Steel vs brass school me

[mr ed]

U.S.= brass -good steel-bad
rest of world brass-weak steel-strong

Shoot it all and move on!
The throat will burn out and lead to poor accuracy long before the bullets wear out the rifling.

 

[ASP785]

U.S.= brass -good steel-bad
rest of world brass-weak steel-strong

Shoot it all and move on!
The throat will burn out and lead to poor accuracy long before the bullets wear out the rifling.

Your statement contradicts the evidence put forth in the article.

"While the carbine firing Federal ammunition maintained acceptable accuracy up to and including the 10,000 round mark, the Brown Bear and Wolf carbines exhibited significant accuracy loss by the 6,000 round mark. It is quite possible that this first started occurring earlier than 6,000 rounds, because groups at 4,000 were well within standards of 5MOA or less, while some shots at 6,000 “keyholed,” or impacted the target sideways."

"Even if we use accuracy as the only factor to determine serviceability, the Federal carbine was by far the best performer in this category. Its barrel was showing wear, but was serviceable right up to the end of the test. The Brown Bear and Wolf barrels would have required replacement at approximately 5,000 rounds, or halfway through the test.
To see accuracy results for each manufacturer at specific intervals of the testing, click through the slideshow below:"

 

[tul9033]

It also indicates that if you replace your barrel at 4K rounds it's still cheaper to shoot the steel cased stuff, look at the last chart.


Although ammunition prices are volatile, the prices of brass and steel remain similar to one another – that is, brass is generally more expensive. We created a chart comparing the cost over time of each type, including ammunition and spare parts replacement costs.

The difference in price between brass and steel cased (more specifically, copper jacketed and bimetal jacketed) ammunition means that you’ll have plenty of savings with which to buy new barrels – even if you shoot so fast that you replace them every 4,000 rounds. For this chart, brass ammunition was calculated at $130 per thousand higher than steel and replacement barrels at $250 apiece.

 

[HackerF15E]

The LuckyGunner article's points about barrel wear are about the bimetal projectile primarily -- it has nothing whatsoever to do with the material the case is made of.

In fact, the photos of the extractors in the LuckyGunner article pretty easily dispel the "steel cases will wear your extractor faster" claims.

So, the real answer here is to simply reload Tula and Wolf with non-bimetal projectiles, and all is well. I have never had any problems reloading steel cases -- no accelerated wear or damage to sizing dies or firearms, no issues with extraction or feeding, no issues with oddball case separations or other kBs.

 

[Fyrtwuck]

I try to shoot steel or aluminum cased pistol rounds at the matches I go to. I hate picking up brass and I hate losing it even more. When I shoot the steel cased stuff, it doesn't matter if I leave it behind. I go back to the range the next day with a few bags and one of those magnets on a long handle (bad back) and pick up steel pistol cases and reload them for the next match. Never had any problems (so far).