Reloading Freedom Munitions "American Steel" brass

[rbstern]

Had a chance to do some 9mm plinking and experiments today. My buddy brought out some Freedom Munitions "American Steel" branded 9mm. Hadn't heard of it before. It's new ammo. The cases are steel with brass plating. Looks just like regular brass (I can hear all the groans now for the extra ammo sorting chores that lie ahead). Brass has an "FM" head stamp. The ammo itself looks great.

Just for the fun of it, we decided to shoot and reload the same 10 cases (we were both shooting low capacity pistols) at least a few times, or until we saw signs of failure.

We were shooting 4.9 grains of Universal under either a 124 grain HP of various makes, 115 FMJs, and 125 LRN. We reloaded the cases 5 times, with no signs that the cases were giving out. No failures, no malfunctions, no signs that the loads performed any differently than regular brass, except for one case that wouldn't hold a primer after it's second reload; I suspect it was out of spec to begin with.

Bottom line, I would reload these cases, certainly at least a few times. I'd probably keep them separate, using a magnate to sort.

For what it's worth.

[mdi]

Thanks rbstern. It's always good to hear real life reports. I've read tons of "can't reload steel" but most is from those that haven't tried. I've done a few 45 ACP but I have a bunch of 45 ACP brass, that I don't bother with steel...

[dtknowles]

I have reloaded both Aluminum and Steel 9mm cases. Aluminum are good for one maybe two reloads the steel, I don't know, did not try to wear them out. I have 9mm brass cases that go straight into the scrap bin because I have too few with that headstamp. Only did the experiment for the sake of knowledge. I still buy as much 9mm ammo as I reload, cheap factory ammo is good enough for most of my practice.

Tim