I'm reading more and more about ammo with polymer casings being tested and used by certain government alphabet soup agencies. Let's hear from people with experience with it. Is it available to the general public? Any problems with it?
Polymer Casings?
- Thread starter Bhfromme
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JoeDice
Member
Polymer cartridge cases
My simple answer… JUST SAY NO !!!!
My simple answer… JUST SAY NO !!!!
LVSteve
Member
Polymer cased ammo is seen as a way of reducing cost and weight for the military. The main body of the case is polymer and is bonded to a metal case head to provide obturation. I suspect it has not caught on as the expected savings have not been realized, possibly because the military have not jumped on it. Big money from military sales would help in refining the process to make it cost effective.
The concept has caused many metals investors and reloaders to bite chunks out of their furniture.
The concept has caused many metals investors and reloaders to bite chunks out of their furniture.
I have shot the above mentioned 38spl. It shot and functioned fine. I had an uncle that bought a case of polymer cased 7.62x39 with plastic bullets. We had to temporally plug the gas ports on the AK47's and SKS's for them to function. Accuracy was ho hum at 25ft and nonexistent past that.
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I recall that 980's stuff. It fell out of favor VERY quickly. We shot a little of it, but just out of curiosity.
DWalt
Member
I had and have fired some USAC plastic cased .38 ammo. Its main selling point was that it could be easily reloaded with a simple and cheap tool. No dies required. Except it required a special bullet design available only from USAC that snapped into the plastic case. So you had no choice of bullets. Not a terrible idea for a shooter with modest needs, but it did not catch on. I think it may have been available in the 1970s but I don't remember for sure. It may have been available in calibers other than .38, but I do not remember seeing any. I may still have a few rounds in my collection.
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I've seen and shot a little bit of this stuff: https://www.tvammo.com.
It has a lot to recommend it - lighter weight, accuracy was superb in my rifles, less heat transfer. The problem is cost. At $70/20 for 308 Win. they just aren't going to sell a lot of it and so you don't see it on store shelves. If I only fired a box or two of cartridges per year I might be tempted to use this stuff exclusively. It's actually pretty impressive technology.
It has a lot to recommend it - lighter weight, accuracy was superb in my rifles, less heat transfer. The problem is cost. At $70/20 for 308 Win. they just aren't going to sell a lot of it and so you don't see it on store shelves. If I only fired a box or two of cartridges per year I might be tempted to use this stuff exclusively. It's actually pretty impressive technology.
It's plastic! It's gotta be good!
Right?
Why do I see this as another way for idiots to trash our shooting ranges?
Right?
Why do I see this as another way for idiots to trash our shooting ranges?
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I seem to recall some full polymer shotgun cases years ago.
THANK YOU.........You have the guts to say plastic.....Thank You!!!!!
Those were made by Activ Industries. I shot up a few cases of those back in the '80's-'90's. I believe they had a steel insert.
ACTIV made full PLASTIC shotgun shells for a long time.......Head was internally reinforced with a steel washer......I still reload and shoot some of their hulls...............ALL shotgun hull body's today are plastic.
I shot and reloaded ACTIV hulls when I shot trap regularly, they reloaded with no issues. There was a steel insert in the base for holding the primer. Issue I had with them is the plastic rim would get chewed up by the extractor after numerous firing cycles. When I fired them in my 870 they would sometimes slip past the retainer in the magazine tube due to the chewed up rim and pop out of the tube. They would end up inside the receiver and jam up the works. Sometimes I would have to pull out the FCG to get them out if I couldn't get them to go back into the magazine tube. I got tired of dealing with the jam's and quit using them, I gave them all to a guy I worked with.
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DWalt
Member
There were several shotgun shell brands with all-plastic bodies. Wanda was one, they were made in Houston. Herter's was also selling their house brand shells and cases back in the 1970s. I think theirs were European, maybe Spanish. In the later 1980s my Trap and Skeet club got a good deal on Activ shells and bought a large inventory of them for sales to the members. Nothing wrong with them. I probably still have some fired cases from that time.They reloaded OK.
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chiefdave
US Veteran
I remember these. OK in break open guns if reloaded but not so much for autoloaders. There is a reason they went away.
I had some totally clear blue Wanda plastic shells......Each time I shot one the case would split down the side.......They were a once & done shotshell.
DWalt
Member
I don't know what plastic was used in the Wanda shells, but it was transparent. It was fairly hard and not flexible, unlike plastic shells made by Federal, Winchester, etc. I imagine they were probably somewhat brittle and probably could crack easily upon firing. I have several boxes of Wanda shells in my collection but I have never fired any.
