Pistol casings: brass vs steel vs aluminum

[eeps24]

From what I understand...

brass is best
Steel is dirtier and harder on the gun.
Aluminum is soft? Not sure what’s the con with it.


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[JohnKSa]

Aluminum is supposed to be non-reloadable which means that reloaders don't like it.

Lazy indoor ranges will sometimes ban its use because they don't want to separate it out of the rest of the brass when they sell it for scrap.

The grip of the case on the bullet is not as firm in my experience. Crimp jump and setback are more likely, and more likely to be severe in aluminum cases as compared to steel and brass.

Some guns seem to "dislike" aluminum cased ammo. I have a CZ75B that will malfunction every so often with aluminum cases but not with brass.

[Skippy]

The powder is typically dirtier in steel and aluminum cased ammo and since the cases don't expand as uniformly as brass in chambers, carbon blowback of burned powder makes it even worse.

Sometimes a case will get stuck in a chamber, sometimes the extractor will rip the rim off, sometimes steel cases will break extractors.

Over time steel is harder on extractors than brass but it can be argued that the cost savings of steel outweigh the cost of a new extractor.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

[44 AMP]

here's the thing, none of them is like the rest. Brass, steel and aluminum all behave differently. They have different "coefficients of friction", so each one slides into, grabs, and releases the chamber differently. Different amounts of spring back after expansion from firing pressure.

Now, these things, (and some others) overlap enough that all three are used as cases, but each one has its own quirks, and applications where some factor outshines the others.

One of the big factors to many people is cost. Cost over performance. It goes bang, hits what you're aiming at, (or close) and costs less is a big thing for some shooters.

This is where steel cased ammo has its greatest appeal, it costs less, generally. And it works, well enough, generally. But its not as "good" as brass in many ways, and while possible its not nearly as suitable for reloading as brass is.

Steel cased ammo was essentially a military expedient that became a standard in some nations due to wartime material and production pressure.

Particularly the Soviet Union and its satellite nations. And Soviet designed arms since WWII have been designed to run on their steel cased ammo. This also means they work well with brass, but the reverse isn't always true.

Guns designed to run on brass may not do as well with steel. It's not brass. So the differences can affect things. Often they don't but sometimes, they do.

Those of us old enough remember when steel cased ammo wasn't a common thing in the US. That happened after the fall of the Soviet Union, when steel cased ammo came in by the shipload and sold dirt cheap, which created a demand.

Also note that steel case ammo is not available in all calibers. Soviet bloc calibers, and the popular US/NATO military calibers, and very little else. It is simply not made in other calibers. See much steel cased .357 magnum or .30-30 Winchester?? I don't. Most of it comes from (mostly eastern) European (or Asian) factories which were originally set up to produce Soviet type military ammo. Many have expanded to produce 5.56mm, 9mm and 7.62NATO but few go beyond that. The market just isn't there (or wasn't before the virus, now I'm sure people would buy steel just to have ammo...)

Aluminum is used by CCI/Speer for some handgun rounds under the brand name "Blazer". It hit the market as a cheap (and non-reloadable) round before steel cased stuff was available in quantity in the US.

It was designed to work, ONCE, deliver adequate performance, and be cheaper than regular brass. It works fairly well in many guns, but not all. Does fine in manual repeaters (revolvers), and does well in the short cases most common in semi auto pistols. Doesn't do so well with long cases (like .357) in semi autos. Not at all usable in my .357 Desert Eagle or Coonan semi auto pistols. Rips rims off, or extractor tears through them. (not hearsay, my actual experience)

I believe this is because aluminum is not as "slick" as brass. I think aluminum doesn't release and spring back at the same rate or amount as brass and this results in extraction issues in SOME semi auto pistols. In "short" semi auto cases such as 9mm Luger and .45acp aluminum generally works ok, but with magnum length cases in semi autos, not so much...Also, note its not used in rifle calibers to any degree. Its just not suitable, or so it seems to me...

The virus and various buying panics have skewed the situation, and today I can understand people buying and using whatever they can get, But before that, I just couldn't understand why people would spend the best part of $1000 on a gun and then run the cheapest crap ammo in it to "save money".

I'm a dedicated reloader, have been since the 70s. If I get a gun that shoots boxer primed centerfire ammo, I'll get dies for reloading it.

I don't shoot Blazer (aluminum) or steel cased ammo in my pistols, or buy berdan primed brass stuff, You do what you feel best.

