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poly ammunition

1444 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Overkill0084, 
stoppingpower
http://www.guns.com/ploycase-ammunition-now-shipping-380-11521.html
What do you guys think of this? I was thinking its a great idea once all the bugs are worked out. Hell I'd like to see a wide range of different calibers made from plastics. I just wonder how it would handle with 556 or another high pressured round. It would be a good deal if you can send in your spent casings for free rounds or something.
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BillM
Plastic cased 5.56 has been around for several years. Used to find
a lot of empties at the range, not so many lately. Google it,
I was seeing references as far back as 2005.

No reason it shouldn't work in relatively low pressure handgun rounds.

Better than brass? Don't know. There are reasons brass has been the
cartridge case material of choice for over 150 years.
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DrumJunkie
Can I reload it? Nope..That makes me sad...
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stoppingpower
Wow i had no idear that its been around. Beside not being able to reload it why is this not something thats caught on heavily?
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DrumJunkie
After reading the article as well as the comments section where the ammo maker was replying I just see too many questions not answered. Reloading aside how will this case deal with things like boat tail rounds? They say they use a shelf to keep the round form not sliding back on cambering. I would thing that would be dependent on the bullet not being a tapered or otherwise not flat cylindrical round. I don't know how this poly stuff would store. Some polymers had issues with UV light over time. Some don't hold up as well with a big temp flux. If this is supposed to be a round that will keep costs down where are they saving the money? Can the poly case scratch to a point where feeding might be an issue? Everyone does not keep ammo in neat little boxes.

Most disturbing, they make the point that you can make the ammo match the poly color of the weapon....Really?
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InDefenseofLiberty
At $22.50 a box for hardball they better find a distribution system quick. It's supposed to be a lower price point than current ammo. That is 4 to 5 dollars higher than i get it for now. I realize they are shipping it for that but damn I'm not even tempted.
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stoppingpower
Id try some 9mm just to test it out. Good point on the uv light maybe these rounds need to be put through a hard test. Id like to see what comes out if this.. just to see
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KG7IL
DrumJunkie said:
Most disturbing, they make the point that you can make the ammo match the poly color of the weapon....Really?
Click to expand...
That's what I look for in ammo, that and low-carbon emissions.
Now if they only have it play "It's a small world after all" when fired, then they got a winner.
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R
There was a company in the late 80's/early 90's that made plastic cased .38 Spl. I have seen the .223 that was made a few years back. $22 for 25 rds? That is pretty steep, even with "premium" bullets.
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c3shooter
This one, Robo. I got a 6 pack of them when they came out.

http://www.gunauction.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=9197262
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R
That's it. I thought USAC, but was not sure from memory so I left that out. I have one round in my cart. collection
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Overkill0084
What's the upside?
Certainly not cost. "50 rounds of more pedestrian .380 ball goes for $22,"certainly nothing to get excited about. Even with the argument that plastic is cheaper than brass, the obvious question to me is: How much does the process cost to join the case head with the plastic body? It also seems like a likely point of failure it not done correctly. In light of that, how is it an improvement over a one piece design? If you can't do it cheaper than say Blazers or even Hornady Steel Match, what have you accomplished, aside from an interesting engineering exercise? That's not even taking the cheap Russian stuff into account.
Performance? I don't see it being any better than existing products.
Durability? To many variables to know at this point. Will it tolerate an unsupported chamber at 9 mm pressures (+P, +P+?) consistently? Shelf Life? Service life (unfired)? How many load & unload cycles will it tolerate and stay serviceable?
Earth friendliness (if that's your thing) - How is it more earth friendly than getting numerous reloads from a traditional brass case? I thought petroleum was evil? Where does plastic come from again?
If it doesn't perform better, last longer or cost less...
The fact that the brass cartridge case has yet to be fully replaced should tell us something. It was a pretty good idea from the get go.
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