All that glitters isn't brass - - -update

[MoJo]

To those of you who reload and collect range brass. There is some 9MM S&B "brass" that isn't brass it is STEEL with a coating of brass over it. I gathered a bunch of it Saturday only to discover it is attracted to a magnet when I was sorting my .45 from my 9mm. The cases in question look just like boxer primed brass cases but, they aren't the headstamp is "S&B 9X19 09". Be aware and if in doubt check it out! You can ruin a set of dies (least bad) or blow up your gun (most bad) reloading steel cases.

[NcongruNt]

To those of you who reload and collect range brass. There is some 9MM S&B "brass" that isn't brass it is STEEL with a coating of brass over it. I gathered a bunch of it Saturday only to discover it is attracted to a magnet when I was sorting my .45 from my 9mm. The cases in question look just like boxer primed brass cases but, they aren't the headstamp is "S&B 9X19 09". Be aware and if in doubt check it out! You can ruin a set of dies (least bad) or blow up your gun (most bad) reloading steel cases.

I know that S&B does make some copper-washed steel. I have some myself. I suppose that could certainly be mistaken for brass with corrosion. I've never come across brass-washed or brass-plated steel cases, that I'm aware of. FWIW, steel cases *are* reloadable (at least, that's what my Lee book tells me - Modern Reloading, Second edition by Richard Lee, page 38) and should be serviceable with regular dies as long as it's boxer-primed. I imagine you'd want to use carbide dies for steel. I found a youtube video on this very topic.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Mbf4C-8ViM[/youtube]

From what I've read, it's not that big a deal on straight-walled or tapered cases. Bottleneck cartridges are understandably much more difficult to work with when doing a full-length resize. Also, as steel is not as ductile and workable as brass, it doesn't last as many reloads.

I also found a discussion on THR, with several folks who reload steel cases chiming in:

http://www.thehighroad.us/archive/index.php/t-767.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MoJo]

Interesting, all conventional wisdom said reloading steel cases wasn't a good idea.

[NcongruNt]

Interesting, all conventional wisdom said reloading steel cases wasn't a good idea.

Yep. Conventional wisdom ain't always right.

I bought my bride-to-be a Ruger SP-101, and had a fellow gunny ask if I was teaching her to keep the hammer on an empty chamber. Conventional wisdom hasn't been valid in that area for a very long time, but it's still commonly believed.

As far as the steel-cased thing, I think it was a migration from "not preferred" to "don't" as a matter of reloading steel being an uncommon practice. Steel cases have been used for a very long time, and reloading them has likely been done for nearly as long. Brass is certainly a more suitable and versatile material for the purpose, but steel is certainly serviceable. Steel has the disadvantage that it will become more quickly susceptible to cracks or breaks (fatigue) with working, but brass will do the same things, given more time and more cycles of working. Conversely, the properties of aluminum make it unusable for reloading because aluminum is inflexible to reworking back to original position once it's been bent. It simply cracks because of its very low inherent fatigue strength and is unsuitable for reloading.

The same inspection precautions with brass should of course be taken with steel, or you can have catastrophic effects with either one. Some folks only reload steel once (as mentioned in the THR thread I linked earlier), and whatever floats their boat is fine with me. There are some reloaders who will only load brass cases a certain number of times as well. I don't adhere to that belief, but that's their prerogative (they can do what they wanna do ). I've not reloaded steel yet, but if it works and isn't a hassle, I'll probably use them until they wear out or I lose them. The more you work with any metal, the sooner it wears out/fatigues, so my policy is to do as little to the case as is necessary. Pistol calibers (unless you run a bolt-action pistol) will need a full-length resize, but I keep my belling and crimping to a minimum, which saves stress on the mouth and should keep the cases serviceable for a longer period of time.

[OldSchool]

When I (finally) start loading, I'll have enough trouble with brass ("did I really lube that case?"). I'd rather avoid adding to the possibility of damage through my own ignorance. I suspect that's where the "don't reload metal" mantra may have come, so I'll still hold to that for awhile. Plus, I really won't have that much, since most of the metal casings that I see when scavenging are already rusted (I doubt that a copper wash would help avoid oxidation).

