Firearm BS thread

They are certainly on the backside of their life, being 8 to 9 years old. I believe they say they generally last somewhere in the area of 10 years but I have heard people get much longer out of them

 

Brass vs Aluminum casing.

What's the difference? Advantages/disadvantages?

This would be for range use.

Thanks.

 

If for ranger use, aluminum is fine. The advantage to brass over aluminum is obviously reloading, and selling your brass to reload. Obviously, at the range you wouldn't be collecting up your spent casings. Aluminum will expand more in the chamber than brass, so in some applications there might be ejection difficulties resulting in stove piping and such,

 

10 yrs is the halflife of tritium. So, theoretically, there is half as much radioactive material left after 10 years, which means less excited phosphorus and 50% dimmer sights at the decade mark. I don't know if the phosphorus itself degrades or not.

I installed a set of Trijicon HD sights on my G20 today...they seem really great so far!!

 

For range use = cheap serviceable ammo

Brass:
Cheap = Reload! Value in shell (cost more off shelf)
Serviceable = proper case expansion, natural lubricity, more accurate, less likely to cause failure.

Aluminum:
Cheap = off shelf low price (unable to reload)
Serviceable = great corrosion resistance, less accurate, some platforms will have failures (notably melting onset temperature)

Steel:
Cheap = off shelf low price (unable to reload)
Serviceable = less expansion, less lubricity, less accuracy, and some platforms will have failures.

IMO Good Brass/reload is the way (you can reload cheap plink rounds or go full OCD to squeeze accuracy or build home defense/game specific loads by choosing projectile/bullet and powder)

 

That's my point, once they've gone to 50% dimness. There just not that effective, you have to work to see them, where as when there are new they jump out at you. but yes you still can see them,

 

I disagree with the lumping of steel & aluminum together.

I would say that aluminum has equal reliability to brass, assuming all other components are of equal quality. Aluminum expands just as well as brass in a chamber.

Steel cases do sometimes have lacquer coatings that leave residue & can build up, causing malfunctions if not removed.

Aluminum pistol ammo is good to go.

 

I don't disagree. I would not spend money on 10 year old tritium sights.

 

I will simply say it like this, I own a shooting range. So I have seen much much more than the average fair share of bullets. And aluminum does show up more times than brass with problems.

 

What type of problems? I'm always interested in market research. Something based on the aluminum ammo itself? Or is it that cheaper guns are fed more aluminum because it's cheaper?

 

Stove piping and failure to eject as I already stated.

 

The new CZ p10c fits into Glock 19 holsters, at least some. Skip to the 15 minute mark for proof! (Or watch the whole thing if you wanna check out the gun) Also Im not sure how well it would work, if at all, if you add in a light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1zWm09BOrM

 

o i forgot ot add make sure you use a die to bell the case a bit. You need to bell the mouth so youll scrap the coating off when you seat it. Kind of like loading pistol ammo. I got a Lee universal die and it worked fine

 

Yup already got that on the way, got some hornady 208's for subsonics and some 4227 to add one more to the party for load work up.

 

Yall better watch out for doctor octopus with all this tritium... Also you can sometimes you can find companies that reload 1 shot brass and they are pretty cheap and offer all the benifits of brass well because they are brass

 

Remanufactured http://www.selwayarmory.com/hsm-9mm-115-gr-plated-round-nose-remanufactured-box-of-50.html
Same website also had these that seem to be new for super cheap
http://www.selwayarmory.com/homelan...r-round-nose-full-metal-jacket-box-of-50.html

 

You can get brass case ammo for almost the same price if not a little cheaper than alu case at walmart last time I looked.

If you have no intentions of picking up brass and reloading, anything will be fine as long as it works in your pistol...some eat steel case fine while others don't. Try out a few and go with whats cheapest.

 

Thanks for the reply.

The range does allow collecting of your spent casings but I will not be reloading.

Speaking of Walmart... I tried out the aluminum and the brass cases (9mm) that I bought from Walmart this past Wednesday at the range and I didn't notice any difference (it's my first handgun tho).

It was roughly a $3/difference per box (50 rounds).

 

Mine has cheap brass case (Perfecta) and it's slightly cheaper (like, 10c a box) than the Federal aluminium. If both run fine, I'd get the brass since people will pick it up at the range to sell or reload thus keeping everything cleaner.

 

People who dont pick up their own brass amaze me. Its leaving free money behind at a range. Might take a bit before you can sell it (quantity wise). 1k of 9mm brass, uncleaned and not processed can be sold for 20 bucks. Other calibers can be sold for more. Silly not to collect it and sell it off once a year or whatever and just have a bit of extra beer money.

I wont go to a range that doesnt allow me to collect my own brass. Its mine not theirs and I hate the "soon as it hits our floor its ours" mentality of some ranges.