should the ar-15 be expected to run steel case ammo?

should the ar-15 be expected to run steel case ammo?

  • yes

    Votes: 78 83.0%

  • no

    Votes: 7 7.4%

  • depends on the gas system

    Votes: 3 3.2%

  • too many variables to answer

    Votes: 6 6.4%
  • Total voters
    94
The problem may not be the steel case so much as reduced pressure that particular ammo may run at. Especially if it's a 10.5" or shorter.
 
I shoot a lot of cheap steel in my non-match AR's and they always run fine. I only ever had an issue with MFS 55gn once in a SBR with too small a gas port, but that was easily fixed by reaming the port to proper diameter.

The case material should not matter wrt action reliability. The only real factor should be whether the ammo has enough pressure to reliably cycle the action. If yours does not, chances are the gas port is either mis-aligned or under-drilled, or the gun isn't lubed enough, or you have chamber roughness. Could also be bad mags.
 
interesting my rifle is 10.5in and the ammo is 55g mfs and this is what joe from dlask suggested when i told him of the problem
 
It depends on what the mfg. specs the gas port to. You could always open up the gas port to shoot lower pressured ammo, but you increase carrier velocity and pay with increased wear on your gun.

A "good piston" gun also kicks harder than an out of the box AR-15. It's a trade off.


It's always easier to over gas your gun than it is to tune it right. Most users won't see the increased parts breakage.
 
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I expect it to run fine... You may need to do a small o-ring upgrade to the extractor (costs ~$1 for a 12pk of the ones I buy at the hardware store... I find the MTBF is in the 5k area so I just change them out every so often)... ---There is a commercial product out there for the AR15 to do the same thing... It's like $5, but i've found the o-ring lasts MUCH longer... Still, the hardware store ones are so cheap i just dont care.

I've found that such an upgrade in combination with barrels as short as 6" and using a standard buffer tends to do the trick. I've found it to be the cheapest/easiest way to get shortys running with Wolf.
 
I've ran a couple hundred rounds of MFS 55g JHP through my AR with no failures of any kind. Is it dirty? Oh god yes its the grimiest ammo of used yet, especially with the amount of carbon that gets on the bolt tail and the sick amount of gunk on my firing pin as well. MFS is the reason why I ordered the CTR-15 carbon scraper and why i'm going to give frog lube a go in my AR and see if it makes the cleanings easier.
 
cancer said:
Expecting an AR15 to run steel ammo exclusively is like expecting someone to run a marathon on a diet of coffee and cigarettes.
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This forum seriously needs a "like" button.

However if Joe thinks it could be under gassed (gas port size/location), send it back and let him fix it.
 
cancer said:
Expecting an AR15 to run steel ammo exclusively is like expecting someone to run a marathon on a diet of coffee and cigarettes.
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I disagree. There's no reason why an AR-15 shouldn't be able to run exclusively on steel cased ammo. It does require more maintenance, as steel cased ammo is generally dirtier, but assuming you're taking proper care of your rifle, that point is moot.
 
I took that to mean that it will run, however not as well for the following reasons.
1. its dirtier
2. its under powered , at least the MFS stuff.

If you were talking about only running Hornady Steel cased then you might not have the same issues.
 
Many manufacturers (ourselves included) state right in their rifle manuals not to use steel cased ammo. There are many reasons why, most of which being quality issues related with it. Easliy 3/4 of our service complaints are directly solved with the following advice... Change your ammo.

i never understood why people buy a rifle and always choose to shoot the cheapest POS ammo they can find through it. If you just want to make noise and arent concerned with your actual results get a cap gun. At least you wont have to spend all day cleaning it afterwards.
 
Tiwaz said:
I took that to mean that it will run, however not as well for the following reasons.
1. its dirtier
2. its under powered , at least the MFS stuff.

If you were talking about only running Hornady Steel cased then you might not have the same issues.
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I've run literally thousands of rounds of MFS through a number of AR's and other .223/5.56 semis, and have never had any issues that were ammunition related.

It really depends what you're doing with it. If you're shooting a competition, or doing long range precision stuff, definitely use good ammo. If your objective is to put a few hundred rounds down range in an afternoon of plinking, get whatever is cheap and works.
 
North Eastern Arms said:
Many manufacturers (ourselves included) state right in their rifle manuals not to use steel cased ammo. There are many reasons why, most of which being quality issues related with it. Easliy 3/4 of our service complaints are directly solved with the following advice... Change your ammo.

i never understood why people buy a rifle and always choose to shoot the cheapest POS ammo they can find through it. If you just want to make noise and arent concerned with your actual results get a cap gun. At least you wont have to spend all day cleaning it afterwards.
Click to expand...

I took almost 300 hours of black rifle instruction (We're ONLY talking Black Rifle here) in the 2011 calendar year, and with all due respect I think your looking at this from the wrong angle... At less than 300yrds, there is no training that I cannot effectively do with cheap steel cased ammo that would be improved in any way with brass.

About 1/4 of the rounds I fired in 2011 during classes were SS109's or better. Another 1/4 or so were Brass PMC Bronze. The rest was Wolf or some other cheap steel cased ammo.

The point is, there's nothing that I couldn't have learned using ######xx kind of ammo, that I couldn't learn using steel cased ammo. Sure, I wont get sub MOA with steel like I would with SS109's or some match ammo... But, 3 MOA is just fine for me.

I'll never forget... A before buying a Daniel Defense M4 (I have one of the VERY VERY first off the line) I asked how they felt about steel cased ammo and if it would void my warranty. I was told that they recommended any type of factory ammo that was legal for me to own and was of the correct caliber. I then got a response which was something like, "What else would you use??!"....


I guess my point is... We're talking about a rifle being functional, vs maybe giving you long range precision during a competition. If I'm running steel cased ammo thats costing me ~$0.22/round, I dont care about sub moa results... But thats a far cry from just having a stick that makes noise.


I still like NEA and the products you're pumping out (especially your rails)... But, I'm surprised at that kind of response.
 
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