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True...

Not sure what damage it will do, but my Kimber really does not function well on Wolf.

Anygun

Thanks for all the replies! I can kinda see the direction 99.9% of the reviews went and I think I will find another ammo to use at the range.

Wolf doesn't sound to be great quality, so I definitely don't want that in my gun.

Thanks again!

9mmGuy wrote:Yea, the range officer told me that the aluminum case would wear out the extractors in there pistols, cause the aluminum cases are harder than brass.

This was an interesting speculation, so I just did a test. Remington brass is considerably harder than Blazer aluminum. Neither are hard enough to cause much wear on an extractor, though. The Wolf probably would abrasively wear the extractor, though.

AV8R wrote: Neither are hard enough to cause much wear on an extractor, though. The Wolf probably would abrasively wear the extractor, though.

um, how could it abrasively wear it, if the aluminum is softer?
seems to me if brass is harder than Al, then the Al would be better for the extractor because it would induce less friction than Brass.

I dunno, I'm a Radiation Physics guy, not a Chem guy...

The problem with revolvers (if there is a problem) would be the case expanding and being harder to extract -- not the surface hardness of the metal. I haven't found either brass or Blazers to expand too much, in a small sample.

- Jim

Keep in mind that ranges collect their brass to reload.

In many cases, when they ban Wolf or Blazer, it's because they don't want to have to separate it when they pick up brass.

I would prefer Blazer over Wolf.

casselthief wrote:

AV8R wrote: Neither are hard enough to cause much wear on an extractor, though. The Wolf probably would abrasively wear the extractor, though.

um, how could it abrasively wear it, if the aluminum is softer?
seems to me if brass is harder than Al, then the Al would be better for the extractor because it would induce less friction than Brass.

I dunno, I'm a Radiation Physics guy, not a Chem guy...

The Wolf is cased in annealed steel of dubious origin, and likely has a lot of junk in it that would abrade hardened steel parts, which in a gun are none too hard to begin with (save trigger parts). The brass and aluminum cases are soft enough not to wear the parts in an average gun. Between aluminum and brass, brass will more nearly return to its original diameter after firing. Aluminum should do just fine, though, unless you have a really loose chamber. Blazer aluminum looks like it's lightly anodized (or Alodined) for corrosion resistance, and that gives it a slick finish and some scratch resistance. The Blazer has worked fine in every case that I know of, and that's what I mostly practice with.

The softness of aluminum vs brass vs steel is only part of the equation. The other consideration is the surface makeup of the components. For example, all aluminum is coated by a thin layer of aluminum oxide and this is the same chemical used in some sandpaper. Brass doesn't have the same properties since it's corrosion products are very soft. In my opinion I would have to say most of the arguments against aluminum cases are bogus. Steel with gunk coated on it has its own issues so I shoot aluminum blazer in all my handguns since Blazer is cheaper than reloading for me. At most it's just polishing them just like a very, very fine jeweler's rouge.

Wow, Wolf isn't getting much love here. I shot 2 cases of them and had no issues; I thought they were pretty accurate and loaded a bit on the hot side. I wouldn't mind shooting them at all; however, they've gone up in price (costing more than the Blazers).

There's a steel cased ammo that I'm not fond of: it is Academy's Monarch. At first I thought they were Wolf OEMed to Academy. After shooting a few boxes, I think they are definitely inferior to Wolf. I had 1 dud so far (which of all the cases of centerfire ammo I've shot, this is the first. And this happened after just a few hundred rounds), they are very soft shooting, the green coating rubs off on my fingers. I'm glad that I'mdown to the last few boxes of them.

The Wolf ammo is not bad at all. I've never seen anybody's gun actually break because of it. In fact, a lot of AR-15 shooters shoot Wolf (because they are still the cheapest and they are good ammo).

I have put about 800 rounds of the Monarch brass cased 9mm through my XD without a single misfire. I have not tried the steel cased Monarch though and for the extra 30 cents or so for the brass why bother.

I have also put several hundred rounds of brass Remington through the same gun and actually thought they were a bit less accurate than the Monarch.