Aul. & Steel case reloading

[everallm]

So, in summary and before this goes into extra time.......

Yes, both Aluminium and Steel cases CAN be reloaded
No, reloading equipment is not set up SPECIFICALLY to handle the different characteristics of these metals
Yes, the number of POTENTIAL reloads will be far smaller than comparable brass
Yes the POTENTIAL for failure of the case is higher
No, it would NOT be a recommendation or suggestion to do this

 

[jmorris]

People; you're not reading my post. I said I tried it to see if it would work, it did. I have thousands of rounds of brass available to reload. Was wondering about new people doing it and what the long term effects would be if anyone knew.

A friend of mine used to reload 45 ACP blazer aluminum cases. The cases split from time to time and wound up costing him a barrel after it eroded the chamber. He has since quit the practice.

I would never run a steel case (or a dirty one for that matter) through any of my dies. I don’t have any definitive proof of the effect of steel cases but have seen the effects of dirty cases. Once you scar the inside of the die it will scar everything that runs through it after that.

 

[jcwit]

everallm YOU NAILED IT, good job.

 

[jcwit]

Regarding steel cases, soft steel as used in cases I doubt would harm carbide dies. SKS and AK chambers seem to hold up to 1,000's of rounds going in & out of them. Carbide is close to as hard as a diamond. Also in my experiment I only reloaded 5 cases of each, no damage to my dies. After 50 plus years of going to gun shows & buying the misc. boxes of junk I've got 6/8 sets of 45 ACP dies, only 1 set is steel. I've had more problem with nickle coming off a case and scratching brass cases when resizing 38 spec. cases. Can usually be cleaned up with 800 grit wet/dry paper.

 

[ants]

Resurrecting the thread with new info

After the IPSC shoot this morning, I picked up a boxer primed aluminum Blazer case and took it home. I live in a rural area, so I can shoot into a berm out behind the house.

I reloaded the aluminum case with 4.0 grains Titegroup and a 124 grain round nose lead bullet at 1.123" oal. This is my normal IPSC Production minor load that usually chronographs 1050 fps, but this one shot at 1282 fps! The aluminum case probably has a much thicker base and/or walls to yield much less case capacity. Clearly it is not safe to assume published loads under these conditions. I don't think any of us considered dimensional variance between brass and aluminum.

So I loaded it and shot it a second time. This time velocity was reduced to 1253 fps for the same measured powder charge and bullet.

And then a third loading. This time 1232 fps. Something is happening to the case dimensions to reduce velocity, where powder charge and bullet and oal are held constant.

And then a fourth time. Only 1221 fps.

After the fourth firing, the case head had expanded too much and the primer wouldn't stay in the pocket. There were no signs of imminent failure of the case walls, but clearly the case head was the weakness.

Bottom line: Only five discharges (the original plus four reloads) with charges that would normally be safe for a brass case, and the case head failed.

 

[jcwit]

You went alot farther with the experiment than I did, I only did 1 reload. Plus I used a light load which I use all the time simply because of rheumatism in my hands and wrist joints, can't take heavy recoil for a prolonged time.

 

[moooose102]

i have reloaded a couple of aluminum cci blazer 45acp shells (boxer primed). on the first reload shoot, the case necks spit. i only did 5 of these, just to see what would happen. 4 of the 5 split upon firing. so, i retired the rest of the cases to shooting rubber bullets powered strictly by the primer. they seem fine for that. as for steel cases, i would think that unless you got wolfs clear paint off the case, it could really leave a mess inside your dies. and if you did get it off, you would have to recoat it again, or the steel would start rusting again very soon. sounds like to much hassle for me, plus, i dont shoot wolf ammo. but then again, i dont shoot cci aluminum anymore either.