I have been shooting .223/5/56 Wolf WPA Polyformance and Wolf Military Classic Steel case ammo for awhile now. This ammo my be in either box style, military classic or performance but the ammo is the same. I also shoot cheap brass ammo when I can afford it (Federal and Wolf Gold Brass).
What I was wondering is, what's the difference (the steel ammo), if any, between the .223 VS 5.56 in the FPS (feet per second) area? Also, is one caliber better than the other when target shooting?
I have always just shot whichever was sent to me, but, never really thought about the specifics.
Also, how does TULAMMO steel case ammo compare to the Wolf steel ammo?

Does anyone here, besides me, buy WOLF ammo?

Wolf doesn't make their own ammo, they are just a brand. They buy ammo made in other countries and have it packaged and labeled to their own specs. The Wolf Gold .223 55 gr. FMJ they are selling right now, for example, is made in Taiwan and is brass-cased and is as good as Winchester's and Federal's loadings of the same round and bullets. I've shot a good bit of it. If I didn't load my own magazines, I couldn't tell one of the three brands from the others by shooting it. While much of their steel case ammo is made in Russia, much of it is made elsewhere in Europe or Asian countries and all Russian-made ammo isn't good stuff.

Shooters here in the U.S are divided on using steel case ammo in guns other than those made in current or former Communist bloc countries, like the SKS and AK variants. I have known shooters who have had great experiences with steel case .223/5.56 ammo in AR-15 type rifles and seen others not able to get it to run more than a few rounds before they get failures to extract. Frustrating to them when they have paid money for a school or are way out in the sticks on a shoot and their guns won't shoot their ammo. I won't shoot any steel case ammo in any of my rifles except those in 7.62 X 39, but maybe I'm just jaundiced to it from what I have seen some others experience with it.

"Hello, my name is Buff, and I shoot Wolf ammo. Sometimes."

I shoot steel case all the time. BUFF is correct. Wolf is only a name. Its a trademark of Sporting Supplies International (SSI), a US corporation.

Most of Wolf is made by Tula. There is a difference in FPS but usually because it's downloaded.

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WOLF Performance has cut ties with Tula Cartridge Works quite a few years back. They now contract with JSC Barnaul for the steel cased ammo for both their black box WPA and Military Classic lines.

Unlike most folks these days, I shoot my .223 ammo at paper out of a single shot rifle. It has an extractor only and not an ejector. That being said, I shoot a good bit of steel cased .223 because I can get it for under $6 a box of 20. I have found the steel cartridges, whether poly coated or enamel coated, perform about the same for me for my simple 100 yard needs.

Be aware that most of the steel .223 is made at various Russian plants, and the primers tend to be very hard. They are not 100% reliable due to rare but periodic primer strikes that fail to detonate the primer. If you want to step up a notch, the Wolf Gold, as mentioned above, is made in Taiwan and is both brass cased and boxer primed. It in no way is affiliated with the Wolf steel cartridges, other than being labeled Wolf.

any thoughts good, bad or indifferent to quality of Wolf Gold brass? Are you getting satisfactory number of reloadings, say 4 or 5?

The trick to shooting steel case ammo in an AR-15 is to upgrade the extractor spring.

BCM SOPMOD Bolt Upgrade/Rebuild Kit

I haven't tried to reload any Wolf Gold brass yet.

Wolf steel case ammo is descent but it has caused extractor chips in the M1 Carbine after about 800 - 1000 rounds. The new USGI extractors are readily available for $5 bucks each and the savings on each 50 round box of ammo is way more than that! Bottom line is I just get a few extra extractors to keep on hand. No other harm or irregularities have been noticed after thorough inspections.

The Chronograph results on the Wolf ammo clocks about 100 fps (5%) lower than the USGI spec's but for punching holes in paper it has proven to be reliable, relatively clean burning, consistent and affordable. Just have a few extra extractors on hand and at least in the case of the M1 Carbine the extractor changing tool and you will be OK.

You're not the first person to mention this but from all the metallurgical testing I've seen on the steel cases shows that's it's actually softer than brass

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I don't care about the steel case but I do worry about shooting it if it has the bi-metal bullets. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but some of those bullets have a thin steel jacket with a copper wash over it.

Think copper jacket

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I've shot lots of TULA, which is much lower quality than Wolf. As long as you are not doing thousand round mag dumps in a single session shooting, it's not going to have any negative impact

The .308 Win/7.62 ammo the U.S. military buys and shoots has a steel jacketed bullet with a copper outer. It's soft steel and never touches the bore of the gun. Doesn't wear a barrel any more than commercial bullets with lead core and copper jacket.

There is actually a "review"(Torture test) somewhere where they did a 10,000 round test with three steel cased rounds with Bi-metal bullets and an fmj from Federal I believe. The FMJ still shot reasonably well where the other barrels were al shot out. The wolf and Brown Bear had noticeable drop in accuracy in under 6,000 rds even keyholed. The Tula just wouldn't function well in the Bushmaster rifle they had selected so the had to switch to a different rifle which did perform ok. Found it, follow the link if your interested.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/bras...el-cased-ammo/

Well, it looks like I will continue to buy/use WOLF ammo. According to the results of this test, it looks like a lot of people are wasting their money on the high $ brass ammo.
BTW, I posted a PSA ammo special on Federal .223 ammo. It comes out to .20 cents per round. And yes, I ordered some.

That's 10k rounds in one day!?!? Think about that for a min. Military rifles get their barrels changed if they shoot that in a day. Some get them changed if they shoot a thousand rounds too fast

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wow. I'd have to be threatened with being over-run by rabid man-eating ground squirrels to be shooting 10,000 rounds in one day.

I've had good luck with Wolf Gold and I would buy it again. Not the most accurate but better that average for plinking.

Yeah, that test was nuts. Of course a barrel will wear that quick if you are doing mag dumps. If you are a weekend shooter and put 200 round or so of bi-metal bullets downrange in a session, it's not going to hurt anything