Steel case reloading?

[QuickDraw]

I was at the range today doing a little handgun shooting .
I was shooting some Wolf .45 and Federal 9mm.
I was done and picked up the 9mm brass and was just about to sweep up the Wolf steel cases and toss it when this G.O.B(Good Ole'Boy) says"Hey you going to throw that steel .45 away?"
I says "Yeah,you want it?"
G.O.B."Heck yeah I reload it!"
So we got to talking and he showed some of his reloaded steel .45. Says he does it all the time and that some people(me,I guess) have more money than brains for throwing it away!
Anyway,anybody have any input on this?
I was always told not to do this.
I'm a bonafide brass scrounger and would hate to think I've been
throwing good,reloadable "brass" away.

QuickDraw

 

[M2HMGHB]

I've reloaded Wolf 45s, went through fine came out fine but wore the extractor on my Mil-Spec.

 

[HSMITH]

I heard you could reload it, so I tried it and all was fine. Accuracy and velocity were normal, case life in 45 acp was in excess of 10 loads for the sample of 10 cases I loaded. I have probably close to 10K 45 acp brass cases so I did not pursue it further, but I did do a little testing.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Reloading steel???

My first reaction is WHY??? when you can get plenty of nice brass empties for most calibers at any public range.

I theorize that the steel case will be harder on a steel reloading die than will brass, but am not willing to use my good reloading dies to test the theory. Carbide dies might be a different story, but it still would seem like extra effort at least (steel IS much harder to work than is brass!) and there is so much good brass for the picking up.

I wonder what cartridges you can't get enough brass cases to reload that instead? 7.62x39 and .223 come to mind as possibilities, but there ARE brass cases even there.

Just thought of another downside: Brass doesn't mind a bit, spending days and days in a damp hunting coat pocket. (Granted brass will eventually corrode, but this doesn't happen IMX in a hunting season.) Wouldn't steel get a nice rough coating of FeO2 to gum up your chamber?

In short while it may be possible to reload steel cases I would not advise it, nor would I subject my reloading equipment nor guns to reloading steel. So, while I admit to being something of a cheapskate, in this instance, "I got more money than brains," and intend to stay that way.

 

[P95Carry]

In fairness to reloading dies etc .. DON'T ... !!!

False economy - same with Blazer.

Stick to brass.

Just my own 2c of course!

 

[Ardent]

I wouldn't do it... But I have run into some people here in Canada that swear by it as .45ACP brass can be a tad rare here. One old guy I know has been doing it for years and prefers it to brass, he says it lasts longer.

Ardent

 

[Sunray]

Steel cases are hard on dies. They'll get hardened a wee bit when they're fired and can scratch and otherwise bugger up your dies.

 

[QuickDraw]

Thanks for the replies.
I think I'll just let the G.O.B.(Good Ole' Boy) have 'em.
Its nice to know that it can be done in a SHTF orTEOTWAWKI
type situation .
I'll stick to brass.


QuickDraw

 

[Black Snowman]

I'm going to experiment with .223 Rem and a Lee collet next sizing die for mass producing reloads for my M17S. If I ruin a Lee die (which would be a trick with the collet system) I'm not out a lot of $$$ and I end up having about 800 pieces of steel from the batch of Wolf ammo I bought and no real brass to speak of. Even if I ruin the die, I still have the FL die as part of the set I bought.

Micing the before and after "brass" I get:
Before After, Difference
outside neck: .2475, .2525, .0150
base of shoulder: .3500, .3550, .0050
1/4 down body: .3570, .3610, .0040
Mid body: .3630, .3660, .0030
3/4 down body: .3680, .3710, .0030
1/8" above base of webbing .3745, .3745, .0000
base of webbing: .3750, .3750, .0000

A sampling of fired "brass" drops all the way into the chamber and falls right out without any resistance. If it were 9mm or .45 I wouldn't bother, but once shot .223 brass is just pricey enough for me to experiment Once I make a few I'll let you know what the results were.

 

[grendelbane]

The steel in the Wolf cases is far softer than the steel in the sizing die that you are using. Much, much softer than the carbide die that you are probably using.

It is also either coated with lacquer, or the new polymer finish. This will also be much softer than the steel in the sizing die.

I would be more worried about getting a consistent grip on the bullet than I would be about wearing the sizing die. It is grit which is going to wear your sizing die, (some of which is silica, quite hard).

You may or may not produce quality ammunition reloading steel cases. (I understand that your defiinition of quality, and my definition of quality may differ), but I do not believe that you will wear out a sizing die if you clean the brass, (steel), before sizing.

I suspect that the carbon content of these steel cases is so low that they just barely qualify to be called steel, anyway.

Disclaimer; I am not a metallurgist, and I do not play one on TV.

 

[Jim Watson]

Like HSMITH, when I saw that Wolf .45 ACP had Boxer primers, I just had to try them. I loaded several for four passes with no difficulty. I found that the old brown lacquered cases sized easier than the new gray "polymer" coated. I have also run a few old USGI WWII steel cases (apparently galvanized) through OK. But I still consider reloading steel cases an emergency last resort or a novelty. All procedures and equipment are based on brass and I am more confident in the product.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

Steel 45 cases

I have a good supply of American GI 45acp steel cases that I have kept in good condition by tumble cleaning after firing and when loading I place a little STP on a "Q" tip and swipe it in my Lifetyme carbide sizing die in my Star reloader just to reduce the sizing resistance a little.

I have never heard of anyone wearing out a Star sizer in the thousands of reloaders I have sold. GI ammo cans are ideal for storing ammo and brass no matter what the cases are made of. My brass 45 inventory has cases from every decade back to 1917 and I just ran across a couple of them in sorting 5 thousand cases and I only found one cracked case from 1945. My worn 45 cases crack not split.

I knew an old timer at the range who willed his steel casings to me in the 60's after he had used them since WW2.

Another old timer fired his target loads so many times that the case identification on the case head could barely be read as it had flattened in so much over the years.

Fitz