Max asked:
I’m assuming that brass is flexible, expands and then bounces back to it’s original shape. But if aluminum and steel expand and don’t contract wouldn’t they cause guns to jam more often for example?
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I’m assuming that brass is flexible, expands and then bounces back to it’s original shape. But if aluminum and steel expand and don’t contract wouldn’t they cause guns to jam more often for example?
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Tags: Aluminum, Reloading, Steel Casings
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They’re just too hard. Not only would they be a pain in resizing, the additional hardness also makes them brittle when reworked, increasing the risk of case rupture. It happens enough with brass if you never anneal.
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you said it..the brass is more malleable and returns to shape and holds it..the others wont
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You can technically reload both aluminum and steel casings, but you shouldn’t do it.
Steel casings are too hard that is why they are polymer coated. The coating prevents them from destroying your gun. Actually they still will damage some guns even with the coating. The coating isn’t meant to last more than one session either. The aluminum and steel casing are berdan primed, which makes them extremely difficult to reload.
Aluminum casings are very weak. They may not last a second session and explode as you try to fire them. It is not recommended that you use aluminum cased cartridges in open bolt machine guns either as there have been reported incidents where the casing shredded as it was entering the bore and exploded in the operator’s face.
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One major factor which precludes reloading these cases is that most , especially lacquer-coated steel cases, are ‘Berdan’ primed, as opposed to ‘Boxer’ priming used on all commercial brass case cartridges. Berdan priming system has two ‘fire holes’ side by side, instead of the single centered one of Boxer priming, which makes it ridiculously hard to de-prime the cases, as well as Berdan primers being a different diameter, and almost no supplier sells Berdan primers. One cannot use any type of reloading tool to de-prime Berdan cases.
Most aluminium commercial ‘Blazer’ type ammo is Berdan primed, also for this reason, to keep reloaders from using the weaker cases again.
This is one of the reasons that lacquer-coated (NOT polymer-coated) surplus ammo is so cheaply priced.
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Steel is magnetic, and can spark…Sparks are not good things around gun powder….CCI loads some pistol rounds with aluminum cases, but they are not re loadable, as the aluminum is so soft the primer pockets will wear out quickly..Aluminum, metallurgical, has a valence of +3, which means that moisture would cause electrolysis to set up between the steel primer cup and the aluminum case, which would pit the primer pocket…Steel is harder than brass, and would not uniformly expand on the firing sequence, and would be likely to rupture instead of expanding and sealing…Also, the hardness of steel would make resizing cases difficult, as steel needs to be heated before reshaping…….Hope this helps….