Is CCI Blazer aluminum case fading away?

I find it's less available locally than it used to be here too. Before I started reloading, I used to use a lot of it in 357 Magnum, and it was good solid general purpose ammo. I shot a good handful of it in 45 ACP too.
 
My local shop has plenty but it's only $3 a box less than brass, so I just go with brass. I am saving now to order some ammo online in 9mm because it's not cheap here local. $16.99 for aluminum, $19.99 for brass 50rds fmj. 25rounds jhp are $27. I see it much cheaper online and need to save to get free shipping as with shipping I ain't saving much.
 
When I had a .25acp I used aluminum cased ammo most of the time because it was the cheapest.
 
45/30-06OKIE said:
Yeah I had a box of their 45 auto 230gr stuff and it shot very well. Like basically match grade accuracy lmao. But when you can get brass for basically the same price...
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If the price were the same for brass and aluminum .45 ACP, I'm taking the aluminum because there is a significant difference in weight. I can wave a box of the aluminum .45 with no effort, but brass case feels like a brick.
 
I've noticed that the aluminum Blazer stuff, and aluminum in general, is getting rarer. I had pretty good luck with it but I never buy 115 gr if I have access to 147 gr so I didn't buy it often anyway.
 
Charlie98 said:
In what way is aluminum a 'benefit' over brass?
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When introduced, it was substantially cheaper. It even had Berdan primers which deterred reloading and saved the cost of the anvil.

CajunBass said:
Didn''t Federal bring out their own line of aluminum case ammo not too long ago?.
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Just a label change, Federal is part of the Vista conglomerate along with Speer and CCI.

I would like to have shot .45 Blazer SWC, it was very accurate but the Speer SWC would not feed well in a gun throated for cast #68 SWC.
 
Jim Watson said:
When introduced, it was substantially cheaper. It even had Berdan primers which deterred reloading and saved the cost of the anvil.
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My question was aimed at the previous post that was alluding, I believe, to the weight savings aluminum cases would be over brass... which I believe to be a moot point. I don't happen to have a handful of spent aluminum cases to weigh against a handful of brass cases, so that's only my opinion.

Certainly, back in the day, Blazer was cheaper than it's brass-cased counterparts, but compared to the cheapo import surplus that was on the market as well, I don't really know how well it fared against it.
 
Weight savings, I have some left, I will check the next time I am in the shop.

I know one serious disadvantage... in a rare case.
At the time of the Incident in 2010 I had about a case and a half of aluminum Blazer 9mm on hand. $3.87 a box was cheap even then. It was wetted down by fire hoses and by rain through the burnt out roof. It was a good while before I was in shape to recover it. But it LOOKED good, having dried out and only showing light water stains on the boxes. But when I attempted to shoot it, I had several misfires and then my friend noticed flash out the ejection port of the pistol. I picked up some empties and saw many of them had burned through, some just pinholes, some with long scorched splits. When I cleaned the gun, I found the chamber was scored by the blowtorch effect of the burnouts. FLG polished the chamber, the scores are still there but smoothed and not affecting extraction.
So don't get your aluminum ammo wet.
 
Jim Watson said:
Weight savings, I have some left, I will check the next time I am in the shop.
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Please! Enquiring minds want to know.

I could see a weight difference in a box of ammo... but a cylinder full, or even a mag full? I think not. The theory is sound, however... look at the military eyeballing poly-cased service ammo, but a 400+ round loadout is a little different.
 
115 gr 9mm P
Federal Aluminum 10 rounds 4.2 oz
S&B brass cased 10 rounds 3.2 oz.

So aluminum ammo in, say, a base model P365, would save you one ounce.
 
mavs said:
Oh, what problems have you had with aluminum cases ?
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In my 9mm AR pistol I had one totally blow the head off the side of the case leaving an aluminum ring in the chamber. I tried many things to get it out but the thing I tried that worked was using a 3/8" bolt, I used a file to cut three grooves up from the tip. Then I used a 10" extension 3/8 drive & socket to try to get the bolt to bite the aluminum case. It took a few tries of tapping & turning until the case broke loose but it came all the way out.
And this is just one of the problems I have had using aluminum case rounds.

1712701333048.jpeg
 
AK Hunter said:
In my 9mm AR pistol I had one totally blow the head off the side of the case leaving an aluminum ring in the chamber. I tried many things to get it out but the thing I tried that worked was using a 3/8" bolt, I used a file to cut three grooves up from the tip. Then I used a 10" extension 3/8 drive & socket to try to get the bolt to bite the aluminum case. It took a few tries of tapping & turning until the case broke loose but it came all the way out.
And this is just one of the problems I have had using aluminum case rounds.

View attachment 1204129
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Oh, and what other problems have you had using aluminum cased rounds?
 
Jim Watson said:
Weight savings, I have some left, I will check the next time I am in the shop.

I know one serious disadvantage... in a rare case.
At the time of the Incident in 2010 I had about a case and a half of aluminum Blazer 9mm on hand. $3.87 a box was cheap even then. It was wetted down by fire hoses and by rain through the burnt out roof. It was a good while before I was in shape to recover it. But it LOOKED good, having dried out and only showing light water stains on the boxes. But when I attempted to shoot it, I had several misfires and then my friend noticed flash out the ejection port of the pistol. I picked up some empties and saw many of them had burned through, some just pinholes, some with long scorched splits. When I cleaned the gun, I found the chamber was scored by the blowtorch effect of the burnouts. FLG polished the chamber, the scores are still there but smoothed and not affecting extraction.
So don't get your aluminum ammo wet.
Click to expand...
Had a sorta similar problem with some Blazer 9mm my dad had out in a garage that wasn't temp controlled down on the beach. Ammo didn't look like it was wet, but the humidity was always high there. About half the rounds in the boxes were misfires. Called and they said send it all back and they would look at it. Not long after that, I got a box for box replacement of the same stuff and a note saying the ammo Id sent in looked like it had been submerged. Funny, as the boxes looked fine. Always just assumed the humidity was the cause.

As far as the strength of the aluminum cases goes. A few years back, I found a bunch of boxer-primed aluminum cases at the range while scrounging my brass. For gits and shiggles I figured I try loading some and see how that went just to see if it could be viable. Cant remember now if I loaded 50 or 100, but I reloaded and shot that same lot 6 or 8 times. Lost a couple of cases each reload due to splits at the mouths, but other than that, they did a lot better than I was expecting.
 
They can keep that junk. From my use its almost as bad as GI steel case. Locked up my smith 27 just like GI steel locked up my 1917.
 
Someone asked about .38SPL and I remembered to weigh a couple cases today. I got 4.8g for an empty PMC .38Spl, and 1.7g for an empty CCI/Speer Lawman .38spl(+P). I would say being well over double the weight is significant. I can absolutely notice the difference in the hand and on the belt between six rounds of aluminum or brass in a very lightweight aluminum framed revolver.
 
I was shooting .22’s today at the indoor range and I saw a couple of aluminum Blazer .40 S&W cases left on the floor that a previous shooter didn’t sweep up.

Been a while since I saw any of those for sale at the LGS.

Stay safe.
 
Shooter at the range last week was shooting 9mm Blazer aluminum case ammo. I asked him where he got them and the said they were from Academy.
 
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