Usefulness of empty steel cases?

P

Prof Young

New member
Loaders:
So now that I've owned a Mosin for a while I've had occasion to collect a lot of empty steel cases. Mostly they just go into the trash. I tried using them as "wind chime" chimes but they just don't have a ring to them. Has anyone found a truly useful second life for these things?

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
Drawer pulls and land fill/recycling bin. Steel is a man-made product and will return to its natural form in a few years.
Steel cases are not reloadable. Mild steel is not elastic like brass and does not go back to factory/SAAMI dimensions. Berdan primers aside.
 
Steel cases are not reloadable. Mild steel is not elastic like brass and does not go back to factory/SAAMI dimensions. Berdan primers aside.
Click to expand...

There are folks who might argue that with ya T. I'm not into arguing right now, so I'll leave it be. Off to see "American Sniper" before it leaves town. Ta Ta. jd
 
I have a use for exactly one in each caliber. Setting up powder dump volumes in Dillon's fail safe powder measure which won't drop unless there's a case in the station. I keep a case in with the dies so I always have a catcher & dummy to allow the dump to work.

Apart from that a big fat nope!:o
 
As JD says, there are people who reload them, and I've had one or two boxer primed ones accidentally get into a progressive loading .45 Auto before (you really feel the added sizing force needed), but a good reason to avoid reloading these came up on another forum recently. The fellow posting showed photos of a 1911 barrel with a ring of gas cut pits all around the inside of the chamber right about where the thick part of the head web stops and the inside powder space begins. He'd fired and reloaded steel cases more than once. Their lack of malleability combined with the fact a carbide sizing ring doesn't have the original case taper, but just sizes straight, meant sizing had fatigued the steel, especially near the head, to the point small cracks formed in there, and these had allowed high velocity, high pressure gas to leak out against the chamber. They were bad. He wound up having to replace the barrel. And this was just .45 Auto. At rifle pressures it could only get worse.
 
There are a few guys over on Snipers Hide that were loading steel Rifle cases with some decent success, but they were mainly doing it to work out the method for "emergency situations", not every day shooting.

Reloading Berdan primed cases is somewhat fiddlesome, requiring special tools, but certainly not impossible, or even difficult. Powder valley usually has Berdan primers in stock.

I save all of my Dag cases, which are Berdan.:D
 
reloading steel had a mild boom during the BAD part of the ammo panic. I did it myself with a couple hundred rounds, really just to see how and if it worked. other than sizing the cases being VERY difficlut and hard on my dies and press, it wasn't all that bad. BTW, TULA .223 is boxer primed, so not a big deal, it worked fine on once fired steel. I did reload TEN steel 7.62x39, just to figure out how, drilled out the primer, then drilled out a tiny flash hole and seated boxer primer sealed in with nail-polish. worked, but would never consider it unless it was a real emergency situation and I had no other ammo options. it's a real pain, and the clear-coated in primers don't seem trustworthy, although it did work fine. not a bad skill to have, but way on the back shelf. I do keep a few hundred cleaned steel cases of x39, 54r and .223 for the apocalypse......
 
JDSholer,

Regarding American Sniper, the butler did it.

With the fruits and nuts in the movie industry, these days, there was no way this movie would win an academy award in any category and that's too bad.
 
I suppose that my natural aversion to prepper-type stuff certainly sways my opinion on "emergency possibilities" of having to reload steel cases, or FAR worse -- having to reload Berdan primed cases...

But if you anticipate an emergency, or better yet for this discussion...
If you simply wish to be prepared for the situation which would drive you to load those junk cases...

Wouldn't it be easier
and better
in every possible direction
(save a couple of bucks)
...to simply stock up on the part that you would be dealing with in the emergency?

Instead of learning how to alter or re-use junk steel cases, wouldn't it be a far better idea to crack the piggy bank or dig couch cushions and -BUY- a hundred pieces of boxer-primed brass cartridges cases? It's not like storage of this is a tremendous concern. It's not like stacking up small block Chevy engines in the back of the garage RATHER than learning how to fix your engine.

It's a small box.
I hear about guys that want to hammer a used primer cup flat and try to fill it with strike-anywhere match tips and make his own primers in the event that the planet goes fully off the rails and all I can ask is, BRO, have you seen the size of a box of 5,000 CCI primers? It will fit in the glove box of your car. If you have a BIG glove box, you can stuff 15,000 of them in there.
 
They're quite the nuisance. :)

I occasionally step on the stray one that happens to follow me into the house after a Mosin range session.

They're good "snap caps" for about 1 or two uses after that they are pretty much "kaput".

Regards,

-Mo.
 
Any boxer primed steel case I find I keep, any berdan primed case gets thrashed. Have a nice collection of 223 going. I know a few guys that reload steel 223 for lost brass matches.
 
I save my Steel cases. Never know what will happen.

Although I haven't done 7.62x54 steel reloading I have spent some time working on the process.
I have worked with 7.62x39 steel. Mainly to learn how and also because my SKS is a brass slinging fool. Hate chasing the brass.

But I digress.
Once you get around the Berdan primer. It is super simple to reload.
I usually prep a couple hundred cases and just work them in with my brass cased loads.
I usually shoot them when I dont care to chase my brass, but as a test.
I have gotten ten reloads from a batch of steel cases. ( non are max loads)

Berdan primers are available from Tula and will work in all their steel cases.
In a pinch and some effort you can use Boxer primers if thats all you can get.

Made a tool from a Allen wrench to pop out the primers.

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Can pop them out pretty fast.
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The rest of the reloading is the same as brass. Although steel does not have the spring back like brass, your resized steel will be slightly smaller than brass. They actually resize easier than brass.
You dont have to worry about the steel ruining your dies. The steel in its annealed state is actually softer than brass.

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Worth knowing how to do. Esp since allot of the steel is going Boxer.
Some day most ammo will be sold in steel cases and brass will cost you good.
 
I bought some berdan-primed "BRASS" from Mo up there, how ya feel about those? I don't plan to find berdan primiers, just going to drill baby drill. brass 54r isn't easy to come by. I have been pretty actively looking and have amassed a whopping sum of 110 rounds of brass boxer primed 54r in the last 3 months or so. it's not only about emergency situations, sometimes it's just not available when you want it, or the price your willing to pay anyways

^^^your the only other guy I have seen separate their load work-up with lines on the back. I thought I was the only one.
 
Nice post COZ.

I enjoy it when someone who has actually done something dispels rumors of impossibility about something that "can't be done". ;) jd
 
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