Reloading aluminum and steel cases

M

milsurpguy

member
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
549
Well I never tried it.
Back in the day it was "don't bother reloading aluminum". Well times are a changing.
I went to the indoor range thr other day and I was stuffing my pockets with brass like a bad guy in a treasure room only stopping to pick out steel, then I was like the steel 45acp are boxer primed, hmmm. So I grabbed them too.
Digging around on thr Internet I can't find a whole lot. Seems like aluminum is definitely not as durable as brass. For example a straight walled 38spl or 45 brass might be reloadable 10, 20 maybe as many as 50 times, reload them enough to wear the head stamp off. But straight wall aluminum shell casings last maybe 3 loadings.
Figured I better figure it out before I have to do it.
The aluminums size easy, haven't tried to size steel yet. I would only be doing pistol as all the steel rifle cases appear to be berdan and I bet they would be really hard to size.
Anyone else try it?
 
With the aluminum I generally get 1 reload out of them and the second time the cases mostly split. This is with 40 and 45 ACP. I use them for lost brass matches where they don't let you recover your brass. The steel in 45 ACP I have reloaded up to 10 timed and stopped there. The 9MM there is so much regular brass why bother. Revolver calibers most of them I have seen are berdan primed so I scrap those. Using a good magnet might be a way to speed up your process/;)
 
If it was the 1950s could I assume carbide dies weren't very widely used.
No lube would be nice but I can't count on it.

Most aluminum 9mm I find are boxers, the only steel 9mm I have found that is boxer is winchester steel, so far all steel and aluminum 45acp I have found are boxer.
10x on the steel is pretty impressive.
 
I have never done aluminum, and probably never would. Steel I have done. Lots of boxer primed rifle cases out there. Wolf .223 I have seen go both ways, and my Tulammo .308 is boxer. I never tried more than a few times on one case until recently, an experiment with the .308. Using light, but still full power loads (125/110gr @ 2800 FPS from an 18" barrel), I am up to 4 loadings. Of the 5 cases. One of the five did not give sufficient neck tension, but the other four will make it to 5 firings. None have cracked yet. This is full length resizing, for use in semi-auto.

Edit: Steel cases are not any harder to size than brass. I imagine they are harder on trimmers, but trimmers are cheap. I do worry about rust. Once fired, the protective film on them is gone, so I usually don't load for long term. I could oil the outside if I was.
 
I have reloaded aluminum 45 intentionally. Does not take a crimp at all but it works, though as other have pointed out, case life is short. 1 or 2 reloads is all you get in most cases. I have accidentally reloaded steel 40 and 45 and it worked fine but never did it intentionally. I have never messed with steel rifle cases.
 
A fellow in our club bragged about how he found out he could reload the ammunition CCI said was nonreloadable (blazer aluminum cases). Sure they split upon the next firing but they were free and plentiful.

Fast forward 6 months or so and he found that the split cases eroded the chamber of his Kart barrel.

It was at this point he learned the difference between “can’t” and “shouldn’t” and went back to only reloading brass cases.
 
jmorris said:
A fellow in our club bragged about how he found out he could reload the ammunition CCI said was nonreloadable (blazer aluminum cases). Sure they split upon the next firing but they were free and plentiful.

Fast forward 6 months or so and he found that the split cases eroded the chamber of his Kart barrel.

It was at this point he learned the difference between “can’t” and “shouldn’t” and went back to only reloading brass cases.
Click to expand...

Har, har. Penny wise and pound foolish.
 
I reloaded some aluminum 45 auto a few years ago. They worked fine. I have never tried higher pressure cartridges
 
Yeah I was thinking low end of the start load on aluminum, what it takes to make that gun cycle.

If they all split on firing or regularly split I'll use them in my single shot pistol. I don't think I could ever fire it enough to erode the barrel. The aluminums will be nice and distinctive for single shot powder puff loads that won't cycle an auto.
 
I've reloaded thousands of steel case .45 ACP and 7.62x39 plus a couple hundred .223 (just to see how it'd work).

The .45 and .223 have all been Boxer primed, 7.62x39 have all been Berdan.

I've never tried to reload an aluminum case and probably never would unless they were the only thing available.
mjsdwash said:
...Steel cases are not any harder to size than brass. I imagine they are harder on trimmers, but trimmers are cheap. I do worry about rust. Once fired, the protective film on them is gone, so I usually don't load for long term. I could oil the outside if I was.
Click to expand...
I've also found that steel is about as easy to resize as brass since it's made from pretty soft alloy. I've reloaded 7.62x39 cases up to five times, but I've never had one grow enough to need trimming. They just don't seem to stretch like brass.

I prefer to load either lacquer coated or brass/copper plated steel cases since those coatings last through several firing/reload cycles.
 
I have about 300 cases (CCI Blazer) primed and ready to go should I need them. I loaded up a box some years back, and shot them in the winter at the range, I would only do 'one and done' anyway with aluminum cases. I tried loading Steel 9mm, bad idea, especially with a Whack-a-mole, which was all I had at the time.
 
I’ve reloaded both AL and steel handgun cases in the past.
I ran a small test one time on AL 45 acp cases. In a 10 case reloading sample I think I remember losing one case due to case splits each successive reloading. So by the 10th reloading all were gone. At least that’s the best I can remember.
I do have a small hoard of 9mm, 40, and 45 acp Boxer primed range finds I’ve saved for “hard Times” and the occasional range where policing my brass is next to impossible.

Question- How do “you” know when to stop loading brass handgun cases?
Answer- “I” discard them when they split.
 
I have reloaded steel 9MM and .45 ACP Tula/Wolf cases a good bit. I just pulled some steel .45 out of my stash the other night and primed them for the next range trip. They load fine and shoot fine. Not a lot of heartburn if you don't find them on the ground after shooting either.

I did pick up a bunch of aluminum cases recently and passed them to a buddy to load (he loads SPP .45). He loaded them once and shot them. Upon second sizing and flaring they started to crack. He scrapped the rest of the batch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

3
  • Locked
Aluminum Boxer Primed Cases
2
Replies
32
Views
1K
jcwit
J
H
  • Locked
Aluminum federal cases
Replies
10
Views
2K
Load Master
Load Master
tws3b2
Reload Aluminum Case
2 3
Replies
63
Views
2K
Otto
Otto
B
  • Locked
"Un-reloadable" cases
Replies
17
Views
929
NotSoFast
N
E
  • Locked
steel casings
Replies
9
Views
578
trickyasafox
T
Back
Top