Steel case ammo and Steel Match

[Rossignol]

Yet another piece of ammunition I'm delving into.

Shooter had mentioned he had been firing steel case ammo through his Olympic Arms AR for quite some time and Oli through his Mini 14.

I think the misconception may be that the steel case can damage aluminum feed ramps and extractors over time, and yet I find no validated reports of this on the interwebz.

Steel case ammo is typically much less expensive than comparable .223 or 5.56 loads in brass or nickel plated cases. There are some I personally have a hard time with purchasing simply because they are Russian made; like TulAmmo, Brown/Silver/Golden Bear. There is another but you may end up paying for the name, Hornady Steel Match.

Modern steel case ammo is laquer coated and reportedly feeds and extracts reliably, though it may not be as clean as traditional ammunition.

Is anyone able to comment? Does it mean more cleaning, are their any other inheirant issues with steel case ammo that we havent considered here?

I'm grateful for any insight we can add for the benefit of MO!!!

 

[oli700]

For me the good outweighs the bad.

The bad being that it is a little dirtier…..people make it sound like you need a jackhammer to clean it but in reality it might take a half of a cap more of solvent and 4 more patches and 5 more minutes at worst. The other bad is when you get the chamber super hot the lacquer coated stuff might stick in you. I have had this only once, all I did was put my right hand on the bolt handle and slam the butt on the ground forcing the ejection of the stuck case and started firing again….don’t know what you have to do to an AR with a case stuck in the chamber ? Can’t reload it if that is your thing.

The good is the price, the accuracy is not match but better than battle accurate. I wouldn’t run it trying to make nice groups, although it’s decent within 50 yards and I can consistently hit a 10” gong at 100 yards with the iron sights. It is awesome for getting to know your rifle and training. Perfect for plinking and I think it would be great ammo to stalk up on for hard times. Good if you plan on waging war with you bad ass AR.

I would like to see how the zinc coated cases run . Sometimes if a recoil spring isn’t strong enough or the bolt is real dirty the action slows a little as it strips a cartridge out of the magazine because the steel case isn’t as slick as brass. The zinc coating is supposed to be slick like brass and is only a couple of bucks more than the lacquer coated case. I have noticed the action slow down before but it hasn’t affected my rifle ina way were it resulted in a failure of any kind, don’t know what it would do in an AR either ?

I say go for it just to get more time on your gun

 

[megawatt]

I think most of the anti steel comments started by AR vs AK, or Nato vs Communist, or good gusy vs bad guys, however you want to draw the comparison. In short it was a "our equipment is better than theirs" and it would be bad to not stay with the home team design. I doubt a premium ammunition maker like Hornaday would make steel case ammo if it was going to damage firearms like the internet gurus say it will.

Spend some time on any gun forum and you will easily find these similar comments....
Good guys use AR's, bad guys use AK's
Good guys use brass, bad guys use steel
Good guys ammo is accurate, bad guys ammo is inaccurate
Good guys use quality brass, bad guys use rusty steel

 

[SHOOTER13]

Most modern steel cased ammo is now Polymer coated...because of the problems the lacquer was causing...

Wolf, Tula, Golden Bear / Tiger, Ulyanovsk...even Hornady all now use polymer to coat their steel cased ammo. Wolf even has a brass line, for diehards who still believe steel cased ammo is hard on their firearms.

The current reason for not allowing steel-cased ammunition on some ranges is that they are unable to re-sell the berdan-primed steel cases for reloading, which can be an important source of revenue.
The bullets the steel cased ammo fire do no more damage than the brass cased bullets do to the backstops of the indoor ranges.

 

[nitesite]

Most modern steel cased ammo is now Polymer coated...because of the problems the lacquer was causing...

Wolf, Tula, Golden Bear / Tiger, Ulyanovsk...even Hornady all now use polymer to coat their steel cased ammo. Wolf even has a brass line, for diehards who still believe steel cased ammo is hard on their firearms.

The current reason for not allowing steel-cased ammunition on some ranges is that they are unable to re-sell the berdan-primed steel cases for reloading, which can be an important source of revenue.
The bullets the steel cased ammo fire do no more damage than the brass cased bullets do to the backstops of the indoor ranges.

This.

Polymer coating is like a thin clearcoat and is NOT the old lacquer coating as was typically found on WOLF .223, 9mm, and 7.62x39 ammo of ten years ago. Polymer coating on steel cases does not "melt" in your chamber (and the lacquer very, very RARELY ever did at that).

Wolf still markets and sells lacquer coated ammo, which they label as "Classic" ammo in a camo looking 20-rd box.

It isn't bad stuph, even if you get your gun pretty hot.

Rossi~~~~~~~~~~

What AR-type weapon do you have that has aluminum feed ramps? I've seen aluminum-framed 1911s that compensated for ramp wear by having fully-ramped steel barrels so the bullet never touches the aluminum frame. But the AR-15s I've come across have cartridges which make a direct contact with the chamber opening of a steel barrel using either NATO or Wylde or other feed ramps, and have no contact with any aluminum.

I have seen steel-jacketed lead core bullets that had a copper plating on them to help prevent barrel bore wear, and I would personally stay away from that schmidt.

Steel is hit and miss and I just reload my pretty brass stuph and don't get weirded out by steel component ammo.

 

[Rossignol]

You know... Youre absolutely right NiteSite! ImatotalnOOb...

I had to look, but just as you described, the steel feed ramp is integral to the barrel on both my LightWeight Springer with aluminum alloy frame, and my OA AR. I hadnt looked closely enough at the AR even while cleaning to notice the feed ramps, and only thought to look through the ejection port after the fact. Sorry!

So, anyone else there tryin to figure this out for the first time, by all means, feel free to learn from my mistakes!

In the very least, that "shoots" down my concerns about wear to those parts of a firearm and that arguement against steel case ammo!

So, I guess thenext question is;
Is it worth the cost? That falls into two catagories I think. Something like TulAmmo is about the least expensive stuff out there compared to Hornady Steel Match which isnt as expensive as traditional "match" ammo (like Sierra Match King) but closer in price to maybe VMax or TAP/Critical Defense.

The philosophies differ as well. The TA ammo can be fired all day long and save some coin but I believe is a pretty decent target ammo.

Heres a decent read on the TA, steel case ammo vs. Federal brass cases through identical firearms;
TulAmmo® Steel-cased Cartridges in the AR15 Platform
By
Wil Rice, Gunsmith
Anderson Manufacturing

Still reading...

 

[Rossignol]

I picked up a couple 20 round boxes of TulAmmo. I dont mind tryin em out.

I'll bench the rifle and see what kind of groups I can produce. The steel case stuff can def lower the price per round curve! The brass I've been buyin, (Federal Lake City M193 Ball, and AETac both in 55 gr.) averages me around .45 cents per round. Throw in a couple boxes of steel case ammo and the average is closer to .41 cents.

I know reloading can impact this further, but I havent been able to take the leap on the initial set up costs as of yet. I've had people checkin out swap meets for me for reloading equipment...

For the reloaders, steel case ammo is a big negative however.