Thoughts on Aluminum vs Brass cased ammo?

Rockrivr1

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So as I was looking through ammo at Walmart yesterday and they had Federal 100 rnd 45ACP boxes in both Aluminum cased and Brass cased ammo. The Aluminum cased was $10 less then Brass cased ammo so I'm wondering what your experiences have been when shooting aluminum instead of brass. I have to imagine it's somewhat easier on a gun then shooting steel cased, but that would just be an assumption on my side. Overall both Federal options were cheaper then WWB and the Remington UMC 100 rnd 45ACP round boxes.

As a side note I can't figure out why the Remington UMC was significantly more expensive then both the Federal and WWB. I don't particularly think that ammo is all that great.
 
Rem UMC is just stupid priced at WW, at BPS too. Don't know why, but definitely not worth the price.

I shoot more aluminum (Fed & CCI) than brass and have had zero issues in my gun so far. Never had a split case, FTF or anything of the sort. Accuracy seems on par with the other cheap bulk ammo.

BUT! When I rent the shield at MFS, it will FTE once or twice per box. Might just be the gun since nothing else has that problem. So overall, it's decent plinking ammo that's cheaper. Unless you want to reload or your gun can't chew it, I don't see why you wouldn't save the extra dough and buy more ammo.
 
If you don't have plans to reload and your gun will shoot it the aliumunum is great. I have put 600 rounds of the federal aliumunum through the m&p 45. Shoots great a smudge dirtier then Winchester white box but I love the stuff. But for the extra 1.00 I buy the perfecta brass when it's in stock.
 
I've gone through about 400 rounds of the Federal aluminum 9mm, no issues yet. For $10 a box its a pretty good deal IMO. Wish they would make it in .380.
 
I've shot a ton of CCI Blazer aluminum .357 with great results, of coarse that's through a wheelgun so I guess it's not that big a deal.

Although my father did have a 3 second hangfire, the scariest firearms incident I've ever been a witness to. I always told him to not assume the gun is empty if he pulled the trigger and there was no bang, and thank god I did because he kept the barrel pointed downrange and then KABOOM.

It was the last shot too... what are the odds? If he had opened the chamber to clear the spent shells it would not have been good.

To this day I cringe whenever I see someone not count their rounds, pull the trigger with no bang and then immediately proceed to clear the gun.
 
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I also have had no problems with aluminum casings. Note that Walmart now has two varieties of Federal Champion 45 ACP, full metal jacket and guilded metal jacket. GMJ is cheaper than FMJ and performs the same, as far as I can tell.
 
I've heard of the Remington UMC 250 packs ringing up at lower prices than advertised. As in $25 for the 9mm it was showing $30 for .45. YMMV and I couldn't any near me in stock on brickseek however one store did show the reduced price.
 
the alum casings aren't crimped - sometimes the bullet on the last round has moved in from recoil
 
If you are planning on reloading in the future, go with brass. If you are planning on tossing it, go with aluminium. Aluminium typical is dirty and dodgy due to cheap production.
 
I've had no issues with about 4K rounds of the federal aluminum through my G19. At under 10 a box its a no-brainer. They work great.

I usually reload... but times been a bitch the last couple years.

Mike

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
I grab that Federal Aluminum as often as it's available. I don't reload, so it's not an issue to me. I feeds just fine through my 9's and my .45 so I
can use it. I don't think it's as accurate as brass and it is a little dirtier than brass (IMO) but $14.99 for .45 and $9.99 for 9mm? I'll take as much of that as often as I can,
I just wish the 9 was 124gr and not 115, but but now I'm nitpicking
 
Another vote in favor of aluminum cased ammo. I find that when people ask me about aluminum ammunition, they have often grouped all non-brass ammo into one big category. So they see aluminum ammo from from quality brand names in the same category as steel ammo from the former Soviet Union. I always point out that these are very different products.
 
If the bullet leaves the barrel when I pull the trigger and another round cycles in, I dont care what the case is made from.
 
I buy brass cased ammo or steel cased ammo. I buy brass cased ammo because I want to get into reloading in the future and I save as much brass as I can. I buy steel cased ammo for Euro-caliber guns if I want cheap ammo to shoot and I'm not really concerned about precision (9x19, 7.62x25, 7.92x57, 7.62x54r, etc.).

Since I got into pistol shooting four years ago, I haven't bought one box of aluminum cased ammo. Just not something that tickles my fancy.
 
Don't buy it. But please do post where you find it available :)

I shoot primarily aluminum and steel ammo and so far my guns have not exploded... in fact no issues are all.
 
I've fed all of my pistols aluminum and haven't had an issue. Be it Fed or Blazer. Only brand I've had problems with was Winchester. Between my last three range trips, each has had a minimum of 3 FTFs using Winchester alum/brass. Primers were hit good too.

