Reloading aluminum 9mm

[MoparMan]

I know...I know. When most of you read the title you probably say not again. Well, I recently got into reloading from a friend. I know he reloads aluminum casings and has stated he hasn't had issues. After his advice I've reloaded some as well and have fired approximately 200 so far without issue. It wasn't until recently a couple other members questioned the safety of it. I then began to research and found it could be a very harmful practice. I also read a lot of guys do it. I tend to error on the side of caution and I plan not to do it anymore, but I have approximately 100 already loaded.

My questions are:

Has anyone did it with/without incident?

What to do with the already loaded ammo?

 

[Vigilant]

Anything to save a dollar!

 

[Cameramonkey]

I'm not an expert, but two things come to mind:

1: You should be able to do it. But you probably wont get as many loads out of them before the cases start to fail.
2: Unsupported chambers (Glock for example) Wont be kind to them and will likely make them fail quicker.

But considering the forces are contained by the chamber, I dont see a huge issue. (I wouldnt do it unless it was a SHTF situation and I had no choice)

 

[ROLEXrifleman]

Everything is ok till the first time it isn't. Your playing Russian roulette with any ammo you shoot be it factory loaded or home rolled. The difference is with aluminum cases your starting with 4 loaded rounds in the chamber.
buy a kinetic puller and break your ammo down. It's a lot of work but if your cheap enough to want to use aluminum is are you'll take the time to salvage projectiles

 

[ROLEXrifleman]

Firing aluminum makes it brittle. Aluminum does not have the same characteristics, malleability, of brass. So you've "heat treated" and made it brittle, reformed it in a sizing die further reducing its integrity and now you want to fire it again under how much pressure?
ya, it MAY work.... But I'm not playing with those odds

 

[Tactically Fat]

Could always pull the bullets, pour the powder into already primed brass cases, then re-seat the pulled bullets onto those cases. That's what I'd do if I were in your shoes.

 

[MoparMan]

Anything to save a dollar!

Sir,
Not sure what you mean. I wasn't trying to save a dollar. Just new to reloading and asking for help. Apparently you have nothing to contribute. Thank you for your time.

 

[MoparMan]

Everything is ok till the first time it isn't. Your playing Russian roulette with any ammo you shoot be it factory loaded or home rolled. The difference is with aluminum cases your starting with 4 loaded rounds in the chamber.
buy a kinetic puller and break your ammo down. It's a lot of work but if your cheap enough to want to use aluminum is are you'll take the time to salvage projectiles

Yea, I don't want that to happen and I didn't plan on firing anymore. I have already started pulling the bullets. What do i do with the primed aluminum cases?

 

[17 squirrel]

I find it amazing how so many people pick up a new hobbie and without any knowledge simple believe they know better than the manufacture of a product and think they are smarter than said manufacturers and try to change the wheel. The boxes your ammo was sold with has warnings this is non reloadable ammunition. The last aluminum cases I looked at also had NR on the headstamp. That stands for non reloadable..

He's a great post about reloading aluminum cases.
1) Even if you find boxer primed aluminum cases, they are NOT made or reloading
2) The manufacturers put "NR" on the head stamp + NON RELOADABLE
3) The aluminum that is used is 7075, which while strong work hardens instantly when subjected to firing pressures.
4) 7075 would have to be very carefully annealed prior to using again
5) You don't have an atmosphere controlled annealing oven sufficient for controlling the annealing temperatures for these thin walled aluminum structures.
6) It would NOT be safe, therefore, to try and use aluminum cases for reloading.
7) All of the above was confirmed a while ago with Speer, the primary manufacturer of the boxer primed aluminum cases.
8) There's certainly enough brass out there to reload with.... why bother with alum anyways?
9) Blame only yourself when your gun and fingers go KABLOOIE!!


Like others have said, its all good till it's not.
Things like this make me glad I don't shoot alot at ranges besides my own place.
Some of you guys reloading scare the crap outa me... Much less the guys who give advice that have no knowledge of reloading..