Is aluminum still off limits?

[NcongruNt]

When I (finally) start loading, I'll have enough trouble with brass ("did I really lube that case?"). I'd rather avoid adding to the possibility of damage through my own ignorance. I suspect that's where the "don't reload metal" mantra may have come, so I'll still hold to that for awhile. Plus, I really won't have that much, since most of the metal casings that I see when scavenging are already rusted (I doubt that a copper wash would help avoid oxidation).

Is aluminum still off limits?

See, I'm of the opposite persuasion. With carbide dies, lube isn't needed. I've made a point to get only carbide dies for this very reason. I've only had two cases (so far, out of around 600) that I've had any trouble with, both of which had serious kinks in the mouth that didn't straighten out with the sizing die.

I don't plan on intentional steel range pickups, as there's likely to be too much incidence of berdan primers to make it worthwhile. But, for calibers that I shoot boxer-primed steel cases in (9x18, primarily), I'll collect my own cases and someday give them a whirl. With the new glut (I use that term lightly) of Indonesian .380 on the market (Herter's, which is about all you can find available for plinking from Cabela's), even brass-cased pickups are going to be getting a watchful eye these days.

No Aluminum for you!

[MoJo]

Tell you what - - - I still have that "brass" and I have carbide dies I'll see how they reload. Stay tuned I'll report back in a couple of days.

[loneranger4x4]

I ran across this just a few hours ago too, I was at the range sorting through brass and while i was picking out the steel with a magnet, I had a few highly polished brass stick to the magnet. I thought that was weird, so it went into the steel bucket with all the other steel cases.

[chabouk]

Steel cases are fine with carbide dies, but it's a good idea to anneal them if you're talking about bottleneck calibers. And annealing steel is the opposite of annealing non-ferrous metals: you heat them up then cool them slowly over a period of hours. You anneal brass by heating it up and then quickly quenching in water (this would harden steel).

[MoJo]

As I promised I tried reloading some of the brass coated steel cases I picked up. Not a pleasant experience! Resizing was hard, extraction from the die was even harder, primers seated hard and not always flush, I'll pass on reloading any more of the steel cases thanks. For the effort and time expended loading 10 good rounds I could have loaded 30-50 rounds of brass cases. If you don't have brass then steel would do I suppose.

Below are a few pics,


The magnet knows.


The dirty "brass" before cleaning.


All shiny and clean.


Ten little bullets all ready to shoot.

I used a home cast Lee 124 gr tumble lube bullet, Federal primer and, 3.5 gr Titegroup.

[ghostrider]

thanks for this thread.

I've notice S&B brass was harder to reload, but it never occurred to me that it was steel - the brass coating is well done, so they look like good quality brass cases.

[MoJo]

Not all S&B ammo is steel cased. I'll be checking any I pick up in the future with a magnet.

[Charles L. Cotton]

This is not a happy thread. I have at least 10,000 rds of S&B 45ACP brass, or at least I think it's brass. Most of it I have had for at least 6 or 7 years. I don't know how much 9mm I have because I'm just starting to reload 9mm.

Chas.

[LTUME1978]

Charles, I have picked up about 100 pieces of S & B over the past year at PSC. I tested them with a very strong magnet last night and none were magnetic. Hopefully, you will find the same with yours. If you want to be on the safe side, you can give all of your S&B brass to me so as to avoid any potential problems :-).

[MoJo]

This is not a happy thread. I have at least 10,000 rds of S&B 45ACP brass, or at least I think it's brass. Most of it I have had for at least 6 or 7 years. I don't know how much 9mm I have because I'm just starting to reload 9mm.

Chas.

Charles, All the S&B brass I have dealt with in the past is BRASS. These cases in question have a "military" style headstamp "S&B 9X19 09" all the other S&B ammo I've ever dealt with have a "commercial" head stamp ie. "S&B 45 ACP" If you've collected your cases from a while back they should be brass but you may want to pass a magnet over them if in doubt.