Cheapskate loaders blues...

[Shattered]

I'm going to push the envelope a bit. While sorting out four 5 gallon buckets of range sweepings, I was taken by the LARGE amount of aluminum casings were being fired. At first, I just arced them into another bucket for recycling at the local scrap yard. Then I noticed that ONLY 357 Mag was Berdan primed. Did something change? Last I bothered to look, all aluminum rounds were Berdan primed and I already played that game, bought the T-shirt and lost.

For S's & G's, I loaded 10 rounds of 9mm up with 124gr RNL over 3.5 gr of Nitro 100 and plan on using an EAA Witness (steel) handgun before attempting to run in a subgun.

Midwest Northern cheap-assedness at it's best.

 

[TonyM]

I dunno, I reload steel cases all the time. I stopped using the steel cased ammo in the reising, as the barrels are a PITA to replace, or even find for that matter. I doubt it was accelerating wear in the chamber, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Now I shoot it in 1911's with aplomb. I've never had any issues. 1911 barrels are of course cheap and easy to replace by comparison.

I'm not sure how applicable any of that is to the aluminum 9mm 'brass' but I'd start low and be very careful to check for splitting at the mouth. Aluminum work hardens much faster than brass, so the number of reloads is likely to be reduced significantly.

 

[Shattered]

Steel cases mean nothing to gun barrels. The steel is so soft you can partially collapse the case mouth with hand pressure. Wear isn't a factor at all. On the other hand, bi-metal BULLETS will certainly accelerate bore wear, especially in full auto.

The only two coatings on the steel cases is lacquer or a poly coating and the sole purpose of the coating is to prevent the steel case from rusting before you shoot it. It's not any sort of lube or anything else.

Just kinda wondered if anyone else had any issues with reloading aluminum.

 

[Garrett]

I haven't seen anyone try loading Al cases. Steel don't seem to be an issue, though. I've loaded any number of WWII steel .45ACP cases with no issues.

Two things to consider when loading aluminum:
1. does it resize correctly?
2. aluminum oxide is one of the more commonly used abrasives. If you scrape the surface coating off the cases (like when you resize) and then shoot some time later, are you slowly introducing fine bits of Al oxide into your chamber? It's been a long time since I took any metallurgy and I'd have to dig out my books to be able to figure out what conditions you need to form Al oxide, but it's something to consider.

For me, the extra effort / potential for problems makes it not worth it since 9mm brass is so abundant. I do hang on to the steel cases that get into my brass bucket. But for now they have just been segregated and stored separately after cleaning. But then steel is easy to separate with a magnet. Aluminum not so much.

OTOH, I'd be interested to hear your results.

 

[Garrett]

Also, since you posted this in the MAC forum, you know it's generally considered a bad idea to run aluminum ammo in an open bolt subgun, right?

 

[mailman]

I always thought reloading steel cases wasn't possible or sketchy at best and so never tried. I guess I got some bad advice. Do they put a lot of ware on the dies? It seems those of you who reload them are having good luck with them. Should I have started a new thread for this?

 

[zipakna]

Also, since you posted this in the MAC forum, you know it's generally considered a bad idea to run aluminum ammo in an open bolt subgun, right?

ive had nothing but cases ripped with aluminum. scares the shit out of me to use it

I always thought reloading steel cases wasn't possible or sketchy at best and so never tried. I guess I got some bad advice. Do they put a lot of ware on the dies? It seems those of you who reload them are having good luck with them. Should I have started a new thread for this?

you can reload steel. you just need to lube the hell out of it. the bi-metal projectiles wear the first few inches of the rifling out of your barrel a lot faster than other projectiles

 

[mailman]

Thanks, zipakna. That is something I will try. I've been throwing a lot of dough down the drain.

 

[zipakna]

Thanks, zipakna. That is something I will try. I've been throwing a lot of dough down the drain.

dont, its nice to try and say youve done it. but to regularly reload steel.. you will be summoning dark spirits, good spirits and neutral spirits to help you get unstuck now and than. i myself have stood in front of my press holding a hammer high and have said 'By The Power of GraySkull' and 'ODEN' before applying hammer to said problem.....ive actually missed and broke my workbench.


ETA: what i do instead.. i go to the range with my handgun and a box of wolf. shoot the wolf, than rape the range buckets of their brass

 

[TonyM]

I've got a set of carbide dies I use for the steel cases. I've loaded everything from WW2 vintage stuff to modern wolf steel, and never had any problems with any of it.

Lube and proper cleaning seem to be the answer.

 

[Shattered]

Well. That turned out better than I could have imagined. The EAA Witness ran the reloaded aluminum cases without any issues. If fact, I reloaded the same dozen four times now and am quite amazed that the CCI aluminum cases STILL look none the worse for wear. Next up... Going to try them (5th reload) in an MP-5 clone. Closed bolt and all that.

I'm using Nitro-100, 4gr, 124 gr round nose lead and CCI primers.

 

[Shattered]

I've got a set of carbide dies I use for the steel cases.

Same here. No issues with steel cased either. Carbides glide right through them. I'm running one lot of 100 rounds of steel cased Wolf 45s that have now been fired four times. Feed and eject without issues. Haven't lost one case yet due to damage. I have not found some of them after firing, however. The lil' buggers sometimes have a knack for vanishing. I should take my shoes off, perhaps.