Why I Should Not Use Steel Cased Ammunition

[Vulcan71]

I would not use ammunition in any weapon that has a steel case or a steel based case (plated by NI, CU, brass, etc) because steel cases damage firearms. In order for the steel cases to feed correctly they need to be plated or coated and most are coated by lacquer or a special polymer that gums up chambers and causes jams.

Additionally, steel does not relax as much as brass, when the pressure drops, so there tends to be more breech friction with steel. Finally the steel case causes additional wear on the extractor. I have seen many broken extractors. In closing if steel cases are good products then why use brass at all. FYI, many ranges do not allow steel case ammunition. I would not take my word for it call the weapon manufacture and let them give you information on steel cased ammunition because it can void warranties.

In regards to some misconceptions on wolf and other brands as long as they are of modern manufacture they are non-corrosive and they are most likely boxer primed. In some cases the GP and primer is of lower quality (dirty or soot canon).

I would stay away from Tula as I found many steel cases split apart running to the case head. I sent a message to the company with the lot # by e-mail and never received a response from them. Note: I found them at a range.

Many firearm manufactures hold reliable the ammunition manufacturer if the ammunition damages the firearm so only quality firms will reimburse. Basically you get what you pay for.

Steel is usually used during a material shortage during war time or if the price of brass goes up to a point where consumers will buy at a price point.

I hope this helps people and saves many firearms.

[Aggrotech]

I'm pretty sure there are people who have used it with no problems at all (pistols and rifles). For anyone who is interested, watch this video about steel cased ammo. It's aimed at the "Wolf" brand fired from an AR, but it's informative none the less.

[Vulcan71]

Up-date
IN AR-15 & AR-10 semi-auto rifles with barrel lengths less then 20" you will have problems with steel ammo due to timing issues with the gas blow-back system on the bolt carrier (there are rare exceptions). Since steel does not expand and contract as quickly as brass you will have more blow back into the bolt carrier. This will happen with semi-auto pistols in the chamber as well since steel cannot seal as well as brass.

[Delmustator]

My 2 cents...

I had concerns about Wolf ammo in the FS2000. So I purchased a box of 60 and carefully checked each round as I fired them. I found no marks or other signs of problems. The ammo fired flawlessly in the FS2000.

Now in my AK47, I did have a single failure ejecting the casing in 300 rounds fired. I'm not sure exactly what happened. The round was pulled from the chamber but failed to eject clear before the next round was chambered. This of course caused a jam. After the session during cleaning, I found some sort of crud in the ejector area. It kinda looked like storage goo. It took a dental pick and cotton swabs to get it all out. I'll test this again the next time I'm at the range.

P.S. Although I cleaned the AK before going to the range. I didn't notice this goo stuff until I inspected the bolt in detail. It very well could have been goo from when it was in storage (or just plain dirt).

[Pooprocket]

I don't intend to make a habit of it, but I just put 80 rounds of berdan primed, steel cased, lacquer coated Brown Bear .223 through my FS2000. When I got home I stripped and cleaned the rifle. There were no signs of wear on the extractor. This carbine has only seen 100 rounds including this Brown Bear. Additional there really wasn't a whole lot of cleaning required. This suprised me, as I was told the lacquer was going to make a mess of the gun.

As I said, I wouldn't make a habit of shooting crap ammo, but I wouldn't go as far as say I would never shoot it out of any weapon.

[SgtStrykerUSMC43]

With all due respect to MAC, I'll stand on personal experience and stay away from steel cased ammunition. Especially from Russia.

The AR platform, as well as many other weapons we shoot are designed to function with brass cased ammunition. Moving to any brand steel cased ammunition invites premature wear and subjects the internal components to stresses which they weren't designed for.

The steel cased ammunition blows out to chamber dimensions, as does the brass, what it doesn't do, as is the case with the brass counterpart, is relax as rapidly. The steel case remains locked to the chamber walls for a longer duration and that's why steel cased ammunition causes malfunctions and the tell-tale marks we see on the rim of the cartridge case.

The Colt M4 gas port diameter is reduced on the carbine variant The engineers understood the fact they've moved the port closer to the spike in the pressure curve during the firing cycle, when compared to the full sized M16. What the shorter gas system lacks in gas volume, is made up with by using pressure instead - when compared to the chamber/port/muzzle distance relationship of its bigger brother.

.02