Going through a discussion with some friends and they said they would never fire steel cases ammo. My reasoning is I fire it through my work horses (mosin, sks) things that have always fired when the trigger is pulled.
This will be good...
I think most guns can be tweeked to shoot any ammo. Me and my buddy both built ARs, he spent as little as he could and I went all out and my gun will "fail to load" my steel cased Wolf ammo. His gun shoots it fine. He has a cheap, lightweight BCG and I have a heavier M16 BCG. We swapped them and my rifle fired the cheap ammo fine. Buffer springs, buffer weights, H1, H2 or H3 buffers...different BCGs...all these things will effect the proper cycling in an AR. Most people dont know there are at least 3 different wieghts of BCGs. I didnt untill I did this build.
http://www.okshooters.com/showthread.php?162765-Steel-versus-Brass
This link will provide knowledge and data about this topic.
This link will provide knowledge and data about this topic.
The casing isn't the problem so much as the bullet. GENERALLY, Brass cased ammo has higher quality bullets that are thicker jacketed in copper whereas most steel cased ammo has cheaper bullets with a thicker lead core and a thinner copper or copper alloy jacketing. Cheap steel cased ammo will lead to faster barrel wear, as well as dirtying up your upper more than brass. Those are the main things but along with faster extractor wear and the increased risk of FTF, I would stay away from it unless you have nothing else, then I would only use it in a cheap upper.
Just my .02
Just my .02
Very good reading. Thanks for posting.
How would steel cases lead to faster barrel wear? Are you talking chamber? The bullet would cause barrel wear, and unless it's a steel cored bullet or has a very hard bimetal alloy for a jacket, shouldn't make much difference in wear, I would think. It also depends on the rifle; any com-block weapon will run steel case for thousands of rounds with zero problems, whereas AR-type rifles have reportedly had less than stellar results. The "dirty" aspect is from the powder used, not the case it's loaded in. I would shy away from steel-cased .308 or 7.62x51, as I've read a few horror stories of case failures leading to kabooms with that. Then again, that too may be internet lore.
The bimetal jacket(as you stated) of the bullets often used in steel cases is what causes the increased barrel wear. If you read the link posted you will see the barrel wear is significant in high round count firearms.
Perhaps you didn't read my entire post, but the answer to your question was the first two sentences where I talked about the bullet, I didn't say the case wore the barrel down. I said the same thing you reiterated here ^
As ASP said, click and read the link if you want to know more.
Last edited:
