I have shot thousands of 9mm, and hundreds of .38/.357 with zero issues. I tried reloading some 9mm aluminum cases just to see if it would work in a pinch. The first two loadings of the batch of cases worked fine with standard 9mm 115 gr. bullets loaded to standard velocities. On the third loading, I ran into several issues. Oversize primer pockets, failure to hold a bullet, or if they did manage to hold everything together, the cases split about 80% of the time. After that, I wouldn't mind loading once fired aluminum cases, but only if nothing else was available.
Are aluminum cases a gamble?
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ArchAngelCD
Moderator, SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
I haves only shot aluminum case .38 Special and .357 Magnum ammo and very little at that. There was a time long ago where I bought 150 rounds of each and they shot fine in my revolvers. Never tried anything but brass cases in any semi-auto I own. Not that I think it will hurt anything it's because I reload and want the cases.
cmj8591
Member
sousana
Member
Thousands and Thousands of aluminum cases later, I've yet to have any issue with it.
Heck, back in the 80's I went through thousands of those plastic cased .38 special ammo without an issue.
Heck, back in the 80's I went through thousands of those plastic cased .38 special ammo without an issue.
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I've shot thousands and thousands of rounds of 9mm aluminum Blazer with good results.
I am not as crazy about Blazer aluminum in my revolvers. I tried it for a while but quickly went back to brass. It's been a while but I think sticky extraction was an issue.
I am not as crazy about Blazer aluminum in my revolvers. I tried it for a while but quickly went back to brass. It's been a while but I think sticky extraction was an issue.
Doug M.
Member
The only problem I have had was some years back I shot some in a 45 ACP revolver using moon clips. The cases expanded in some manner and I actually broke a demooner tool. Other than that, I would use the Blazer for virtually reason, and I never worry about repeated chambering because I almost never unload a firearm other than by firing it.
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No issues with quality made Aluminum ammo - however IMHO the savings just aren't enough for me to even consider them. There have been times that I could buy AE Brass cased ammo for less than Blazer!
Went through a CHP class with blazer aluminum 9mm. My Walther PPS REALLY did not like them. Every type of failure you can imagine and some new ones I had never seen. Should have tried them in it before I went, but just grabbed the cheapest thing I had on hand. It has never hiccupped with any brass cased ammo. Gave away the several hundred rounds I had left.
Frank46
US Veteran
Not so much in shooting ammunition loaded with aluminum cases.. Fun usually starts when you have to punch out the old berdan primer. Then sizing, which may leave you with case mouth splits. And in firing you may end up with neck or body splits. supposedly the alloy will only allow a couple loadings if you are lucky. I usually get to see the side effects after such a case has been fired. Frank
David Sinko
Member
Years ago I was given a box of aluminum cased Blazer in .25 ACP. I didn't have a .25 ACP pistol so I bought a nice Beretta 950BS "just because." The Blazer ammo functioned just fine and I have reloaded those cases a few times. Some of the Blazer cases are Boxer primed and some are Berdan primed. I will say that those .25 ACP aluminum cases are quite robust and I still reload them today with the #3 buckshot round ball. But I wouldn't reload aluminum cases for any other cartridge and I have no desire to ever shoot even the factory loaded stuff in the 625.
A couple points of clarification.
1) Work hardening isn’t the issue with aluminum, it’s fatigue. Cartridge cases, brass, steel or aluminum have to expand to seal the case agains the chamber wall. Brass is nearly ideal and steel is strong enough that while it also fatigues it doesn’t do so at the nearly the same rate as an aluminum. Steel has a fatigue limit below which it doesn’t have a fatigue life.
For example a paper clip in normal use holding a couple pieces of paper together will last for decades. Put it over too many sheets however and it will exceed its fatigue limit. Put it over an even taller stack of paper and it will exceed its elastic limit (I.e it will not go back to its original shape). Either way it’s now working off a limited fatigue life. The greater the bend the greater the fatigue, and bending it back into shape further reduces the fatigue life.
Aluminum on the other hand fatigues with each load cycle, ot matter how small and it will fatigue much faster at higher loads closer to its elastic limit. Those qualities don’t make it well suited to reloading as it will have a very short useful life.
2) Split necks and spider cracks in a case body are non issues as the gas is sealed lower on the case by the case web.
3) Incipient head separations will lead to partial or complete head separations and it’s also not a serious uncontrolled gas situation. The separation, partial or otherwise occurs when the case stretches after it has adhered to the chamber wall and doesn’t result in any significant gas loss. In the vast majority of cases the brass actually separates on ejection and even a fully separated case head is usually extracted and ejected from the chamber.