[Shadow9mm]

So here are the pros and cons as I see them

Brass, expands well, resizeable / expensive, heavy
steel, cheap / does not expand well, non-reloadable, rusts, sticks in chambers
aluminum, cheap, light / expands better than steel not as much as brass, non-reloadable

In my opinion I prefer brass as it performs best, and I reload so I kinda need to...

I have no problems shooting aluminum.

I wont shoot steel in any gun not designed for it (ak, mosin, sks etc.). I have personally seen 2 separate incidents years apart that make me say no. One was a glock 23. Fired casing stuck in chamber, would not come out. Second was probably 8 years later, a HK, same thing, fired casing stuck in the chamber. both guns were down for the count. had to be dissasembled and have the casing pounded out with a dowel rod....

[RETG]

OP, you forgot to add polymer to your list.

https://www.pcpammo.com/

[dogtown tom]

I shoot steel 10:1 over brass in 9mm/.380/.40/5.56 with no difference in function.

My Glocks, Colts, Stars, Hi Powers, Rugers eat it up. My Colt AR's haven't even burped eating nothing but steel.

My guns can't be that much more awesome over anyone else's.

[JohnKSa]

I have no problems shooting aluminum.

I probably should have mentioned that I have shot a lot of aluminum cased ammo, over the years. Other than the CZ75B that seems to dislike it, I've not experienced any unusual malfunctions when using it.

Accuracy has been good and I've not noted increased levels of wear in the firearms that fired the ammo.

I don't have a problem using aluminum cased ammo in any of my handguns.

[Hawg]

I shoot brass and steel. IMO if steel wears out your extractor it wasn't much of an extractor to begin with. I shoot steel 5.56, .45 ACP and 9 MM. I haven't had any extraction or wear problems. Not even with MIM extractors.

[TruthTellers]

I've yet to find Aluminum case as cheap as steel, so I don't use it much. I do appreciate how much lighter a box of Aluminum ammunition is compared to brass, especially with the revolvers calibers and the .45's, but unless more companies start producing good defense or hunting ammo in Aluminum case, I don't have an interest in FMJ.

Steel is cheap and it shoots accurately for me. Works fine for everything except double action revolvers where ejecting empties requires you to poke each case out with a tool. At that rate, may as well shoot with a single action revolver. One thing is for sure, never shoot steel case in a revolver with moon clips.

Price is the biggest reason to go with steel case. I am still kicking myself for not getting 1000 rds of 9mm at $120, which is $40 less than the next cheapest brass 9mm. I doubt an extractor would be damaged after 1000 rds of steel case, so it would have been a $40 savings every 1000 rds. If every 5000 rds I replace the $25 extractor, I'll have saved $175 vs brass. Besides that, it's nice to not feel like I'm leaving perfectly good once fired brass on the ground when I shoot steel case.

For my semi auto pistols, I have no issue shooting steel case. Revolvers I reload and it's not an issue dumping the empties into bag to take back home.

[defjon]

Never had an issue with any of the 3.

A new ppk ran best on steel cased wolf 380.

Sw governor doesn't like steel cased 45acp, runs it fine but accuracy is terrible. May be the ammo. Brass cased 45 of any make is very accurate to 15 yards.

[ballardw]

You get more that the recycling places for aluminum than steel though not as much as "clean aluminum", and lots more for cartridge brass.

[Ricklin]

I traded my old Colt police positive special for an 03 Colt .32. The gal I traded wanted more snort, and I really liked her 03.

I warned her that it was old, no +p std. .38 special only. Please use only brass cased ammo.

She brought it back to me, demanding I trade her back. She had it for a week. It had a stuck aluminum case in each chamber.

I remove the cylinder and knocked the cases out with a dowel. I polished the chambers and returned old Colt to her.

She was angry about it. Reckon I should have charged her for my time to fix it. Funny she agreed when we traded, including the ammo warning.

[AK103K]

You can reload some of the aluminum cases, and get more than a few reloads out of it. I came across a bunch of boxer primed Federal aluminum 9mm "brass" at the range, and figured, just for educational purposes, Id give it a try.

I loaded it with the same load I use for my brass 9mm (124 fmj over 5.5 grains of Unique) and it worked fine for the most part. I reloaded the same lot of 100 (at the start) about 6 or 8 times before I quit.

I was getting somewhere around a 5% loss rate, maybe a little more, due to the necks splitting each time out, but other than that, I think its a viable source of "brass", if its all thats around and what you have.

