Can aluminum shell cases be reloaded?

Short answer- NO. I

I have a small lot of steel 45 cases that I load for the novelty of it. 5 or 6 loadings so far and ive only split one of the ~50 so far.

Can.... Yes. Once.
should, .... No.

Feel free to search, it's not worth the effort even picking them up.

Walkalong said:

Aluminum cases are not designed to be reloaded, but a few intrepid souls have done it.

Aluminum does not have the elasticity of brass, making it much less suitable than brass.

Hopefully some members will share their experience trying it with you.

Welcome to THR.

Click to expand...

This. I have and got OK results, but wasn't really satisfied with the final product. The ones I loaded had several problems which may or may not be common: splits with second shooting in many of them, neck tension too light and primer pockets after 1st reloading seemed loose.

In short, I did it and it worked, but the product was just not up to my usual expectations and standards. It would not surprise me if others had better experiences since my sample was rather small. I think I reloaded thirty but that was some twenty years ago..

Just did 10 as a test.
230 gr LRN , 3.5 gr RD, Fed spp, oal max.
Results 1 in 10 split first reloading, balance looked ok.
More later
Catpop

FWIW, they are not designed to be reloaded but I reload them as long as they show no signs of stress, splits or damage.

I did it once just to see if it could be done. It was a 45 acp. It worked fine. Don't know how many reloads I could have gotten out of it. I also reloaded a steel 9mm case once. It also worked fine.

Loaded once - OK
Loaded twice - lose 50% to split necks.
Now I use aluminium cases for field plinking where I don't care about losing them.

I never had because I was always advised not to. I'm not too sure the small gain out weighs the risk.

I did an experiment a few years ago with 5 alu. cases, mid range loads. reloaded each 5 times, then quit. It worked.

BUT

Do I recommend it, no, use brass, it available, and works correctly.

BTW, my car is fully capable of going way over 100 MPH, but I don't do it.

I won't buy aluminum ammo, I won't shoot it, I won't reload it, I won't even pick it up for scrap. Same with steel. Except I will pick up steel cases with my long handled magnet and throw them in the trash cans.

Yes, you can reload aluminum cases if they're Boxer primed. It's not going to last as long as brass but should be good for one reloading anyway. Also, tumbling it doesn't make it look better so don't bother.

#4 is the answer I would give.

Yes, it can be done and no you shouldn't do it.

The "NR" on the case head stands for not reloadable. Know a guy that, around 10 years ago, came to the club showing how he had "done the impossible" and reloaded non reloadable cases. 6 months later chamber erosion caused by all the split cases upon the second firing, made him replace a Kart barrel.

After this he learned the difference between can't and shouldn't.

bob,

I got tired of seeing bunches of aluminum .45acp cases all over the range and decided to see if they were reloadable.

I took 5 CCI small pistol primer .45 aluminum cases and loaded them with 5.8 grains of W-231. I shot them in a Sig 220 stainless pistol. Four of the five surffered case mouth cracks about half-way down the case body, so that's an 80% failure rate. That ended the trials.

So yes it's do-able if desperate but not advisable.

best wishes- oldandslow

I tried a dozen or so 9mm cases a few years back. Yes they worked. They didn't split. Gun shot fine.

The trick is to mark the heads so you know they've been reloaded one time. Don't pick them up for a second time.

And if you notice a lot of split casings then don't make any more

Besides the less than optimum metallurgy of aluminum some of it may be Berdan primed. I believe than CCI used Berdan priming on their aluminum Blaser ammo to discourage reloading. Not sure if this practice continues since I haven't purchases or examined any aluminum cases for quite a while.

I’ve reloaded some of the aluminum CCI Blazer cases in 9mm and 45 ACP without any problems. These are light practice loads. Some of the cases are on their 4th or 5th reload and I’ve only had a very few split cases. Never came across any Berdan stuff.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, good or bad, just my experience.

I think early blazer was berdan primed, but new ones are spp. This makes them very tempting to reload, whereas berdan definitely did not.
catpop

I’ve reloaded some of the aluminum CCI Blazer cases in 9mm and 45 ACP without any problems. These are light practice loads. Some of the cases are on their 4th or 5th reload and I’ve only had a very few split cases. Never came across any Berdan stuff.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, good or bad, just my experience.

Click to expand...

Unless it's an experiment all I can say, is to ask WHY?

Yes you can reload aluminum cases, but only once or twice and the loads have to be kept mild. I have found it is only worth the extra effort if I have maybe 500.

I wash the aluminum cases with good detergent in my tumbler but do not use media.

Is brass REALLY this scarce?

Especially in these most common calibers?

Deleted.

...,