]

Do NOT waste your time with steel or al cases!!!!!!!! They do not expand the same way as good old brass, use berdan primers ( not reload-able easily), and they crack a lot as mentioned above.

Leave them for the next sucker that strolls by.

Brass is readily available from MANY fine people on here. I have purchased many thousands of rounds from our fellow members.

New brass is kinda expensive. Only new I buy is 45 LC from Star Line. All others are "previously owned" models! And I usually come back from the range with 4X the brass I went with! They don't even allow steel or al ammo to be fired.

banger

[dverna]

What you CAN do and what you SHOULD do are not always the same thing.

I would reload these "junk" cases if I had to, but as others have stated - there is no need to do so. Good brass cases are not that expensive. I have purchased once fired 9mm and 40 S&W for $30/1000 delivered. .45 brass is more expensive but you should still be able to get it for about $80/1000. If you get 8 reloads per case you are looking at $.50 per box for brass. Why risk damage to your chamber for such a minimal saving?

Don Verna

[JSAND]

While a lot of reloading items are scarce, I have had no trouble with finding Brass, and will not waste my time or effort picking up the aluminum or steel cases. +1 on what Recluse said on the Blazer. Had a friend that got rid of his .45 and later found about 3/4 box of Blazer and offered it to me for free. Told him thanks but no thanks, I won't even run that stuff through my guns new, never fired can't imagine trying to reload it.

[Eddie2002]

I always end up with a few aluminum or steel cases mixed in with the range brass picked up and was thinking the same about reloading them but why reinvent the wheel. Berdan primers are hard to come by and boxer brass is easy enough to either range pick or buy. Reloading steel or aluminum ammo as an experiment just to see if it can be done might be worth it but shooting it on a regular basis sounds like too much work and risk.

[cbrick]

I do not now nor have I ever in the past needed to jerk on a trigger bad enough to mess with an aluminum cartridge case.

Nuff said!

Rick

[MtGun44]

I loaded range pickup steel cases, accidentally at first without any issue other than
a bit more effort to resize. They will rust, so that is not good for storage. I won't pick them
up, but if a few find their way into the rotation, for just practice ammo, they stay and
work fine. Not for match grade ammo, and would not buy steel cased ammo, esp for .223 rifles.

All the aluminum cases I have seen were berdan.

Bill

[gray wolf]

I have Re-thought the situation and still come up with the same answer. NO ! not worth the trouble to do it or the trouble it may give afterwards.

[dondiego]

A magnet is your friend! I was recently sorting brass and quite a few "brass" pieces were picked up by a magnet! .380, 9MM and especially .223. I was surprised at how they looked just like any other good case. You could easily tell the copper washed steel cases but these were brass washed. I also picked up a few nickel plated pieces that stuck to the magnet.