I’ve probably had a dozen or so separated cases over the last 45 years and I’ve only had one that left the case body on the chamber and it came out with a bronze bush. I’ve never had to use a case extractor.
4) Soft cartridge heads are where things get very interesting. For example, in the late 1980s I came across a batch of new, never loaded, I primed TW73 5.56 NATO brass. I found it across the border from MN maybe 200 miles away from the Twin Cities Ammunition Plant. The gun shop owner had come across it and both of us came to the same assumption that it was surplussed brass after things wound down in Vietnam 15 years prior.
I bought a couple thousand cases and and loaded practice ammo and Varmint ammo in it, loading it 500 at a time and wearing those cases out before going to the next 500. In the early 90s I loaded up the last 500 and was using it Varmint hunting in my Varmint AR-15 off a bipod when a shot sounded funny and I could not spot the round’s impact point. Then I noticed the rest of the cartridges in the magazine were lying on the ground, followed by noticing the magazine outside the magazine well was beer can shaped, and then that the bolt carrier wouldn’t move.
Upon further inspection I noted the bottom of the bolt carrier had fractured at the front and was bent straight down into the magazine well.
I had to drive the bottom of the carrier back into place with a hammer and punch to enable me to get it out of the upper receiver. Once it was out it was clear that the case head had failed and the max I’ve amount of gas had cut four of the locking lugs off the bolt and the rest had failed, allowing the bolt to be driven back into the bolt carrier, splitting it as it weakest point and blowing the bottom of it into the magazine well. This all happened before the bolt carrier could move back more than about 1/4”.
It needed a new bolt and new bolt carrier, and just to be safe it even though the barrel extension looked fine, it got a new barrel just to be safe.
After researching the possible cause of a new brass case failing, I learned that this happens when case heads are not properly hardened or become to soft when the case neck and shoulder are annealed.
I also found a reference to a lot of TW73 brass that had been condemned due to concerns over possible improper annealing and the potential for soft case heads. Twin Cities had condemned the brass in the barrels it was stored in a and sold it for scrap in barrels, without first crushing it to render it unusable. A local scrap dealer apparently bought it and left it in the barrels where 15 years alter another dealer eventually bought it not knowing it’s history and sold it as reloadable brass.
——-
As a result,
A) I don’t worry about using aluminum case ammo, but I don’t reload it.
B) I have a great deal of respect for the gas management capabilities of the AR-15 after a total case head failure.
C) I’m not inclined to buy new surplus brass from anything other than an established company (like Federal which will sell new military brass in consumer packaging that is either contract over run brass, or is factory second brass without safety issues).
D) I don’t anneal brass for anything other than case forming purposes. When I do anneal a neck and shoulder between case forming steps it’s the time tested method of doing it with the bottom half or three quarters of the case submerged in a pan of water to ensure the lower portion of the case receives no heat at all.
The current method of heating the case in an open air fixture relying on limited time and heat intensity to anneal the neck and shoulder before the heat transfers to the head doesn’t appeal to me. There be dragons there and too much heat can cause big problems.
1) Work hardening isn’t the issue with aluminum, it’s fatigue. Cartridge cases, brass, steel or aluminum have to expand to seal the case agains the chamber wall. Brass is nearly ideal and steel is strong enough that while it also fatigues it doesn’t do so at the nearly the same rate as an aluminum. Steel has a fatigue limit below which it doesn’t have a fatigue life.
For example a paper clip in normal use holding a couple pieces of paper together will last for decades. Put it over too many sheets however and it will exceed its fatigue limit. Put it over an even taller stack of paper and it will exceed its elastic limit (I.e it will not go back to its original shape). Either way it’s now working off a limited fatigue life. The greater the bend the greater the fatigue, and bending it back into shape further reduces the fatigue life.
Aluminum on the other hand fatigues with each load cycle, ot matter how small and it will fatigue much faster at higher loads closer to its elastic limit. Those qualities don’t make it well suited to reloading as it will have a very short useful life.
2) Split necks and spider cracks in a case body are non issues as the gas is sealed lower on the case by the case web.
3) Incipient head separations will lead to partial or complete head separations and it’s also not a serious uncontrolled gas situation. The separation, partial or otherwise occurs when the case stretches after it has adhered to the chamber wall and doesn’t result in any significant gas loss. In the vast majority of cases the brass actually separates on ejection and even a fully separated case head is usually extracted and ejected from the chamber.
I’ve probably had a dozen or so separated cases over the last 45 years and I’ve only had one that left the case body on the chamber and it came out with a bronze bush. I’ve never had to use a case extractor.