My buddy's Ruger 45 full size (poly frame) had a ton of issues brand new. The shop he brought it from told him it was because "after shooting aluminum and going to brass the gun needs to be cleaned". Something about a special coating on the aluminum. It went to Ruger, was completely rebuilt and still runs at best 70% of the time.

Edit* this is the same shop that tried telling me an ambi cut 15rd G19 mag was preban haha.
 
I usually buy perfecta at Walmart which is actually a few cents cheaper than the federal aluminium. When the perfecta isn't on the shelf I've snagged a box or two though. Truthfully o don't like either brand that much, but saving like 3-4$ per box is enough for me to grab em.
 
I've shot a ton of CCI Blazer aluminum .357 with great results, of coarse that's through a wheelgun so I guess it's not that big a deal.

Although my father did have a 3 second hangfire, the scariest firearms incident I've ever been a witness to. I always told him to not assume the gun is empty if he pulled the trigger and there was no bang, and thank god I did because he kept the barrel pointed downrange and then KABOOM.

It was the last shot too... what are the odds? If he had opened the chamber to clear the spent shells it would not have been good.

To this day I cringe whenever I see someone not count their rounds, pull the trigger with no bang and then immediately proceed to clear the gun.

Unless your on cleanup detail after he poops himself a hang fire in an open cylinder won't do much more than break the skin if it hits you. Simple physics. There are YouTube videos of guys microwaving 50 bmg rounds and they barely have the pop to open the door.

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I've shot a ton of CCI Blazer aluminum .357 with great results, of coarse that's through a wheelgun so I guess it's not that big a deal.

Although my father did have a 3 second hangfire, the scariest firearms incident I've ever been a witness to. I always told him to not assume the gun is empty if he pulled the trigger and there was no bang, and thank god I did because he kept the barrel pointed downrange and then KABOOM.

It was the last shot too... what are the odds? If he had opened the chamber to clear the spent shells it would not have been good.

To this day I cringe whenever I see someone not count their rounds, pull the trigger with no bang and then immediately proceed to clear the gun.

Unless your on cleanup detail after he poops himself a hang fire in an open cylinder won't do much more than break the skin if it hits you. Simple physics. There are YouTube videos of guys microwaving 50 bmg rounds and they barely have the pop to open the door.
 
I bought 2000 rounds of Blazer aluminum .40 and 9mm, just finished up shooting it all in a combination of an H and K P2000, various Glocks and a Sig P229.

Zero FTF and malfunctions in all 2000 rounds.

YMMV....
 
I've never really shot aluminum cased ammo primarily because I never see it for sale in my area. I'd imagine its like steel but with a better gas seal seeing as how aluminum is a far more malleable metal. I shoot steel in any caliber I can get. It's cheap and it works every time. I'd shoot aluminum if it was anywhere near as available as steel. I love cheap ammo.
 
Unless your on cleanup detail after he poops himself a hang fire in an open cylinder won't do much more than break the skin if it hits you. Simple physics. There are YouTube videos of guys microwaving 50 bmg rounds and they barely have the pop to open the door.

Unless the chamber was half open when it went off... Pretty sure that would have blown the gun apart.
 
I'm glad this thread came up, because I've only shot aluminum in my cousin's guns because he happened to have some already loaded when I was trying them and it seemed to work fine, but I've never personally bought any. After reading this, I will pick some up for when I am in the indoor range because the old guys always seem to claim most of the brass before I can even get close to what I've fired.[rolleyes] With the aluminum, I won't care, and if the line is still hot when I have to leave, let them keep them![laugh]
 
I have shot 1 box of Aluminum all my years shooting and had 2 FTF's with a 1911. I can get Brass for the same $ as Alum so I never buy it. May try a box again one day but I'm stacked with 9 so may be awhile. Place I buy my 9mm from sells new steel stuff and has been in many you tube Vids from competition shooters loving it. Might go for that also one day.
 
I've shot tons of all of them the only real problems with AL or steel cased shit is a lot of it has a weaker load but that has little to do with tge case material. I typically favor brass though because in a lot of cases the price delta isn't as high as it used to be and you get brass for reloading. Back when the delta was often 20% or more Al/Steel was more appealing.
 
i dig aluminum cased federal and blazer. good stuff. one other small perk it's substantially lighter, so if planning to carry a box or two of FMJ for camping or on foot wilderness trip the aluminum offers some serious weight advantage.
 
just picked up 200 rounds of 9 and 200 rounds of .45 Federal aluminum today at the Walpole Wallyworld
when the 9mm is $9.99 of box and the.45 is $14.99 , it's like crack , I have to grab some LOL!
FS had quite a bit of blazer brass .45 and magtech .45 a while back for $14.99 but all they have on the floor now
is Lawman for $16.99 [frown]
I grabbed a couple of bricks of the Blazer a few weeks back but I knew I should've
grabbed at least one more.[sad2] I really like the Magtech .45 too..........damn
that's $40.00 more per case now
 
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