Thursday, January 26, 2012

The death of reloading? New polymer cases. The latest in a long line of "miracle" inventions, if you keep track of them as they go by.

Polymer Casings: The Future of Ammo?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Polymer cases have been tried in the past. They don't hold up to reloading. Another disadvantage from a military viewpoint, they do not remove heat from the chamber as a metal would. On heavy fire weapons it is important the weapon remains cool. Caseless ammo had the same problem. Just something different.

LFMayor said...

I remember Federal putting out polymer cases 10 - 15 years ago in at least .38 special and .357 mag. One of the marketing gimmicks was that these were purported to hold up to even more reloading cycles that brass cases, so if you bought them you could get even more life from them. Then they dried up and blew away, I was only looking at getting started into reloading at that time and never experimented with them.

J. Croft said...

Steel stamper and a 3D printer=major obstacle removed toward manufacturing ammunition.

Sean said...

All I see is a way for Uncle Sugar to CONTROL ammo. If all the market has in non-reloadable, they can tighten the screws till it's all theirs. And don't think the tag and follow crowd aren't pleased by this. Micro stamping, at least for manufacture and tracing, would be simpler, but still would leave out which gun. Nothing but technological terror, and damned small advantage.

frosty2 said...

I still have about a third of a box of "AMTECH" .38 Special polymer cased ammo in a box dated 1992. Saved it just for it's weirdness value. Has an aluminum head and looks like a little shotgun hull when fired. Another solution in search of a problem.
frosty2

bloodyspartan said...

it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Dedicated_Dad said...

Anon #1: Seems as though it would actually INSULATE the chamber, unlike brass or caseless...

No question SOME heat is "removed" by ejected brass, but if that heat was never absorbed by the case in the first place, then........??

I'm still inclined to say "meh..."

DD

Anonymous said...

Was in a carbine course and saw a fellow student get a failure-to-fire, clear it, and the bullet get pulled out of a polymer case and stick in the chamber throat. The powder dumped into the chamber, bolt-carrier area, and magazine.

Cheap, crap ammo.

BrianF said...

Don't people realize that with this plastic ammo and a plastic handgun,anyone will be able to beat the airport metal detectors? Airports will be like the wild west.
That is sarcasm

Sail Man said...

I'm with Sean on this, my thoughts exactly as a way to control access to ammo and tighten, and eventually clamp off access to ammo.

ShortTimer said...

Some of the later caseless ammo from HK for the G11 had solved overheating problems, but politics and NATO's use of the 5.56 helped prevent the 4mm cartridges (4.3 and 4.7, IIRC) from being adopted at all. Too radical. They lowered the ignition temp on the propellant somehow, but it was doomed anyway. The propellant temp might be reduced here, but given that this isn't really new, we'll have to wait to see.

I'd rather see the gyrojet make a comeback.