4) Soft cartridge heads are where things get very interesting. For example, in the late 1980s I came across a batch of new, never loaded, I primed TW73 5.56 NATO brass. I found it across the border from MN maybe 200 miles away from the Twin Cities Ammunition Plant. The gun shop owner had come across it and both of us came to the same assumption that it was surplussed brass after things wound down in Vietnam 15 years prior.
I bought a couple thousand cases and and loaded practice ammo and Varmint ammo in it, loading it 500 at a time and wearing those cases out before going to the next 500. In the early 90s I loaded up the last 500 and was using it Varmint hunting in my Varmint AR-15 off a bipod when a shot sounded funny and I could not spot the round’s impact point. Then I noticed the rest of the cartridges in the magazine were lying on the ground, followed by noticing the magazine outside the magazine well was beer can shaped, and then that the bolt carrier wouldn’t move.
Upon further inspection I noted the bottom of the bolt carrier had fractured at the front and was bent straight down into the magazine well.
I had to drive the bottom of the carrier back into place with a hammer and punch to enable me to get it out of the upper receiver. Once it was out it was clear that the case head had failed and the max I’ve amount of gas had cut four of the locking lugs off the bolt and the rest had failed, allowing the bolt to be driven back into the bolt carrier, splitting it as it weakest point and blowing the bottom of it into the magazine well. This all happened before the bolt carrier could move back more than about 1/4”.
It needed a new bolt and new bolt carrier, and just to be safe it even though the barrel extension looked fine, it got a new barrel just to be safe.
After researching the possible cause of a new brass case failing, I learned that this happens when case heads are not properly hardened or become to soft when the case neck and shoulder are annealed.
I also found a reference to a lot of TW73 brass that had been condemned due to concerns over possible improper annealing and the potential for soft case heads. Twin Cities had condemned the brass in the barrels it was stored in a and sold it for scrap in barrels, without first crushing it to render it unusable. A local scrap dealer apparently bought it and left it in the barrels where 15 years alter another dealer eventually bought it not knowing it’s history and sold it as reloadable brass.
——-
As a result,
A) I don’t worry about using aluminum case ammo, but I don’t reload it.
B) I have a great deal of respect for the gas management capabilities of the AR-15 after a total case head failure.
C) I’m not inclined to buy new surplus brass from anything other than an established company (like Federal which will sell new military brass in consumer packaging that is either contract over run brass, or is factory second brass without safety issues).
D) I don’t anneal brass for anything other than case forming purposes. When I do anneal a neck and shoulder between case forming steps it’s the time tested method of doing it with the bottom half or three quarters of the case submerged in a pan of water to ensure the lower portion of the case receives no heat at all.
The current method of heating the case in an open air fixture relying on limited time and heat intensity to anneal the neck and shoulder before the heat transfers to the head doesn’t appeal to me. There be dragons there and too much heat can cause big problems.
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Interesting nobody mentioned what I consider the biggest upside of aluminum=cased ammo, it's a lot lighter than brass. I'm content to carry a steel gun, so I'm not fixated on ultralight, but for a carry gun it's nice to shave a few grams where you can and for bulk ammo at the range or match, it's nice that your thousand-round case isn't quite such a brick.
I wish they sold new empty cases.
I wish they sold new empty cases.
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I have to agree with BB57 on several points but I didn't read that entire post.
I fired ten boxes of 9mm Blazer aluminum ammo in about three or four days thirty or more years ago. Couldn't tell it from brass-cased ammo but I seldom shoot anything that I didn't handload using brass cases. My only experience with aluminum cases.
I no longer anneal anything. When brass is worn out, it goes in the salvage pile. I used to have to anneal when I made .219 Zipper brass from .25-35 or .30-30 cases. Glad those days are behind me.
I'd never be so hard up as to handload aluminum cases, though they might work okay. I just think brass cases are better and have no complaints based on several years of handloading many, many different standard, improved, and wildcat rifle cartridges along with probably no more than a dozen handgun cartridges.
I fired ten boxes of 9mm Blazer aluminum ammo in about three or four days thirty or more years ago. Couldn't tell it from brass-cased ammo but I seldom shoot anything that I didn't handload using brass cases. My only experience with aluminum cases.
I no longer anneal anything. When brass is worn out, it goes in the salvage pile. I used to have to anneal when I made .219 Zipper brass from .25-35 or .30-30 cases. Glad those days are behind me.
I'd never be so hard up as to handload aluminum cases, though they might work okay. I just think brass cases are better and have no complaints based on several years of handloading many, many different standard, improved, and wildcat rifle cartridges along with probably no more than a dozen handgun cartridges.
