Steel Case Ammo vs Brass Case?

[LouisianaJoe]

A friend asked me about using steel cased ammo in his guns. I did some searching and I found what I consider a good article on the subject.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

The steel cased ammo also had a bimetal (steel and copper) jacket which appeared to cause more barrel wear.

The conclusion was that even if you include the costs of replacing barrels with the cost of the ammo, it is still cheaper to shoot steel. This may be true for plinking, but I would not use steel ammo in a target gun.

Another issue was that they did not clean the guns during the 10,000 rounds that they used in them.

 

[Arik]

This will stir up arguments lol.

In general I find steel case to be perfectly fine. Have never had problems in any guns ive shot it in. ARs, AKs, Glocks, 3rd gen Smiths, HKs, CZs, 1911s, even old German Lugers.

Of course you dont use em for target shooting. They arnt ment for that and neither is a lot of brass cased ammo.

However there are firearms that just dont like steel ammo.

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[jaykellogg]

Some of the early Tula had a lacquer finish over the steel. This would melt in the hot chamber and transfer to the chamber. Curiously, it caused a problem if you later used brass cartridges, they would stick in the chamber. Also, I don't believe steel seals as well at the neck of the casing, I get dirtier chambers in my AR with steel. i will still use it, but you have to remember to clean the chamber with a chamber brush. I have a chromed chamber and barrel, That hard chrome is harder than steel casings so no worry about premature wear. I have a steel cleaning rod I use for stuck casings. I have only had one so far.

 

[BlueOvalBandit]

Its not the lacquer that melts it's just the carbon build up in the chamber from the lack of obituration of the steel case necks. I've tried melting it once before, it doesn't work.


The lucky gunner test is kind of skewed. Who shoots their rifles until the hand guards are too hot to hold?


Anyway, our (US made) 7.62 Nato 147gr ball uses a bimetal jacket from what I've found. First discovered it in WWB then took a magnet with me during a range day and lo and behold it was magnetic too.


I think most of the barrel wear is the result of powder errosion as opposed to the bullet. Russian powder isn't the greatest in the world.

 

[Arik]

The lucky gunner test is kind of skewed. Who shoots their rifles until the hand guards are too hot to hold?
.

I do!

They are not target bench rifles. Why would someone shoot a round a minute?

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[mkk41]

Keep in mind that the US used steel cased 45 ACP and 30 Carbine ammo toward the end of WWII.

Back in the 90s , a place in KY was reimporting/selling USGI steel cased 45 ACP ammo we sent to Russia , made by the Evansville Chrysler/Sunbeam corp in '42-'44. 900rd 'spam cans' (42rd boxes with Cyrillic lettering) for $99 shipped to my door. We ran dozens of cans thru my friends Thompson.

 

[Smitty357]

My AK is the only thing i own that gets Steel case.

Reason being is the AR can be picky on what it eats. The AK on the other hand will eat the kitchen sink if u try to shove it down its throat.

 

[mkk41]

PS/BTW; the original Wolf ammo had lacquered cases but a darn near pure copper jacketed bullet and it was pretty accurate , but dirty stuff.