Those of that opinion are quick to reference extractor breakage or failure, especially in the AR-15/M16 platforms. The firearm can be functional and perfect, but it can also be damaged, faulty, or even outright broken, or non-functional. Steel case ammo is cheaper to shoot and generally works well in most firearms, but does have some downsides. Bulk purchases of non-standard ammunition support a wide variety of U.S. military assistance programs, as well. If you believed the hype (as did I), the mere thought of using such trash would surely destroy your gun. One of them is the excellent LuckyGunner test. God I hate ammo snobs. Steel cased ammo is not bad for AR-15s. It is only bad for people who suck at math. People will claim that the steel will w Ammo Deals: ZSR Ammunition 9mm 124 Grain FMJ 1000 Rounds $259.99 FREE S&H, AR-15 Barrel Length Does It Even Matter? As for the increased wear on the barrel, my logic is that I will have saved plenty of money by shooting steel cased ammo that I could buy a new barrel and still be ahead. Why would shooters pick steel-cased rounds over standard ammo? In my own experience, the accuracy of steel cased ammo in my rifles really is not that much worse than lower-end brass cased ammo. This causes carbon build up between the case and the chamber wall. Should be fine for plinking and I can't see how it would hurt a quality firearm. Price. You can reload them. Steel is less dense than lead. At what point is the marginal product maximum? YouTube - Store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen - 2. The bullet traps are not designed to handle steel bullets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bzPRtn29u0, Spotting Scope for 1000 Yards: How to Achieve Maximum Accuracy, 209 Primers for Muzzleloaders: The Best Ones for Your Gun, This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar, 2022 Yestactical.com We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. But dont get me wrong, they arent over-gassed to the point of negatively impacting performance. The good news is that it seems as though demand might have peaked. Cartridges or shells of ammo are referred to as casings, not bullets. In a nutshell, steel-cased ammo is good to go. I had to add that it was my first break-in session so the gun was brand new, but the very next session I used all brass cased ammo with not a single feed failure. Some firearms have no problem with using aluminum cases, while others may experience damage. Steel cased ammo is said to be less expensive and brass cased ammunition more reliable. Ive reloaded a few 9mm boxer primed steel cases and they work fine. @jh45gun Your statement above non bi-metallic seems to be saying that the case is bi-metallic. Another advantage of steel casings is that cartridges are extracted more efficiently than brass casings. My Blog does steel cased ammo hurt your gun The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Communism only made one thing that works, and capitalism can make it even better. Mac, Sounds like a good argument - until you remember that the steel in your chamber is MUCH harder than the Scopes, guns, boots and other tactical stuff in-between. What does it mean when your boyfriend takes long to reply? For most people, it doesnt really matter at all. Envision the contact surfaces with the chamber as the cartridge case is being extracted. The general rule for steel-cased ammo is high-pressure loads in straight-walled cases tend to have more extraction problems than high-pressure loads in tapered cases or lower-pressure loads in straight-walled cases. This is because brass cased ammo can be reloaded multiple times, and it is possible to reload ammo for around the same price per round as steel cased ammo can be bought. Aluminum is a softer metal than lead, so it will not produce as accurate a bullet as lead. Keep in mind that it is going to foul pretty quickly with steel cased ammo. An example of commercial, Russian-made steel-cased, but non-corrosive 7.62x54mm ammunition. Another good reason, and maybe the best reason you cant shoot steel ammo at the range, is that the bi-metal or steel bullets will damage the floor, walls, and ceiling and can damage the bullet traps. I have shot some 9mm in my my SW M&P and my SW 3913, not a lot but some. Personally I do not use steel case ammo in ARs. This is because most steel-cased ammo uses a mild steel core, and is difficult for ranges to differentiate from armor-piercing steel-core ammo which would Don't worry, AKs won't get hurt by the steel case. Despite its rarity, some gun ranges still prohibit steel-cased ammunition. The biggest disadvantage of brass ammo was its cost and lack of availability in certain countries. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. It will still bend and deform under pressure, just like regular aluminum. The steel load printed a few inches higher than the brass load, most likely because it chronographed 60 fps faster. They do not wish to deal with these issues mentioned above. On the other hand, the 9 mm, especially in military loads, is twice the pressure of the .45 ACP. My experience with steel cased ammo in a Mosen Nagant was the coating was heated up with the explosion of the round in the chamber melting the coating and after a few rounds you couldnt get a round to chamber because there was too much coating in the chamber. During World War 1, countries such as Germany experienced a shortage of brass as a raw material and looked to using steel cased ammo as an alternative. In the end, workers will have to do some cleaning. I seen problems with stuck cases in AR type rifles. The gun spits the cartridge out after every fire as it goes through the cycle of re-chambering another round. Sometimes these cases will stick so severely that it is difficult to remove them even with a cleaning rod. The steel used is a very soft mild steel vs. the very hard feed ramp and chamber. The primary, and really only, benefit of shooting steel cased ammo is the price. That using such ammunition is dangerous and will also void the manufacturers warranty. Thus you have less blowback into the chamber and the receiver. The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net to collect statistical data such as the number of visits, average time spent on site, and what pages have been loaded, for targeted advertising. Americans first got a taste for steel-cased rounds when China began exporting its arms and ammo to the US in the 1980s. Another often overlooked advantage is the spent cartridge cases can be policed up with a magnet. You will find in most firearms manuals (if you read them) a sentence stating something like: such and such firearm company does not recommend using re-loaded or re-manufactured ammunition in the handgun. Using gas-powered cycling systems on firearms makes the extraction less effective. Enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and, Read More 5 Helpful Tips for Disabled ShootersContinue, Getting a new gun is not the easiest thing. Today we only have to wait one week to get the opposite answer to what they just said yesterday. Ive met many talented shooters with disabilities. I would sure hope not as they did issue steel case GI .45 during WW-2. Though lead core bullets deliver a quick and humane blow to big game animals, they do so at the cost of lead fragmenting throughout the wound tract. Aluminum cases are less expensive to produce than brass cases, so they are often used in budget-friendly ammunition. I shot thousands of rounds of it in AKs SKS with out trouble. Steel cases may be more likely to get stuck in the chamber, particularly in lightly-extracting guns like the AR-15. Its a small price to pay for the substantial savings steel ammunition provides over brass cased ammunition. How do you handle misunderstandings between you and your special someone? TimesMojo is a social question-and-answer website where you can get all the answers to your questions. A new and innovative take on an AR-15 compatible rifle. Does putting water in a smoothie count as water intake? On the other hand, the 9 mm, especially in military loads, is twice the pressure of the .45 ACP. Which Teeth Are Normally Considered Anodontia. Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . So experiment a little and see which type works best for you! No, not for any well made gun. In addition, there may be surplus ammunition from other countries that have higher lead prices than the United States. Only issue I have heard, working in a LGS: Some guys where rapid firing a Glock 22 and apparently the TULAMMO they were shooting is coated with laquer and it gummed up the chamber after the gun got hot. For now on I will stick to brass cased ammo only. Does steel cased ammo damage your gun? This can, however, be compensated with coating, but some worry that this coating could build up in your firearm and create long-term issues. It does not store any personal data. My best guess at the time was that it was because the rangers only wanted the brass ammo, which they could recycle; they could resell and make money off of. Also, I have found it easier to find steel cased ammo as opposed to brass-cased ammo on store shelves. It should be noted that the rule about the use of steel core ammo can also be applied to outdoor ranges. The ammunition was mostly manufactured by Tula Cartridge Plant in Tula, Tula District, Russia from 2005 to 2009. 