What to do with Steel Casings

[FieroCDSP]

When sorting brass, you always end up with some steel cases. It's unavoidable. I think some of the brass actually turns to steel to spite me. Regardless, what am I to do with all of these steel cases? Are they worth keeping to haul in for recycling? Not to mention how do I tell Nickel from Zinc plated steel? Isn't Nickel okay to load?

 

[TN Shooter]

I would just recycle all your steel cases. Although some are technically reloadable, I don't think they're worth the extra effort. You can use a large magnet to separate them from the good brass cases.

 

[Starter52]

Landfill.

 

[jr81452]

steel? yes please

you can recycle them all right! send them to me i'll reload them honestly send me a pm with the number and type you have and i will give you a price.

 

[trickyasafox]

if they are the correct primer, i load em a couple times.

 

[Steel Talon]

REcycling steel cases....

Where I live steel goes for $50.00 a ton so the recycler would pay somewhere around 3-5 cents a pound, 3-5 dollars for a hundred pounds. thats a lot of steel cases / work for 5 bucks. Figure two full 5gal plastic buckets for 100 pounds.

Reloading steel cases I'm not sure I would do it, not that it would harm the firearm but I'd venture a guess that steel cases would tear up your dies.

Peace
Steel Talon

 

[MErl]

I just give them to the recycler when I show up with berden brass. it is a waste to put any metal in a landfill.

(and they are easy to seperate with a magnet)

 

[Smokey Joe]

Steel (ugh) cases

The steelies CAN be reloaded. For the life of me I can't see why anyone would bother--requires extra effort on the press, may be bad for yr dies, etc, etc. Also less elastic than brass, therefore poorer at sealing the gun's chamber against gas leakage.

Steel cases were designed to be cheap military ammo, used once and discarded to rust on the battlefield. They were most certainly NOT designed with maximum accuracy, nor reloading, in mind.

Brass cases for all the cartridges which can be had in steel cases, are easily available, and not THAT gosh-dern expensive. (If you can afford to buy guns, drive to the range, shoot, buy supplies, and reload, you certainly can afford brass cases.)

Nickel-plated cases are brass underneath. They reload--and behave when fired--like pure brass cases, except the plating makes the cases a bit brittle, therefore prone to neck-splitting a little more easily. How to tell 'em from steel cases? Nickel-plate cases are shiny. Steel cases are "matte-finished" and dull. And of course there's the magnetic difference.

Steel cases can be recycled like any other steel items. Throw 'em in with the "tin" cans and take 'em to the recycler.

Some people (see above post) do reload steel cases. I suspect it's out of stubbornness. But hey, each to his own, and whatever makes you happy.

 

[FieroCDSP]

These cases are already corroding, just from being in the snow an hour or so. I'll just recycle them with the cans. The nickle plated ones were in a box of factory reloads my friend was firing. A couple of them are marks as +P rounds

 

[Smokey Joe]

Doing the Right Thing

FieroCDSP--Well, that's one more reloader who won't be wasting his time futzing with steel cases. Good on you.

Your post leads me to believe that we're talking pistol ammo here. You can reload and shoot the nickel plated cases right along with yr brass-only ones. No difference in POI or anything else that I can find. +P marked brass means that it was factory loaded heavier than "normal." That may affect the useful life of the brass in number of times it can be reloaded, but it means nothing for the individual reload in it, until the one where the case splits.

(BTW, I shoot bullseye pistol league, so consistency of performance is quite important to me as a reloader.)

When you find a split in a pistol cartridge case, it gets recycled. That's all; no big deal. With "common" cartridges there is lots of free range brass to be had for the picking-up, so case replacement isn't much of a cost or an issue.

 

[FieroCDSP]

I picked up most of these Sunday when my friends and I went out to one of their properties and did some short range plinking. My friend Josh only fires factory loads in his M&P 9mm, and Jeremy had a box of factory reloads. I don't have a 9mm yet, so I was going to cut these down for 9x18 Mak loads. One of these days I'll have to get a 9mm. I think my next gun will be a 1911, though. That's fun to shoot. Feels like a gentler version of my 40 cal.