[hdbiker]

I reloaded some aluminum .45 acp cases that were boxer primed once just for the heck of it. They ran perfect in my 1911. hdbiker

[44 AMP]

There are a lot of things in life that are in the class of "just because you can doesn't mean you should".

CCI says their aluminum cases are not reloadable and makes them Berdan primed to discourage people from trying.

In the early 70s when I was young, poor and dumb(er) I reloaded some EC 43 steel .45acp cases. Primer pockets were too small but I crammed a primer in there anyway. Trashed my steel sizing die too...

They shot, once, and I abandoned the ideas of trying to do it again.

I am of the opinion that you should only reload brass, as long as you can get brass. I you're in a situation where there's nothing but steel or aluminum, I suppose that would be different, but no one's in that situation. Not being able to get it TODAY is different than the (usually post "apockyclipse" scenario) of not being able to git it at all, ever....

[AK103K]

LOL. You mean like primers?

The way things seem to be going, now the time to do the "experimenting", so you can have as many options as possible.

Of course, a little common sense goes a long way too.

And as far as the primers go, SP, SPM, and SR are basically interchangeable. Just in case you cant find what you normally use.

[Aguila Blanca]

There are articles and YooToob videos about rebuilding primers. The stuff we can get to do this at home (for those who might be interested) will be corrosive, but a corrosive primer is probably better than no primer at all. I think if I were to do any experimenting today, I would probably play with rebuilding primers before I tried reloading steel or aluminum cases.

I'm not there yet, but I'm also not throwing away my spent primers.

[rc]

Brass cases can be reloaded so many times even if you had only 100 9mm cases for example, if you can catch all of them during training you could reload them more than 5 times for most commercial cases. The lack of brass is nowhere near the problem that bullets, primers and powder are. I would not bother experimenting with aluminum or steel cases. If you bought steel cased ammo to save $1 or $2 per box and now are worried about their reloadability because you have no brass cased ammo on hand to shoot and reload, you fooled yourself that steel offers much savings, same for aluminum. I decided a long time ago to buy brass cased ammo because it is reloadable. The cases are a resource and retain significant value even after they are fired the first time. Even the thought of being so desperate one must try reloading primers that are corrosive is SAD! If you are so desperate, stop shooting the ammo you have and train with a pellet gun till things improve.

[AK103K]

I load my brass to failure, and it normally lasts for years. Some of it gets shot every week and just gets cycled back into the queue, over and over. The rims on the auto cases tend to get chewed up as they get older, and tend to cause some malfunctions as time wears on, but thats actually a positive thing too, as it lets you practice malfunction drills without having to set them up and know they are comiing.

I seriously doubt people are buying steel or aluminum cased stuff with the intention of reloading them. Some of us do like to continue to learn though, and its nice to know what you can do with what in a pinch. Having options is a good thing. Its nice to be a little ahead of the curve rather than trying to play catch up.

One thing about reusing or repriming primers you might want to think about if your going to try it. Ive reused loaded primers from reloads I had in the past and got rid of the guns that shot them. Pulled down and recovered the bullets, powder, and primers, and sold off the brass.

Pulled down primers work fine for the most part, but the cups really arent meant to be reused, and decapping and reseating seems to work the metal beyond what it likes, and youre likely to find that the next time you decap, you punch the bottom off the cup and leave a "ring" in the pocket on the case. The couple Ive come across lie that didnt want to come out, at least not without a lot of work, and I didnt see it was worth the bother. You may want to keep that in mind if youre going to do it.

[simonrichter]

OP, you forgot to add polymer to your list.

yeah, had exactly the same thought - first hand experience, anybody?

[wbbh]

I've reloaded aluminum cases, they did fine, however when they fail it's not just a little crack, the case dissembled itself. I no longer use them.

[AK103K]

The Federal aluminum cases I loaded failed like brass. Simple cracks in the case from the mouth down. Nothing dramatic and not noticed until they were recovered.

[Willie Lowman]

I had a S&W Chief's Special 9mm that would only feed reliably with aluminum cased ammo.

Brass case would not go fully into battery from a full magazine.

I also had some case failures shooting aluminum in a semi Uzi. Cases would split from the mouth.

These days it's brass or nothing for me and my guns.

[MagDiddy]

Brass is best but I've had no issues in my 9mm with aluminum or steel. Whatever you can get these days.