SD40.......any problems with aluminum/steel case ammo?

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ClaytonG

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I have an SD40 VE that eats any kind of brass(including hollow point)ammo........but fails to eject spent aluminum/steel cases from the cheapie training ammo like Tula or Blazer.

Anyone have a similar experience?

I just shoot inexpensive brass ammo now and have had zero issues with ejection.......but was wondering if other SD owners had a problem with aluminum case ammo?
 
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I have had the same issue with my SD40VE using Blazer aluminum ammo. I had 3 out of a box of 50 FTE. Had to tap them out of the chamber with a small wooden rod. Had some FTF issues with all brands of ammo and sent the SD40VE back to factory. They polished the feed ramp, chamber and de-burred the slide. Haven't had any issues since, but haven't tried the aluminum Blazer again either.
 
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Sounds similar to my experience with the aluminum case stuff.
Tula is even worse than Blazer.........but the SD's been great with any kind of brass ammo including hollowpoints.
 
I shot around 150 rounds of the aluminum cased Blazer ammo and only had one FTF. After polishing the feed ramp on my SD40 VE i have had none but i have not shot any steel cased ammo yet.
 
Yes , it's typical of aluminum and steel those metals are not as elastic as brass. Brass expands, seals the chamber then quickly springs back to allow extraction. Aluminum and steel can hang onto the chamber walls longer and /or harder and cause the extraction problems.
The ammo is cheaper but it does have a downside. Some guns they don't bother at all and other guns choke on them.
Gary
 
Thanks for the info........my local gunsmith said the same thing.
I'm sticking with brass.
 
PHP:
Ho Lee Chit said:
I shot around 150 rounds of the aluminum cased Blazer ammo and only had one FTF. After polishing the feed ramp on my SD40 VE i have had none but i have not shot any steel cased ammo yet.
Click to expand...

You're probably OK then.........if you didn't have any FTE and only one failure to feed......the feed ramp polish will probably do the trick.
It could have been that one of those Blazer rounds was out of spec.
 
ClaytonG said:
Thanks for the info........my local gunsmith said the same thing.
I'm sticking with brass.
Click to expand...
Try some out , your's just might not have any issues with it .
If it has a few issues , a little polishing might fix it right up.

The US Army used zinc plated steel cased 45 acp ammo during WWII. WWII Army surplus brass was cheap in the 60's and 70's and the steel cases were dirt cheap . I had a few thousand once fired cases and reloaded and shot them regularly. They didn't last as long as brass but the shot OK in the low pressure 45 acp.
Gary
 
No aluminum here, but I did wind up buying a box of Winchester "Forged" 115 gr 9mm at Wally the other day for 8 bucks just to practice with, didn't realize that it was steel cased until after purchase (no returns at Wally on ammo). Took it home and fired all 50 rounds in the SD9VE just fine--no problems. I would not intentionally purchase steel cased
ammo. But any way the SD ran flawlessly.
 
SD9VE owner here, never had an issue with alum. case ammo. Have only shot Federal brand though and saw no reason to try the Blazer, if it ain't broke... Always use aluminum for indoor ranges and when outdoors brass because I still pick those up even though I haven't reloaded in years.
 
Not a big fan of steel or aluminum cased ammo for pistols, but I have shot a bunch it in the past for practice when I didn't use my own loads.
My experience is that all of the aluminum cased ammo feeds poorer, chronos slightly slower & shoots dirtier than its brass cased counterpart, but it IS cheaper. The plated bullets used in that ammo were not as accurate as jacketed for me, but good enough for range fodder. I won't use any more 40S&W in aluminum due to really pathetic neck tension.

Brass plated steel (Rangesafe by S&B) and coated steel (Wolf & Tula) don't extract nearly as consistently as brass in many firearms.
Steel really isn't a bad choice in gas operated rifles, but I don't like it for pistols. Decent quality control and a smooth/polished finish on the steel helps aid extraction.

I'll stick with good ol' reloadable brass!
 
I had one failure to extract out of 50 rounds in my 40 cal using Blazer aluminum. I got rid of the 40 for other reasons. My SD9VE no problems ran over 400 rounds Blazer aluminum
thur it all perfect.
 
Your experience kinda confirms what I thought.
The .40 cal pressures are a little too much for aluminum cases and they deform in the chamber.
9mm probably will never have that problem. Thanks for the info.
 
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