New Aluminum Cases?

[Fuzz]

Local guy has new Aluminum cases for 40S&W with primers in them. .03 each.  This is what I pay for brass and primers not counting processing time. Since I have to leave them at the matches I thought I might look into this.

 

Anyone loading new Aluminum?

Would these effect my load data?

Any down sides?

Well any thoughts on this?

[HesedTech]

Questions you must ask:

1. How do you know it’s new?
2. What are the primers?
3. Who is the manufacture and what do they recommend?
4. Aluminum will gall easier on dies and do they need to be sized?
5. Cracks?
6. Good deals may lead to higher expenditures in the future.

Personally I would pass.

[Fuzz]

8 minutes ago, HesedTech said:

Questions you must ask:

1. How do you know it’s new?
2. What are the primers?
3. Who is the manufacture and what do they recommend?
4. Aluminum will gall easier on dies and do they need to be sized?
5. Cracks?
6. Good deals may lead to higher expenditures in the future.

Personally I would pass.

1.  I have seen them and seen him shoot them. They are new cases with no scratches.

2. This is a question that I asked him and he is finding out. So what if they are Seller and Beloit. They go bang every time. He 10000 rounds on them.

3. Unknown but does it matter?

4. They are new so no Rollsizing or pass through dies to use. This is the big advantage in my opinion. He does run them through the sizing die with no decapping pin or primers for obvious reasons.

5. New so no cracks.

6. What higher expenditures are you speaking of?  Aluminum is softer than Brass so no extra wear? ??????

 

Not trying to sell anyone on them. Just looking at options here.

[MikeBurgess]

.03 ea is cheep for a case and primer in would run them. I would chrono a few before I loaded a bunch, but i would suspect they will be very close to normal brass for loading.

The only real issue with aluminum cases is corrosion on scratched cases causing cracks. I talked to a guy that was around at the development of the Blaser aluminum cases and he said he reloaded the same case 20+ times without any issue.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Fuzz]

5 hours ago, MikeBurgess said:

.03 ea is cheep for a case and primer in would run them. I would chrono a few before I loaded a bunch, but i would suspect they will be very close to normal brass for loading.

The only real issue with aluminum cases is corrosion on scratched cases causing cracks. I talked to a guy that was around at the development of the Blaser aluminum cases and he said he reloaded the same case 20+ times without any issue.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

I am not really planning on reloading any of them. I think just using them for match ammo which is a lost brass deal anyway.

 

This save me the processing time I spend on brass and if the bullet hits the same spot on target I should be good.

 

Has anyone ever tested a Brass casing and an Aluminum casing with the same load in them? Any differences?

[BJB]

3 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Has anyone ever tested a Brass casing and an Aluminum casing with the same load in them? Any differences?

Yes, I've tested reloaded brass against reloaded Federal aluminium cases with the same 9mm minor load.  I tested chrono & accuracy at 25 yds. 

1) There was no difference in chrono. 

2) Brass appeared to be very slightly more accurate at 25 yd but it was so close that it really didn't matter.  I assumed the accuracy difference was because the aluminum didn't have the same neck tension as brass d/t the different metallurgy. 

3) I shot mags mixed with reloaded brass & aluminum & couldn't tell the difference. 

4) I gave a bunch of the reloaded aluminum rounds to friends who shot them in their firearms flawlessly, although they didn't test for accuracy, etc. 

5) I've reloaded an aluminum case & took it out back & fired it & repeated this 8 times one afternoon looking for failure but it was fine each time. 

6) I experienced no bullet setback with the aluminum cases but I do use an undersize die.

7) The aluminum was dirtier to shoot.  The metal doesn't seal the chamber as good or as fast as brass does upon firing so there is a little gas leaking back around the case before the chamber seal is achieved. Thus, the chamber and breach area is dirtier with aluminum.  

8 The aluminum does appear to work harden and be more prone to case failure over multiple firings than brass.  There were more splits encountered at the case mouth over time in aluminum cases that had been fired multiple times than I've ever encountered with brass.

9) The aluminum case primer pockets became loose sooner than brass.

10) The aluminum cleaned up faster and better in my dry media tumbler.

 

I messed with reloading the aluminum cases just to do it, simple as that.  I don't reload aluminum because brass is better.  In the past, if I went to a class that will be leaving a bunch of hulls on the ground I'd often bring a lot of that Federal Champion aluminum stuff.  I have no issue with that.  I would not use reloaded aluminum in a match because I think that they would be more prone to case failure.  I didn't see case separation in my experimenting with aluminum but I do think it would be more prone to this failure, as well as split cases. 

