Some newb questions

[savasyn]

It seems to be common knowledge that the following types of cases can not be reloaded and I'm curious as to the reasons. I've added my assumptions after the case type.

Steel case: I assume it's because they are very difficult to reshape and are hard on dies. Are there other reasons why these can't be reused?

Aluminum case: Can aluminum only take being reshaped once or twice at the most such that the cases would rupture after the first or second loading?

Berdan primed: Obviously it's very difficult to deprime these mechanically, but can't they be deprimed manually and then loaded as normal? I have a pile of 8mm and 7.62x54R brass that would be nice to use even if I had to poke the primers out by hand.

Thanks!!

[ojisan]

Steel: for the reasons you said. I would also be concerned that these cases were designed only to be used once, I believe most these were all Russian military ammo originally, that is not planned to be reloaded.
Also, due to the lack of lubricity of the steel as compared to brass, after resizing the cases which would remove the outer case lube coating, you would need to add a lubricating coating back on.

Aluminum: The primers in the aluminum CCI ammo cases were originally made a different size than standard primers to prevent reuse and reloading, as these cases were designed for a single use only. A second or third use was not recomended duo to the possibilty of case failure. I read somewhere that their current aluminum-cased ammo uses standard size primers now, but I have not checked to confirm this, and this does no fit with product liability considerations. Even if a standard primer would fit, I would not risk it.

Berdan: hard(er) to find primers for, and time consuming to remove the old ones. I do believe these berdans are a different size as well, so reloading equipment has to be able to deal with this.
Here's a good thread on Berdans:

http://www.handloadersbench.com/view_topic.php?id=2940&forum_id=31

[savasyn]

Excellent, thank you!

[ar15barrels]

uh oh.

[savasyn]

uh oh.

Yup, I'm finally doing it, which is why I've been wanting to come up and talk to you. You're my local expert, bwahahahahahaha!