Steel cased ammo in your average AR? Any reason not to?

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pavmentsurfer

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Im wondering if there are any reasons NOT to run steel cased ammo through your average AR. Ive got a Ruger SR-556... I like to shoot alot and I dont reload. Other than reloading, is there any reason brass is better for the gun?

Just curious, ive run alot of steel cased through my 1911 and my old VZ-58 with no issues but I figured it was worth asking.
 
pavmentsurfer said:
Im wondering if there are any reasons NOT to run steel cased ammo through your average AR. Ive got a Ruger SR-556... I like to shoot alot and I dont reload. Other than reloading, is there any reason brass is better for the gun?

Just curious, ive run alot of steel cased through my 1911 and my old VZ-58 with no issues but I figured it was worth asking.
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Brass is reloadable. I've heard stories on both ends, personally I have never run steel but I can't see how steel will hurt it.
 
Thought that for a long time until i ran 220 rounds of copper wash chinese ammo in my NM M1A... Now i have 4K of 7.62X51 stock for next summer, only stupid peoples dont change their mind... JP.
 
The steel used in steel cased ammo is quite soft so it's not like your beating 2 hammers together, IMO there's no issues using steel cased ammo if you so choose.
 
Great, thanks guys. Tulammo has cheap steel cased .223... seems like it might be a good place to turn for cheap ammo now that china went full retard on us.
 
Bimetal jackets will wear out a .223 bore much faster than copper jacketed ammo. I'll dig up the link, but basically there was a test done with 4 brand new shrubmaster carbines each firing 10k of a specific ammo. One rifle was fed Federal while the other three sucked on a diet of bimetal. The rifle firing Federal copper jacketed ammo was showing wear at 10k rds but could still hold a group together. The others were tumbling bullets before 7k rds. This was done with full cap mags and heating the rifles up running them like $3 hookers. As for steel cased ammo, it seemed to wear out extractors a little sooner but for the price of a spare and the service life you still get, it was negligible. If you keep your rifle reasonably cool I could see you getting decent life out of the barrel. But it will need replacement sooner than a rifle fed copper jacketed ammo.

*edit* found it
h ttp://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

And to add, a 7.62 bore is far more resistant to bimetal jackets for multiple reasons. The land width is much greater than that of .223, bore surface area is greater, velocity is lower etc. This is why an X39 rifle can take a hammering of bimetal ammo that would ream your .223 out to a smoothbore, and still have nice sharp rifling.
 
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supernova said:
Bim
And to add, a 7.62 bore is far more resistant to bimetal jackets for multiple reasons. The land width is much greater than that of .223, bore surface area is greater, velocity is lower etc. This is why an X39 rifle can take a hammering of bimetal ammo that would ream your .223 out to a smoothbore, and still have nice sharp rifling.
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Thanks for mentioning that. I totally forgot about the 7.62 having a minimal issue with bimetal.
 
On another topic, I've fired steel match ammo through my Rob Arm M96; which basically eats up brass cased ammo without a hiccup; but the steel cased ammo just wouldn't work. Not to say it wouldn't work in another rifle, but it seems to be very much more sticky than brass case ammo.
 
Some steel cased ammo (especially older stuff) has a lacquer coating on it. It hasn't happened to me but I have read accounts of the lacquer melting when the ammo is rapid fired. It gums up the chamber but basically just meant the chamber needed a good scrubbing afterwards. Some of the newer steel cased ammo (like Wolf) has a polymer coating which solves this problem and enhances feeding/extraction.
 
ChrisAlston said:
I've shot a fair bit of the MFS steel cased ammo in my Norc AR and Tavor. Works just fine.
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Agreed, it does work just fine, as in function.
But the polymer/lacquer buildup still exists, which isn't a big deal if you clean it out periodically.
Mind you, by the time someone shoots out their barrel with steel-cased ammo, they would have saved more than enough money versus brass-cased, to pay for another barrel.
For me the reloading aspect is why I stick to brass.
 
ted_dent said:
Some steel cased ammo (especially older stuff) has a lacquer coating on it. It hasn't happened to me but I have read accounts of the lacquer melting when the ammo is rapid fired. It gums up the chamber but basically just meant the chamber needed a good scrubbing afterwards. Some of the newer steel cased ammo (like Wolf) has a polymer coating which solves this problem and enhances feeding/extraction.
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That is a common misconception .....problem is actually steel case when fired does not seal against the chamber walls as well and lets by a bit off gas

There is a ton of info on "steel case sealing chamber" if you google it

Here is an example after couple hundred rounds of Wolf 7.62X39 shot out of a piston AR

It keeps building up in chamber ( ejection gets sluggish ) and periodically sticks to the case and this gets ejected ( partially ! )

wolf-6.jpg


I only had one that stuck the case , but in all fairness ejection became more sluggish but I ended up firing another 30 or so before it finally stuck a case

The residue is not "gummy lacquer " and actually flakes off easily

One pass with a large bore brush cleans it out

I don't hesitate to shoot 223 steel case out of my AR's
 
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