Reloading Wolf Steel Cases

[Gun Surfer]

My dies are RCBS dies, have worked ok in the RL 550 for years with brass. The expander die is the Dillon that goes with the powder charger. I tried a test with newer brass cases and 230 FMJ Win bullets. Upon chambering a round in my Kimber, the bullets sink consistently about .002. Lead 200 SWC bullets do not sink at all. Since I will only ever typically chamber a reload once, that is ok. With the steel cases, the Win 230 FMJs seem to sink noticeably more. I will keep experimenting when I have time.

[Sunray]

Steel, even the very mild steel used in cases, is not elastic like brass. Work hardens faster too.

[Gun Surfer]

Sunray, I think that is the bottom line. I figure someone could get one or a few reloads, but would be taking risks. Meanwhile, I dont have enough steel cases to justify a big effort.

[Kirk]

You're right. A few years ago, I decided to try to reload a few Wolf cases. I think I used 6 cases. On the 2nd firing, (3rd for the case, counting the orginal factory load) I got a split case so I quit.

[Sunray]

"...would be taking risks..." It won't hurt your pistol, but it's not worth screwing around with steel cases. You could polish 'em up, lacquer 'em and make drawer pulls out of 'em though.

[Gun Surfer]

It might hurt the pistol if the bullet was depressed enough to elevate pressures to a very high level. For the few cases I tried, the steel had obviously lesser ability to grip the bullet firmly than brass. A few boxes ago I loaded some .45 ACP with none other than Wolf LP primers, and got noticeably hotter loads with what is normally a moderate load. That by itself doesnt bother me a bit, I actually like their primers. But combine that with the bullets being cramped down into a steel case upon chambering, and then say one doesnt notice it right away and keeps shooting a bunch of them, who know what could happen. Its combinations of those kinds of factors that makes for bad accidents.

[austintexas]

I loaded 20 wolf .223 cases with 21 gr. 4189, 55gr fmj and shot them in my SP1 with no problem. Bullets were tight in the necks and no split cases. I'm going to keep reloading the same 20 cases just to see how long they last. I'm just doing this as an experiament, I have plenty of brass cases. I use a Dillen press.