Anyone familiar with Alcan primers? An elderly friend who is soon to be in an assisted living center has asked me to help dispose of his reloading supplies. We have found two boxes of Alcan Max-Fire small pistol primers in his collection. A google search has provided very little info.
Alcan has been around for a long time. I think I have a vintage box of Alcan shotgun shells around. I also think they collaborated with S&W in some of their ammo endeavors.
Load a couple in some empty brass and see if it goes bang. If they have been stored correctly, should at least be good for plinking ammo.
Load a couple in some empty brass and see if it goes bang. If they have been stored correctly, should at least be good for plinking ammo.
From cast Boolits website:
I grew up even closer, and remember driving there with my Dad to buy a pickup load of powder, wads and shot at a time. The plant was in Alton, Illinois.
Alcan began selling reloading supplies right after WWII - the first company to do so. If it were not for Alcan, the reloading world might be a lot different today. Their success prompted competition from the other possible suppliers; the demand for reloading products spurred the creation of Hodgdon, for example. Eventually, Alcan folded for several reasons, the final one of which was the destruction of the Bofors powder plant in Sweden - their supplier.
Of their four shotgun powders (Al-120, AL-5, AL-7, and AL-8) the three faster ones have the best application to handguns. AL-8 was a true magnum shotgun powder and only worked well at high-end handgun loads. It acted a lot like 4227 in handguns, requiring a full charge, a magnum primer and a heavy crimp under a heavy bullet. Not for sissies.
I've used it for dino-slayer loads in the 45 Colt. There are better choices among the other powders, though.
I grew up even closer, and remember driving there with my Dad to buy a pickup load of powder, wads and shot at a time. The plant was in Alton, Illinois.
Alcan began selling reloading supplies right after WWII - the first company to do so. If it were not for Alcan, the reloading world might be a lot different today. Their success prompted competition from the other possible suppliers; the demand for reloading products spurred the creation of Hodgdon, for example. Eventually, Alcan folded for several reasons, the final one of which was the destruction of the Bofors powder plant in Sweden - their supplier.
Of their four shotgun powders (Al-120, AL-5, AL-7, and AL-8) the three faster ones have the best application to handguns. AL-8 was a true magnum shotgun powder and only worked well at high-end handgun loads. It acted a lot like 4227 in handguns, requiring a full charge, a magnum primer and a heavy crimp under a heavy bullet. Not for sissies.
I've used it for dino-slayer loads in the 45 Colt. There are better choices among the other powders, though.
When the last go round of bravo Sierra started I searched the inventory and found some S&W Alcan in both large and small pistol size. Marked @ .89 cents/hundred. If they were stored correctly they will go bang. The ones I loaded all went bang. What else do ya need to know? Worth? A couple bucks each. They are probably 50 years old.
Regards,
Regards,
Man, I fired thousands of rounds of shotshells that were made by Alcan before starting to reload shotshells for trap. Pretty good ammo. Never had a problem with any of it.
As advised above load some into brass and test fire. I'll bet they fire.
As advised above load some into brass and test fire. I'll bet they fire.
I have several cans of Alcan powder, it’s square metal cans and still usable.
Load information is a little hard to find .
Load information is a little hard to find .
Similar threads
