Pistol ammo question?

Question

Are aluminum-cased cartridges harder on a pistol's extractor than brass-cased ammo?

coolhandven -- I just call it like I see it, and your question WAS funny. Quit being "that" guy.

Answer 1

What do you mean by "harder"?

Aluminum cases are no more stressful to firearms than any other type of shell casing material. The only difference is that aluminum isn't reloadable and as such is looked down on by reloaders. Reloaders have a valid reason....but you'll often find folks who swear they're bad for some imagined reason or another.

Shoot them in good health. You won't have any probs.

Addendum to the unnamed masses:

aluminum cased ammo is available in everything from .25acp to .32 to .380 and .38spec, 9mm, .357mag, .40, 10mm, .44mag, .45acp, .45LC etc etc etc. It is FAR from rare....and anyone that says "Blazer ammo never got off the ground" is full of brown stuff. It is in fact incredibly popular.

As to aluminum casings splitting there are two possible reasons for that and neither involves the ammo casings. #1 is if you shoot hot ammo and you stretch or bulge your chamber (which isn't likely since aluminum isn't reloadable)....the chamber can't support the casing and it splits...or #2, the chamber is so shot out, it's too loose to fit the ammo casing and it splits. If you think Blazer ammo is that bad that it has splitting probs (someone actually stated 20% of shell casings if I recall), CCI (one of the best/well respected ammo makers there are) wouldn't be selling masses of dangerous ammo, now would they?

There are lots of bullsh*t myths that go around this and every other firearms forum like clockwork. Aluminum casings is one of them. Steel casings and brass as a "magic metal" are two others. They scurry like roaches when the light shines on them, though.

Bit of firearms history for the younger crowd...

Cartridges were originally made from soft copper. It was soft enough to work into a shell casing on the contemporary machinery. Nothing more. It wasn't the perfect cartridge metal by any chance. It was so soft, that it often got crushed in shipping and set off explosions of failing ammo. Makers than looked for a harder/stronger metal that could be used on the same primitive machinery. Brass was soft enough to work but strong enough that it wouldn't easily crush. There were no tests. There were no trials. No chemistry experiments. No "perfect cartridge casings". All of that is a fairytale. Just soft enough to work on their machines and strong enough to avoid crushing, nothing more, nothing less.

Over the years, cartridges have been made from brass, steel, aluminum, plastic, paper, copper and brass foil, completely caseless etc etc etc. None is "perfect" and none are claimed to be except by the dilettantes.

The ONLY reasons brass is still the most common cartridge casing metal in the western hemisphere is #1: tradition, and #2: cheap availability. Again, nothing more, nothing less. Studies have proven annealed stainless steel to be a better cartridge casing material than brass....but cost of metal keeps it from becoming common. In the eastern hemisphere, steel is the most common due to a lack of copper resources.

Answer 2

When it comes to cartridge cases or anything else for that matter aluminum is not harder than anything. The design of the auto pistol is such that even a titanium case would not damage the extractor unless you dropped it in the chamber and let the slide go shut on it.
During the loading sequence the cartridge is slid up the ramp, and the rim of the cartridge slides up under the hook of the extractor. If the slide is dropped on a loaded round, the extractor must bend to engage the rim, and enough bends = one break.

Answer 3

As a Gunsmith I can tell you that NO, aluminum casings are not harder on your extractor than brass. Extensive research was done by the military in the early 60's in an attempt to find a cheaper alternative to brass bullet cases. They found in pistol cartridge cases that aluminum would work, but the failure rate was higher than brass. Brass has perfect qualities for bullet casings. Aluminum absorbs/disapates heat easier, but the cases split open and in high power rifle cartridges the aluminum case failure rate was just over 20% making them unacceptable for military use in high rate of fire weapons. A stuck case in an M-16 or Machine Gun meant lives lost. The final report was issued thru Aberdeen Proving grounds in Maryland in the fall of 1969 after 3 years of intensive testing. Brass came out the winner in all of these tests so alternative metal searches and research stopped. CCI Corporation developed an aluminum 9mm round and a .38 Special round called "Blazer". It was never really popular and never got off the ground. It had other limitations as the aluminum cases were un-reloadable. The factory Blazer rounds just couldn't be loaded to +P or higher modern powder loads.

Answer 4

Quite frankly, even if they ARE harder on the extractor the cost savings will pay for a new one in short order. Extractors for my 1911 run about $30, so as long as I save $30 per extractor's-worth of ammo I'm on the up side.

But I reload, so I'll never buy the stuff :-)

Answer 5

I would say no, although I have had aluminum casings split down the side, get stuck in the chamber and the extractor take a bite off of them. That`s why I only shoot brass. Hopes this helps and happy shooting!!!!!!

Answer 6

Howdy,

Ive been shooting for years, 9 times out of 10, Aluminum cased ammo is the same price as brass cased ammo, BUT Aluminum casings are FAR more likely to break, split, jam, stick, ect. therefore yes aluminum cased ammo would be harder on your gun. Brass is by far the better way to go.

Answer 7

The extractor is a hardened component so if it chips or breaks then it is more-than-likely a manufacturing defect. I had one break on my S&W Sigma a while ago I was shooting UMC brass casings.

I think WOLF makes steel enamel coated casings, IDK how those bullets would affect softer parts on the pistol but I just don't shoot that stuff.

Answer 8

No it is no harder on your extractor. When a bullet is fired all casings swell to the size of your chamber.

Answer 9

I use Blazer ammo in my .45 ACP and have for years. All the guns are still working fine. . .

Answer 10

Probably not, but remember, brass is self-lubricating so it may tend to extract better.

H