Aluminum vs Brass

[HughScot]

While on the subject of ammo and since I had a bad ammo failure recently, how does aluminum ammo, CCI Blazer, perform or hold up against brass? I've never shot aluminum and this is not for competition. The gun being used is my wife's Glock 42.

[GJSchulze]

People at my club shoot aluminum and I've never heard of any issues. The biggest reason for shooting only brass is for reloading.

[jmhyer]

I've been very pleased with it. Use with confidence.

[cjwils]

I don't know if this is true, but I heard years ago that aluminum is more abrasive and can cause more wear to your gun than brass. Anyone know more about that?

[Chainsaw.]

Glocks have unsupported chambers-ie loose. Aluminium being much softer is likely to case issue in said unsupported chambers. Not suprised if you had an issue.

[JWT]

I have shot thousands of round of aluminum ammo with absolutely no problems. I see no difference in the way it cycles in my guns than the way brass ammo cycles.

[Slamfire]

I don't know if this is true, but I heard years ago that aluminum is more abrasive and can cause more wear to your gun than brass. Anyone know more about that?

George Frost, in his book Making Ammunition states that aluminum case ammunition is coated with wax so it will extract after being fired.

page 7:

An aluminum case doesn't have much springback, either, so reliable extraction required treatment of the outer surface of the case. Usually this means anodizing the case and coating it with a wax of some sor. And, that for pistol ammunition.

Don't tell a Hatcherites this, they will foam at the mouth and call it a lie. and you a liar. They believe that case lubrication "dangerously" raises pressures and increases bolt thrust. The first is nonsense and the second is desirable if you want the case to extract!. Hatcherites would prefer that the case rip in half, or the case rim rip off and either way they want to extract the case manually, with a ram rod down the barrel.

Brass is still the best overall material for ammunition, but I do know guys who reload aluminum cases and the take the risk that the stuff will split on the next firing. Aluminum cases are really one shot devices and are fine for most firearms.

[caz223]

Back when 9mm ammo was super cheap (Like $5 a box), I didn't bother reloading for 9mm, and just shot whatever was the cheapest.
I shot case after case of the blazer 9mm ammo, because it shot good, and was cheap from big box stores, and my LGS would give me a sweet case discount.
I had 2 case failures in total, both case splits, 2 different days.
Stopped buying blazer in 9mm after the first split, shopped shooting it after the 2nd. Gave the few boxes I had left away (With warnings) to a friend. He shot it zero issues.
1 failure was in a cz75b (The narrow ejection port took most of it.), the other in a S&W 5904. (I took a bit of burning soot to the face-wear your shooting glasses!).
One case split between 1/3 and 1/2 way down (Looked like the typical split, started at the neck.), was a little loud and spit a little hot powder at me. The other split almost all the way down and looked like the split originated just above the case head, not the neck. There was a round burn mark just above the case head, then a split almost all the way to the neck, but stopped just shy of the neck. Maybe a void in the case head? It was so loud I thought the gun blew up. Never had a failure of any other type with blazer ammo.
I switched to Win white box. It didn't shoot as good, but zero failures. It also gave me good brass to save for loading later. I was so disappointed in the way the win bulk 100 pack shot, I started loading for 9mm after less than 10 boxes. The blazer really shot well.
Never heard of any other failures like it.
Never a failure in any other caliber I tried, not 10mm, not .44 mag, not .45 acp not .45 colt. Didn't try it in .40, just felt like asking for trouble.
I bought a couple of cases of blazer aluminum in 10mm and still shoot it (One of my guns chews normal brass, but ejects this perfectly.) It was about $9.00 a box by the case-that's how old it is.
Maybe I got a bad batch?

[Double Naught Spy]

I don't know if this is true, but I heard years ago that aluminum is more abrasive and can cause more wear to your gun than brass. Anyone know more about that?

I have a 1911 with over 120,000 rounds through it, 50,000 or more being Blazer. I am on my 3rd barrel, not because the aluminum wore out the chamber, but because the rifling wore out first. I am on my original extractor.

In the old days, aluminum cased ammo cost a lot less and you could literally buy a new barrel and new extractor with the savings every few thousand rounds. Nowadays, the prices have homogenized quite a bit.

[T. O'Heir]

"...heard years ago that aluminum is more abrasive..." Nope. Too soft. Nothing made of Al will ever be as hard as anything made of the mildest steel.
Al is not reloadable. Is not coated with anything and extracts just fine. However, it is not as elastic as brass. Anodizing is just colouring and adding some oxidization protection. Anodizing does nothing to lube anything.
Only real issue is how well the stuff shoots out of your pistol/revolver.

[Double Naught Spy]

Right, but when aluminum cases do oxidize (I have had it happen), aluminum oxide is extremely abrasive and will damage steel.

So as long as the aluminum cases are in good shape, there is no problem at all.