I was cleaning up in my reloading room this evening and sorting through various bags of brass that friends have given me, when I came across a few aluminum 45 acp cases. This reminded me of a little test I did awhile back with aluminum cases in a 9mm that I don’t think I ever shared here.
I had gone to the range one day to do some load work up and pistol practice. While I was cleaning up, I found some aluminum 9mm cases that were left on the range. I looked inside, and sure enough, they were boxer primed. The wheels start turning, and I took 5 or so back with me.
The next time I loaded 9mm, I loaded the aluminum cases exactly like brass cases. They did not split when sized, flared, or crimped. The primers did seem pretty easy to seat on my 550. I loaded my regular charge of 3.4 grains of Titegroup and a 130 grain lead bullet that I cast and powder coat.
At the next range trip, I shot my aluminum reloads out of my Glock 17 Gen 4 (can you imagine, lead bullets in a Glock AND reloaded aluminum cases???). All 5 fired and ejected just fine. If I remember correctly, one case was split. I somehow miraculously survived with both eyeballs, and all fingers and toes. Now the strange part: the spent cases landed about 2’ to my right, instead of 6-8’ like my regular loads do. I’m not sure if the case walls are thinner, which should reduce chamber pressure, or what, but that part intrigued me. Accuracy with the aluminum cases was about the same as my regular loads.
Would I recommend reloading aluminum cases? No. Would I do it again? Probably not unless real cases were hard to come by. Do I think reloading aluminum at moderate pressures is going to leave you with less fingers? No.
I had gone to the range one day to do some load work up and pistol practice. While I was cleaning up, I found some aluminum 9mm cases that were left on the range. I looked inside, and sure enough, they were boxer primed. The wheels start turning, and I took 5 or so back with me.
The next time I loaded 9mm, I loaded the aluminum cases exactly like brass cases. They did not split when sized, flared, or crimped. The primers did seem pretty easy to seat on my 550. I loaded my regular charge of 3.4 grains of Titegroup and a 130 grain lead bullet that I cast and powder coat.
At the next range trip, I shot my aluminum reloads out of my Glock 17 Gen 4 (can you imagine, lead bullets in a Glock AND reloaded aluminum cases???). All 5 fired and ejected just fine. If I remember correctly, one case was split. I somehow miraculously survived with both eyeballs, and all fingers and toes. Now the strange part: the spent cases landed about 2’ to my right, instead of 6-8’ like my regular loads do. I’m not sure if the case walls are thinner, which should reduce chamber pressure, or what, but that part intrigued me. Accuracy with the aluminum cases was about the same as my regular loads.
Would I recommend reloading aluminum cases? No. Would I do it again? Probably not unless real cases were hard to come by. Do I think reloading aluminum at moderate pressures is going to leave you with less fingers? No.