Ammo question

[08duramax]

I have heard that steel cased wolf ammo is not the best for guns. However what about the aluminum cased blazer ammo? Is this stuff as bad as the steel cased or is it ok? Thanks for the insight.

[Crownless]

I've never heard of any negative affects from using aluminum cased blazer. You just can't reload it. The reason why some people don't like the steel cased stuff is the lacquer that that they coat them in. I have heard that it can build up and cause malfunctions.

[sargenv]

Some people report that it splits in their guns. I shot about a half of a case of 40 S&W ammo a few years back. It all went bang and it all extracted perfectly from my Para P16. I also shot about 3 cases of their basic 115 gr fmj in a Glock 34. It was a bit snappy, but it worked good enough. Your gun will either like it or hate it. If you do not reload, the aluminum stuff can be a little cheaper.

[Beelzy]

Blazer aluminum cased ammo is good to go.

[Jonathan Doe]

I think they all okay to shoot, however, I never put those ammo in my guns.

[f4tweet]

Aluminum is cheaper, but if you shoot brass and save it, you will have lots of brass when you start reloading.

[08duramax]

Speaking of reloading, what does it cost you guys to reload a single .45 AFP round. I dis some quick numbers with prices from midway and it seemed more expensive than buying factory. Just curious.

[f4tweet]

After buying all the reloading components, which is around $600, and buying brass ( you saved, right), bullets, powder, and primers , you will load lead for about $6 @ box.

[08duramax]

A box of 50 or 100. If you don't mind could you give me a rundown of the costs of the components? Thanks.

[Crownless]

I kinda depends on what kind of components you are looking at. For my 9mm I cast my own bullets from wheel weights that I get for free. I use range pickup brass that is also free. My only cost is for primers and powder. Lets say a box of primers are $30.00. I use unique which is pretty cheap. It comes out to about $40.00 per 1000 rounds. If I were to load for .45 the cost would go up to about $42.00 per 1k. If you were buying jacketed bullets the cost would go up considerably but lead is a good choice for target shooting and is usually more accurate.

Of course this is without the cost of the equipment or your time factored in.

This should help http://www.handloads.com/calc/loadingCosts.asp

[f4tweet]

Box of 50

[RaymondMillbrae]

The HANDLOADS calculator was pretty nice.

I broke down my .45 ACP loads (200 grain Rainier Ballistic) to $7.22 for 50, and $144.39 for 1000 rounds.

Almost 1/4 the price of purchased bullets.

And for .223 (55 grain Montana Gold bullets), it was $11.98 for 50, and $239.64 for 1000 rounds.

Almost 50% cheaper than purchased bullets.

Cool little calculator. I also included the s/h and hazmat fees.

Like my buddy told me years ago, "You don't save money when reloading...you are just able to fire so much more". (Because you will not spend less, you will just get so much more for your monies).

And in closing, in order to get the best deals...go in with your buddies and buy in bulk! (Bullets in the thousands [not hundreds], and powder in 8-pound jars or larger [not 1 pounders]).

In Christ: Raymond

[Sky_DiveR]

After buying all the reloading components, which is around $600, and buying brass ( you saved, right), bullets, powder, and primers , you will load lead for about $6 @ box.

+1 Cut that in half if you cast your own bullets... Even cheaper if you get the lead for, "Freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

[cassius]

Wolf ammo got a bad rep in the very beggining (1990-1991) because it quite literally was nothing more than the same soviet ammo factories churning out the same ammo that came in warsaw pact spam cans. Mild steel cases, lacquered to preclude corrosion during long storage in a wide variety of third world and insurgent conditions.

The soviets used mild steel because they had plenty of iron and coal and not as much copper (brass is an alloy, mostly using copper). They got good at doing so.

When the entrepeneurs that bought those factories branched out and started making ammo in western calibers, they kept making their ammo the same way. Leading to all sorts of problems in tighter-chambered weapons. Particularly as they kept coating it with lacquer.

That's when the Hate began for Wolf.
They've since expanded to a much wider variety of ammo types, no lacquer, a change in sizing for tighter western SAAMI chambers. But their powder still smells like cat pee.
And too, a lot of ignorant cheap-assed folk bought it because it was the cheapest. There's a high commonality between those folk and those shooting the cheapest arms, using the cheapest parts, and the worst (or NO) cleaning procedures. So those folks continue to have trouble.

Steel-cased ammo is ALWAYS good in CommBloc weapons. It is what they were designed to run on.
It is sometimes good for western arms. Depending on the manf, barrel maker, varient of steel ammo.
You have to be aware of the issues and selective. As long as you keep those factors and history in mind, you can readily use steel ammo if it is appropriate for you.


The folks that run around now blithely spouting garbage about steel ammo are just ignorantly repeating that decades-old Hate, without having a clue for the reasons behind it and whether they even apply to any given situation. Their brains (and mouths / keyboards) don't go past 'Steel-Bad'.

---

Likewise aluminum.

The only place I wouldn't use somehting like Blazer aluminum is in a high-pressure loading like 40S&W, .357sig, and in a pistol with an unsupported chamber. I'm sure it works for most folks but I wont try it.
But more importantly to me, I reload, so boxer-primed brass is my goal. I buy a case or spam can of steel-cased ammo as a SHTF stash, but beyond that I want reloadable brass ammo for all my ammo, so I can reload for the firearm as well.
Range owners ban / bar it, because they can't be arsed to sort it out of the brass they scavenge / coerce out of their paying customers. It also reduces their scrap metal pay rate, if they are merely scrapping what they sweep up.
So folks wind up saying 'aluminum=bad' and don't bother finishing the sentence ('because the *******s at the range won't let you use it there. And then other folks just blindly repeat that aluminum is bad and here we are.