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Reloading steel cases?

D@DD@D Member Posts: 4,407
edited February 2010 in Perry Shooter Competition Shooting and Reloading Forum
Can you or no? Why?
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    dcs shootersdcs shooters Member Posts: 10,969
    edited November -1
    If you are asking about pistol, the answer is yes.
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    D@DD@D Member Posts: 4,407
    edited November -1
    No rifle, 7.62x54r.
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    MIKE WISKEYMIKE WISKEY Member, Moderator Posts: 9,975 ******
    edited November -1
    NO, MOSTLY BECAUSE THEY ARE BERDAN PRIMED AND PRIMERS ARE HARD TO FIND. BACK IN THE 1960'S I HAD A QUANTITY OF U.S. .30/06 STEEL CASES AND RELOADED THEM SEVERAL TIMES.
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    D@DD@D Member Posts: 4,407
    edited November -1
    quote:MIKE WISKEY Posted - 01/14/2010 : 3:46:15 PM NO, MOSTLY BECAUSE THEY ARE BERDAN PRIMED AND PRIMERS ARE HARD TO FIND. BACK IN THE 1960'S I HAD A QUANTITY OF U.S. .30/06 STEEL CASES AND RELOADED THEM SEVERAL TIMES.

    Great now to find somewhat cheap 7.62x54r brass.
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    MIKE WISKEYMIKE WISKEY Member, Moderator Posts: 9,975 ******
    edited November -1
    "Great now to find somewhat cheap 7.62x54r brass."........try midway or grafs
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    Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,207 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Can it be done? Yes. Is it a good idea? No.

    Sizing is difficult, and will tear through the lacquer coating that keeps the case from rusting. Proper neck tension is difficult to achieve. Your dies are designed to be used with brass cases, not steel.

    Until/unless we get to an "end of the world" scenario, it makes little sense to try. (All this also applies to aluminum cases, BTW.)
    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
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    airmungairmung Member Posts: 579 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I haven't reloaded steel rifle cases yet, but steel pistol cases take less effort to size than brass ones. I reloaded some Wolf .45ACP just for fun. They worked great, although rust would be a problem in storage. For SHTF, it's good to know. A friend of mine went to a lot of work converting a bunch of brass berdan primed .308 cases to use boxer primers. I suppose that could be done with steel, too, if a person were desperate enough.
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    buddybbuddyb Member Posts: 5,249 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I learned something new.I have been reloading for 30 years and never knew steel cases were reloadable.I would have thought that dies would not resize steel.
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    machine gun moranmachine gun moran Member Posts: 5,198
    edited November -1
    I reloaded some steel U.S. military cases for the .45 ACP a long time back. I used a carbide sizer, and the sizing effort that was required was considerably more than that of brass.

    About half of the cases suffered complete separation at the mid-point, when fired. The back half of the empty would extract and eject normally, with the front half remaining in the chamber. When the next round was fed, the case mouth would stop against the rear edge of the partial case in the chamber, stopping the slide about a half-inch short of battery. The case-halves that were in the front of the chamber were easily pushed out with a bronze brush down the muzzle. The whole thing was such a PITA that I never did it again.

    The steel in the cases apparently work hardened very quickly, and became brittle to the point where it would fail after being fired, resized, and fired again. The rear half of the cases apparently obturated allright, as I never noticed any excessive gas blowback.
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    Pistollero1050Pistollero1050 Member Posts: 1,197 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Why would you want to try? They are hard on your press ,hard on your chamber, prone to cracking and rust. Just to much haslte when you can go to the range pay a small fee shoot next to somebody that dosnt save brass and ask him if you can have it. Most people are happy for you to clean up thier brass for them.
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