4500 15th Street East Well, there are a couple of good reasons. Opinions vary, but I think the prevailing wisdom is that Yes, steel cased ammunition is hard on extractors. Small amounts of propellant gasses are able to get between the case and chamber and foul the chamber walls. With a price tag well below the average cost of American-made brass-cased ammo, many American shooters on a budget gobbled up the ammo in droves. Feel free to reach out to us or read our affiliate disclosure and privacy policy. Another often overlooked advantage is the spent cartridge cases can be policed up with a magnet. Having said that, I don't use it in my high end guns, doubleclick.net - browser supports cookies. I just burn mine in my Rem 700. The direct-impingement AR-15 can be ammo sensitive especially when not ran, wet. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Cases made of steel cannot be reloaded, so they must be thrown away. So, there is no benefit to using cast aluminum over regular aluminum when making bullets. There are two reasons ranges sometimes ban steel-cased ammo: They do not wish to deal with these I told them to switch to brass and all was fine thereafter. The benefits in favor of steel-cased ammo are mostly economic, making it cheaper to shoot than conventional brass offerings. Your Arsenal build will be fine with it. Also, some of the steel cased ammo is now polymer coated. This grit and mess gets between the case and chamber wall and acts like sand paper. 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Not only I suggest trying a box or two before buying a large quantity. Is there a difference between steel cased and brass cased ammo? Jim is one of the elite editors for AmmoLand.com, who in addition to his mastery of prose, can wield a camera with expert finesse. Theres nothing wrong with Russian steel-cased ammo, other than it smells like somebody has thrown a cat on a trash fire. Pretty sure that anyone reading the article, especially this bunch would know that. As stated above, as long as it's softer than the steel parts that are coming in contact with it then there shouldn't be a problem, should there? A variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. bigdogbuc Banned Joined Mar 22, 2012 2,112 Posts Also you will notice a lot of lacquer coating all the parts and this over time can cause a malfunction. The extractor may be the first part to show wear, but the wear is going on nonetheless. To me, this is not a big problem because I regularly clean my rifle. If youre worried about it, though, you may want to stick with brass-cased rounds. Its more trouble than its worthalthough it is possible, especially with boxer-primed cases. There is no other way to put it. A shell contains a firing primer and gunpowder. Most if not all of this ammo uses a copper coated steel jacketed bi-metal bullet which increases wear on the barrel. He also likes to take his kids shooting as often as possible. It is not uncommon to find steel-cased ammunition made in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union using steel-core bullets, which are steel slugs encased in a thin layer of lead. Perhaps the biggest drawback to steel-cased ammo is that it is not easily reloadable. Any sparks from a steel round might also spark a fire, which is more likely. list of mortuary science schools in kenya. Is it safe for my gun? It caused alot of feed problems in my Kimber Ultra Carry II 3". Steel rounds can even cause damage to targets, rail lines and cables. Also, they dont want steel mixed with that for obvious reasons. Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile. Some guns have steel casings because steel holds up better than brass. (Video) HERE'S WHY YOU CAN'T SHOOT STEEL CASED Not really it always says that its Berdan primed, not Boxer. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. What are the pros and cons for steel shell cases, more specifically, Winchesters USA-Forged 9 mm, 115-grain (Item WIN9S), 150-round pack? So, not only is it a sustainable material, but it also has a minimal impact on the environment. But is there really a difference between the two types of ammunition, particularly over a long period of time? The issue I had with steel was I experienced a hard lock almost every 60 rounds or so, which required a hammer and steel rod to rectify, as you all know. Brass, being less hard than steel, will spring back to a smaller dimension than a steel case will after firing. Although the 5.56 NATO cartridge is slightly tapered, it is not nearly as forgiving as the 7.62x39 mm in a dirty chamber during extraction. I was told that it would tend to wear the ejector quicker because it was harder than brass. Some ranges may also ban aluminum cases for the same reason. Sometimes the cases will be sticky, though, and will be harder to eject. Yeah, I also have shot Tulammo from Russia with the steel casings.