The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I was looking for something obscure yesterday and it occurred to me I do not have many aluminium cased examples of ammunition other than some .45ACP and I am sure I have seen aluminium or light metal cased rimfire in the past. Has anyone come across examples of aluminium cartridge cases or live ammunition here in the UK?

Know a chap at the range who shoots 9mm with aluminium cases.

No idea where they came from though.

CCI Blazer

I think I've seen aluminium .25 ACP ammo pre-ban.

Used .357 (.38 Spec.?) & 9mm pre-ban

I have the following non CCI Blazer items.

A clip of 7.62 Tokarev adaptors I believe used in adapted TT pistols for training cadets and a 5.56*45 indoor practice round headstamped SF (Societe Francais) 5.56 84

Back in the day of Guns Review Peter Labbett did a series on experimental aluminium alloy cartridge cases. There were in .270" and .280" .303" .30" Browning, 7.92*57 9mm 20mm and 30mm Aden.
It seems case splits/ stretching and issues with damage during handling as well as concerns over long term storage meant nothing progressed to far.

Daniel Kent in his book German 7.9mm military ammunition dedicates a couple of pages to aluminium ammunition, apparently tried by Germany for fighter aircraft in WWI, samples of which were recovered in downed aircraft in Italy.
They tried again in 1941 but the demands for aluminium for aircraft took higher priority and producing mass produced service loads in rifle calibres proved unsuccessful.

I don't know if CCI still make Blaser ammo but it was quite popular in the 1980s, being cheap factory ammo. The snag was that you were not supposed to be able to reload it, but some tried and succeeded, apparently without problems.
Fred

Silly question, but what are the benefits of aluminium ?

Low weight. A lot of research was done in the 60s to try and develop aluminium cases for guns mounted in helicopters* and also for infantry. Aluminium is way lighter than brass, so the PBI can carry more rounds and the helicopter can carry two.





*Helicopters can't actually fly, they are just so ugly the earth repels them.

Indeed on the weight topic, to quote an example by Kent
1000 rounds brass type S bullet 52.5 pounds
1000 rounds aluminium with type S bullet 39.3 pounds
Fokker Dr-1 Tri-plane weight 1289 pounds gross so you could in theory carry an extra 336 rounds of aluminium cased rounds