Steel cases

N

NHSHOOTER

New member
My friend bought some store bought ammo, high quality but seem to be steel, can these cases be reloaded? Do you need special dies or any special procedures?
 
Send me a PM about reloading steel cases if your truly interested, I can give you the run down. But after you hear the process, you'll likley abandon the idea. It's not easy, and no matter what caliber, the hunt for brass cases is generally a lot easy than removing the berdan primers and making new flash holes, just for some cases that may last you 3-4 reloads tops, and with putting added stress on your press and dies, and not fully sealing the chamber. It can be done out of pure necessity, but not as a normal alternative.
 
Sure they are steel and not aluminum, easy to tell by the weight. But even if aluminum, usually not recommended to reload those either.
 
Just out of curiousity... what high quality ammo uses steel cases? I have only seen foreign surplus ammo and cheap Russian consumer ammo use steel.
 
I could be wrong, maybe they are nickel, they are federal cases just bought last week. They look like chrome, now I feel like a real :eek:
 
Tulammo uses steel cases, BUT they are boxer primed. They can be reloaded, I have a full box,(45 acp) that is on it's third reload, with no failed cases.

It's a myth that steel cases are all that hard. Harder than brass to be sure, but not nearly hard enough to scratch even a 70's era steel die---,(not carbide). Few things are harder than carbide.

Also the ones I'm using are no harder to size than brass. No additional stress on the press or the person pulling the handle.

Next, someone will repeat the old myth that the nickles cases will scratch your dies! Just wait, it's coming!:(:eek:
 
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S&B loads some 9mm in steel cases. Boxer primed, and they
give them a flash plating of brass! I've reloaded them without
realizing it.

Run a magnet through a bucket of range brass--you might
be surprised.
 
tulammo only uses boxer primed cases on their .223. maybe 9mm since I haven't used the 9mm. but their x39 and 54r are in fact, berdan primed.
 
I have steel cases, aluminum cases and cases made with brass. Of all my cases I like brass best. Brass is embeddable, there is nothing about steel and or aluminum that interest me when reloading. Because my steel cases are not embeddable I will not use it in in one of my pistols.

F. Guffey
 
I've reloaded steel cases, primarily because it was the only way of feeding that rifle at the time.

Finding the berdan primers was a pain.

Decapping the old cases was a pain.

Running them through the sizing die was a pain (it required significantly greater force than similar brass cases).

It wasn't impossible, but it was an exercise in annoyance.
 
Run a magnet through a bucket of range brass--you might
be surprised.
Click to expand...

Run a magnet through 'your stash' of loaded ammo. I was expecting 45ACP to grab the magnet, I ask the wife for a magnet, she brought two, one for me and the other for her. I sorted through the known suspects and found one, not being told what to look for the wife started going through the unknown suspects. She found one, I explained to her there was a mistake, the cases that stuck to the magnet was brass.

She is not someone that would buy the story 'the magnet is defective'. Sure enough there was some kind of steel shot in the round nose jacketed bullet. What are the chances? I do not know, the primer had a big dent in it.

F. Guffey
 
If it's high end Federal ammo it's nickel plated brass and is reloadable. Easiest way to check is put a magnet to them.
 
I noticed 15 years ago that both Ketchum and Casull independently developed steel case head / brass body cartridges.
Ketchum's in his gun store, looked like two tone Mauser cartridges.
Casull's on his web site looked like a two tone cartridge with female extractor groove.
They were obviously tired of loose primer pockets above 71kpsi:)

http://www.google.com/patents/US5979331

I bought some steel cases Bulgarian 308 ammo for 10 cents a shot delivered 18 years ago. They said corrosive, but it was not. A few cases were corroded on the outside, but the fired primer products acted as a rust inhibitor, per my tests. I have never figured out why that steel case ammo shot accurately in my Ishapore, and brass cases do not.
 
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