Pull all of them. Spray oil in the primed cases, and find a new friend to get loading information from.

 

[ROLEXrifleman]

If you want to be daring you can try to salvage the primers. Otherwise a gallon size zip lock bag with warm soapy water should kill them

 

[padawan]

Could always pull the bullets, pour the powder into already primed brass cases, then re-seat the pulled bullets onto those cases. That's what I'd do if I were in your shoes.

Same here. I've sat in front of the tv with a 4x4 block of wood, bullet puller and pulled a couple boxes of 9mm that was not sized right. In my case, it was brass so I just carefully resized then proceeded to reload.

 

[bocefus78]

Take them apart and quit reloading aluminum. With 300 of them to do I'd skip the kinetic hammer puller and go straight to a die body collet type puller. It'll cost ya $40 or so, but its much much much faster and easier than the hammer method.
9mm brass is about $25 per thousand so I see absolutely no reason to skimp here and use aluminum cases. Reloading doesn't save you any money anyway, so get that outta your head right away. It enables you to shoot more for the same money you would have spent on factory ammo, and chances are, it'll be better quality.

 

[MoparMan]

Thanks for all the information. Definitely will be getting rid of all the aluminum cases and disposing of the primers appropriately.

 

[ROLEXrifleman]

With 300 of them to do I'd skip the kinetic hammer puller and go straight to a die body collet type puller. .

absolutely not! That's penance for doing the deed

 

[MoparMan]

absolutely not! That's penance for doing the deed

Yep, that's what i thought too. I plan to do them one at a time with my bullet puller so I may teach myself a lesson.

 

[bocefus78]

Better man than me.....I'd have that **** on the amazon truck already

 

[ROLEXrifleman]

I went to catholic school, it's all about studying yourself to learn!

that didn't .*** out right

see what I did there, twice!!!

 

[MoparMan]

Actually only turned out to be 54 aluminum rounds that i pulled. There were a few nickel, but from what i've read those are fine. Thanks again for all the help and messages. It's a fun hobby, especially when people try to help you out rather than criticize you.

 

[AmmoManAaron]

Are you sure you were loading aluminum cases and not nickel plated brass or grey steel? I have seen both berdan and boxer primed steel cases but never aluminum boxer primed cases. A few years ago I experimented with reloading the CCI blazer berdan primed aluminum cases, despite knowing the very non-ideal characteristics of the aluminum cases (the other posters are spot-on regarding the work hardening and weakening of the aluminum case). The question I was seeking to answer was "if things get really bad, would they work safely even for one reload?" First, I had to carefully punch out the berdan anvil (which CCI made difficult to remove on purpose) and then seat a standard boxer primer. Unlike other berdan cases, the CCI blazer stuff uses primer pockets that will accept either small or large boxer primers - and there is a reason for that. CCI's "big secret" is that they simply use boxer primers diverted from their primer manufacturing process before the boxer anvil is applied. Anyway, I would not consider it safe, even for experimental purposes, to reload aluminum for a semi-auto or anything that doesn't have a rigid and fully supported chamber. The aluminum reloads I did were .45 Colt and were fired in a Ruger Super Redhawk .454 Casull revolver. I don't remember the exact percentages, but some split and some did not. Given the amount that did split, and the characteristics of the aluminum, I'm fairly certain that ALL of the remaining cases would have split on the next firing. Conclusion was that if things get REALLY bad, it is possible, but would only be suitable for revolver or single shot pistol (think Contender) use where leaking gas from a split case is safely diverted away from the shooter. The case splits that I experienced would have been very bad news in any semi-auto.

 

[17 squirrel]

Actually only turned out to be 54 aluminum rounds that i pulled. There were a few nickel, but from what i've read those are fine. Thanks again for all the help and messages. It's a fun hobby, especially when people try to help you out rather than criticize you.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I would strongly suggest that you take a basic reloading class. It would be time and money well spent..