Aluminum Cases

[sofbak]

If I'm seeing the bulge you reference, that is not a "feature" of aluminum, it's a feature of the sizing die.

[bergmen]

I've reloaded 10's of thousands of these.


The majority of blazer aluminum cases are berdan primed. You CAN punch through this and seat a normal primer, but you're compromising the case structure doing so. I would NOT RECOMMEND using these.


There are boxer primer variants. This is what I use when I use them.


Things you want to know (using 9mm as an example)

1) These can only be reloaded once.
2) These WILL crack. Inspect and case gauge every single one you reload.
3) You CANNOT use an undersizing die.
4) You CANNOT use over diameter bullets. (.356 = ok 0.357 = cracked case)
5) You should not clean these with stainless pins. Walnut is good or don't clean them first.

Finally, be prepared for brasswhores at the local range to give you stinkeye.

This is the #1 reason I reload aluminum, to give the middle finger to brass gophers and hoes at competitions.



ETA:

These are 230g 45ACP moly coated lead sized 0.451

As you can see, there is a slight bulge in the case when seated.

Great post, thank you!

Dan

[Corbin Dallas]

If I'm seeing the bulge you reference, that is not a "feature" of aluminum, it's a feature of the sizing die.

Nope,

That's a feature of seating the bullet in the case.


You can disagree with me all you want, but after loading probably 50k of these or more (lost count), I consider myself a bit of an expert from experience.

That picture is from 2012.

[sofbak]

"That's a feature of seating the bullet in the case".

Correct, but it's due to the case diameter your sizing die imparts on the case. Same or similar effective occurs with brass cases.

edit to add: It may be that aluminum case wall thickness are greater than brass case walls, which would make the effect more pronounced......but still a result of the sizing process and die diameter, and not intrinsic to aluminum material used.

[the86d]

FYI for the panickers... last shortage I treid something...
If you can't get 9mm NATO/Luger, then .380 ACP seems to shoot fine out of my M9 (92FS for MEN), and an SR-9 (projectile is the same diameter as 9mm (.355-.356). I can't remember if they cycled every time, but they shot accurately, but the case-neck split...

Sooooo if you can't find the 9mm, .380 ACP is all you have, you at least got one accurate shot in the stuff I tried it in... last shortage/panic.

[NapalmCheese]

Good luck annealing aluminum.

Annealing is the easy part.

Paint with some sharpie, hit with the torch till the sharpie disappears. Now your case is annealed.

[JagerDog]

I would imagine that aluminum cases don't like being stretched and resized. Aluminum is not very bendy, and doesn't take reforming very well.

I've never tried reloading it though - grass 9mm casings are literally lying around just about everywhere I shoot.

Don't use such technical words here. Malleable is what you want to use.

A number of indoor ranges won't allow you to shoot aluminum cased shells.

[pacrat]

Good luck annealing aluminum.

^^^FOR SURE^^^

Annealing is the easy part.

Paint with some sharpie, hit with the torch till the sharpie disappears. Now your case is annealed.

^^^SORRY NOT NEAR THAT EASY PEASY^^^

Once brought up to annealing temp. Which varies as to alloy. It takes several hours under closely controlled temperature lessening steps to anneal aluminum.

All Al alloys require different specific annealing temps. And incremental temp/time steps. Without knowing the specific alloy it is impossible to ascertain which initial temp is required. And the annealing stabilizing temp steps needed.

Without the "stabilizing heat steps". Al reverts back to its original T rating after cooling.

[bigbossman]

Don't use such technical words here. Malleable is what you want to use.

"Bendy" is on the list, I checked

[NapalmCheese]

^^^SORRY NOT NEAR THAT EASY PEASY^^^

Well I'm no expert but....

The sharpie trick seems to have worked for me when I've bent, hammered, or otherwise shaped aluminum for knife bolsters. I'll chalk it up to being lucky.

Would I do that with crap not-brass meant to be entirely expendable? Hell no.

[pacrat]

Corbin Dallas made the comment;

The majority of blazer aluminum cases are berdan primed. You CAN punch through this and seat a normal primer, but you're compromising the case structure doing so. I would NOT RECOMMEND using these.

I would not recommend doing so either. You have to do a lot more than just "punch through". Look at the pic in post #9 that 86d put up.

Firstly Boxer and Berdan primers are different diameters. And in Berdan priming system. The anvil is part of the case.

To make it work at all. You have to have an end cutter that is the proper diameter for boxer primers. This is to remove the anvil and open the dia to accept a boxer primer.

Then even after you drill a central flash hole for the boxer primer. You now have 3 flash holes. A REALLY BIG PROBLEM, for anything other than ultra light bunny fart loads. Because one function of the flash hole is to LIMIT the pressure pulse of back pressure into the primer cup.

Any load hotter than "ULTRA BUNNY FART". You're gonna blow every primer.

[Ishooter]

Converting from Berdan to Boxer is so much easier than most think. I've done quite some brass of 7.62x54 by drilling out the hole that fits the diameter of the Boxer primer, then another drilling for the small hole in the center. I've shot and reloaded them without issues.

[divingin]

Things you want to know (using 9mm as an example)

5) You should not clean these with stainless pins. Walnut is good or don't clean them first.

I suspect they will clean up fine in a wet tumbler with SS pins, as long as you don't use the normal acidic solution (i.e. no LemiShine, lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar.) Acid will cause corrosion of untreated aluminum in a hurry (same reason you don't run raw aluminum cookware through the dishwasher.) Just use the soap, though they'll probably require much less run time than brass.

[Corbin Dallas]

I suspect they will clean up fine in a wet tumbler with SS pins, as long as you don't use the normal acidic solution (i.e. no LemiShine, lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar.) Acid will cause corrosion of untreated aluminum in a hurry (same reason you don't run raw aluminum cookware through the dishwasher.) Just use the soap, though they'll probably require much less run time than brass.

They will clean up fine.

What I've found when cleaning these is the cases I've loaded after cleaning have lost their exterior coating that makes the cases slick and not get stuck in my carbide dies.

This is the prime reason I recommend not to clean with stainless pins and either load them as is, or run them through a vibratory tumbler with crushed walnut.

[divingin]

What I've found when cleaning these is the cases I've loaded after cleaning have lost their exterior coating that makes the cases slick and not get stuck in my carbide dies.

So is the coating a chemical surface treatment (anodizing) or a lacquer type coating?

Not that I care all that much, as I wouldn't reload aluminum cases; just curious here.