American Eagle shells

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I have some Federal AE 38 and 357 cases that have been reloaded to the point the headstamps are starting wear. To be fair they only get loaded light to medium. Of the .357 ones that do get loaded to max magnums with very heavy crimps some will start cracking at the mouth at about 10 or so reloads.
 
What's your dislike for reloading brass washed steel cases? Just curious.
Steel cases have different metallic qualities than brass, one of which is being harder and possibly cause galling/scratching of dies.

Brass is more malleable/ductile to expand better to seal case mouth with the chamber wall, which reduce gas leakage for more consistent chamber pressures, then spring back from chamber wall for easier extraction and ejection. Brass retains these qualities even after many reloadings.

Even when brass becomes work hardened, brass can be made softer by annealing - https://www.sinclairintl.com/guntech/the-not-so-arcane-art-of-brass-annealing/detail.htm?lid=16032

Brass plated steel cases should be checked with magnet and I do not reload them.

YMMV
 
I got a hold of 20 9mmX19 brass washed steel cases and reloaded them 10 times. The brass wash is still intact 100%. They were accurate and function just fine in a Firestar M43. My resizing die shows no wear or scratches. Cases were tumbled and inspected before resizing. I found NO problem when reloading them.
 
I reloaded some Wolf steel (not brass-washed) as a feasability exercise, and they worked, but I'm sticking to brass as long as it's available. In shotgun shells unfortunately that may not be much longer, as almost all the manufacturers have gone to steel bases on their hulls,except for Winchester's AA's, and Remington's STS, Nitro 27, and Nitro Gold Sporting Clays.
 
The steel used in cases is MUCH softer than the steel used in dies.

It's still a pain the arse to reload, but it's not going to scratch the dies.

If you absolutely must reload steel, lube the cases with a little motor oil on your fingers.
 
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