 

For your inquiry about using "not-fired" aluminum cases at a match, not aluminum cases with multiple reloadings: 

l'd think that you should be OK.  I didn't start seeing the aluminum failures until the metal was work hardened after multiple firings & reloadings.  Early on in my USPSA shooting I actually shot some of that factory aluminum stuff because of the cost.  It ran fine, although it was less accurate at distance.  Use some of that aluminum you mentioned in a local match and find out for yourself.  If it messes up in a local match it's no big deal.  For a bigger match, use brass just to be safe.

Edited May 11, 2019 by BJB

[HesedTech]

Thanks for the answers. 

 

Assuming they are are new and not some strange factory rejects load and shoot once for practice probably not a bad deal. 

 

The extra hidden costs are failures, down time, resetting press for just that load and possible pistol damage if there’s a major failure. 

 

The best advice I’ve gotten on loading is to  pick a bullet, powder, process, set up my press and load away. And don’t chase “good deals.” But I’m sure tempted. Over late winter I test 4 different 9 mm bullets to see if I could save some money. I found they all worked great, but ended up sticking with a my previous and more expensive load. 

[Furrly]

On 5/10/2019 at 6:50 PM, Fuzz said:

Local guy has new Aluminum cases for 40S&W with primers in them. .03 each.  This is what I pay for brass and primers not counting processing time. Since I have to leave them at the matches I thought I might look into this.

 

Anyone loading new Aluminum?

Would these effect my load data?

Any down sides?

Well any thoughts on this?

Who sells these, curious?? 

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, Furrly said:

Who sells these, curious?? 

The guy I spoke to about this and showed me his and let me shoot a couple of his has this info. At this point I don't have the contact info for him and he did not come to this months match (It rained hard for the match, that is hard to imagine isn't it) I will get this info and get back with you when I hook up with him again. I wish I had gotten it but I blew it off at first thought but then got thinking about it. I will let you know when I do.

[Fuzz]

23 hours ago, BJB said:

Yes, I've tested reloaded brass against reloaded Federal aluminium cases with the same 9mm minor load.  I tested chrono & accuracy at 25 yds. 

1) There was no difference in chrono. 

2) Brass appeared to be very slightly more accurate at 25 yd but it was so close that it really didn't matter.  I assumed the accuracy difference was because the aluminum didn't have the same neck tension as brass d/t the different metallurgy. 

3) I shot mags mixed with reloaded brass & aluminum & couldn't tell the difference. 

4) I gave a bunch of the reloaded aluminum rounds to friends who shot them in their firearms flawlessly, although they didn't test for accuracy, etc. 

5) I've reloaded an aluminum case & took it out back & fired it & repeated this 8 times one afternoon looking for failure but it was fine each time. 

6) I experienced no bullet setback with the aluminum cases but I do use an undersize die.

7) The aluminum was dirtier to shoot.  The metal doesn't seal the chamber as good or as fast as brass does upon firing so there is a little gas leaking back around the case before the chamber seal is achieved. Thus, the chamber and breach area is dirtier with aluminum.  

8 The aluminum does appear to work harden and be more prone to case failure over multiple firings than brass.  There were more splits encountered at the case mouth over time in aluminum cases that had been fired multiple times than I've ever encountered with brass.

9) The aluminum case primer pockets became loose sooner than brass.

10) The aluminum cleaned up faster and better in my dry media tumbler.

 

I messed with reloading the aluminum cases just to do it, simple as that.  I don't reload aluminum because brass is better.  In the past, if I went to a class that will be leaving a bunch of hulls on the ground I'd often bring a lot of that Federal Champion aluminum stuff.  I have no issue with that.  I would not use reloaded aluminum in a match because I think that they would be more prone to case failure.  I didn't see case separation in my experimenting with aluminum but I do think it would be more prone to this failure, as well as split cases. 

 

For your inquiry about using "not-fired" aluminum cases at a match, not aluminum cases with multiple reloadings: 

l'd think that you should be OK.  I didn't start seeing the aluminum failures until the metal was work hardened after multiple firings & reloadings.  Early on in my USPSA shooting I actually shot some of that factory aluminum stuff because of the cost.  It ran fine, although it was less accurate at distance.  Use some of that aluminum you mentioned in a local match and find out for yourself.  If it messes up in a local match it's no big deal.  For a bigger match, use brass just to be safe.

Thanks this was extremely helpful and insightful.

[18111811]

following.  I like this idea as it would be a huge timesaver not having to deal with crimped primers from the brass i get from work and not have my lay out 3k for an apex