Anyone here ever loaded 'N E W' aluminum primed pistol cases??.

[sw282]

''Not Reloaded", but LOADED NEW aluminum cases?? l was given some factory primed aluminum cases today. These are 44 magnum cases..Just wanted to know if they are different when belling and crimping these factory aluminum cases''

thanks
282

Update--l believe these 44alum cases came from pulled ammo..l found powder flakes in a few of them..

Aliminum cases are CCI factory 44Magnum, Berdan Primed

[ioon44]

I have loaded boxer primed aluminum cases in .38 spl , 9 mm & .45 acp just to see how it would work, a lot of them failed when belling so you would need to bell just enough to seat the bullet.
I loaded light target loads and some of my auto's didn't cycle reliable.
So it can be done but for me not worth the effort.

[btreanor]

^^^My experience was exactly the same as ioon44's. I loaded 9mm and .45 cases and if the cases were going to crack, it was during the belling or bullet seating operation. I found the failure rate was about 10-25% and then I was stuck with some loaded rounds that needed to be pulled. Also, I found that the cases that were weathered (had been exposed to rain) were much more likely to fail. I would imagine that the new cases would fare much better and would probably be worth a try. Let us know how it goes!

[Cowboy_Dan]

I've done it with some .44 Spl that I pulled the Gold Dot bullets from. I did notice that the crimps tended to slowly open after I loaded them, took about a week. Put another, harder crimp on them and all was fine. They were berdan primed, so I never tried loading them again.

[sw282]

OK.. I loaded 5 cases up around noon and took them to the range.. 7.5gr of W231 and a 255gr cast Keith SWC from my H&G#503 mold. l use this load in brass cases along with a Fed 150 LP primer in my S&W 44 Magnum revolvers. lt is quite accurate using Bens Red for my Field Pistol loads, showing NO leading..
l first belled the five aluminum cases, experiencing NO split mouths. l had previously trimmed the case mouths app .005 inch. l do this on all new brass for uniformity.. After charging the 5 aluminum cases l seated and crimped the boolits in one operation. l use Hornady New Dimension dies...Examining the loaded round l noticed the slight roll crimp l use on my brass cases was even less evident on these aluminum ones. Actual firing was uneventful. They extracted easily with virtually no sticking.. l don't have any plans to work up any special loads for these cases.. lt would be a waste of time because l only have a Hundred of them. l accepted the cases because they were FREE and also to try something a little new. Upon returning home l measured a fired aluminum case to compare with a fired brass case.. Aluminum was .4565''.. Brass .4545''.
Both fired from same revolver w/same load...

[fredj338]

I reloaded some alum 45acp, just to see what happens. The alum has horrible ductility, very uneven neck tension. My target loads in brass cases have an SD in the low teens. In the alum, like 75fps! They might be fine if new & loaded once, but after that, no thanks.