Steel case ammo

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  • jollymon

    Active Member
    Dec 6, 2016
    852
    Now in Tennessee ,
    I've shot it in my AK's figured it was made for it. Never had a problem but I've been seeing Steel case 9mm , 556 , and 300 Black Out , So has anyone been shooting in 9mm in a Glock or 556 in any AR and has it worked out.
     

    DENWA

    Active Member
    May 5, 2008
    272
    All my Glocks hate them.

    My Ruger P89 has never jammed ever and it eats them like they are free candy
     

    guzma393

    Active Member
    Jan 15, 2020
    736
    Severn, MD
    Runs dirty but they go bang with decent accuracy. A number of indoor ranges don't allow them due to the bi-metal jacket pill. Experienced a couple of stuck cases in my ruger ar556, but keep the chamber clean and you shouldn't run any issues. Prolong use mainly wears out the extractor faster compared to running brass case, but that's an easy fix. It was worth it when it was dirt cheap, but those days are over now/

    It's also worth noting that they have hard primers (berdan primers) and are underpowered. These factors are the reasons why some guns don't like them.
     

    Meditator

    Active Member
    Dec 9, 2007
    558
    Bethesda MD
    The Russian steel-cased 9mm like Wolf, Tula, Brown/ silver bear worked fine in my Glock 9mm, Sig P226, Ruger. Even worked fine in my PTR9. It's iffy in my P01 however.

    The old Ulyvanovski was very accurate in Glock 24 (40) although it had a few hard primer.

    The Wolf 45acp had some hard primer on my G30 but not other from the same lot, my FNX45 fed all w/ no issue.

    I wouldn't use the Winchester or Maxx Tech steel cased however, since they are VERY weak and barely extracted.

    I shoot mostly 556 steel-cased out of my AR: Bushmaster, PSA, RRA, Ruger - probably over thousands of rounds now through each one with no issue. I usually lubed the BCG wet. AUG, Tavor SAR, CZ Bren, SLR106, ACE - only several hundred but no issue. My Saiga 556 however didn't like steel-cased ammo.
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    All my Glocks hate them.

    My Ruger P89 has never jammed ever and it eats them like they are free candy

    My glocks eat them fine.

    Not accurate in any gun I own except my 24” Grendel AR and my Howa (and there only maybe 2.5MOA). Runs dirty.

    Otherwise I don’t have functionality issues in any gun I own. .223, 9mm .45 .308 6.5G or 7.62x39
     

    jollymon

    Active Member
    Dec 6, 2016
    852
    Now in Tennessee ,
    Runs dirty but they go bang with decent accuracy. A number of indoor ranges don't allow them due to the bi-metal jacket pill. Experienced a couple of stuck cases in my ruger ar556, but keep the chamber clean and you shouldn't run any issues. Prolong use mainly wears out the extractor faster compared to running brass case, but that's an easy fix. It was worth it when it was dirt cheap, but those days are over now/

    It's also worth noting that they have hard primers (berdan primers) and are underpowered. These factors are the reasons why some guns don't like them.

    Your right about the prices the stuff I have was bought some time ago and those days are gone as you said , I just looked around and it is still cheaper than brass ammo but way more than what I paid for it , I only got some because it was stupid cheap .
     
    I only shhot steel case at indoor ranges where I can't harvest my brass. Other that it being substantially dirtier never had an issue with steel pistol calibers. Tula 556 however has given me much grief. It causes FTF issues in most of my ARs when brass functions flawlessly.
     

    guzma393

    Active Member
    Jan 15, 2020
    736
    Severn, MD
    Your right about the prices the stuff I have was bought some time ago and those days are gone as you said , I just looked around and it is still cheaper than brass ammo but way more than what I paid for it , I only got some because it was stupid cheap .

    I run solely brass cased ammo ever since I picked up reloading. Back then, I was a cheapskate and always went with the steel cased stuff for range blasting when it was sold in walmart and gunshows no matter what the naysayers said back then.

    Once I started rolling my own, I always used the price of steel cased ammo as a benchmark to justify reloading for certain calibers, i.e. steel cased 308 used to go for 25-30c a pop, therefore it wasn't practical to reload for battle rifle range fodder. Once that started to disappear, I stocked up on comps to reload it at around the same cost.
     

    dwb1987

    Active Member
    Mar 6, 2013
    137
    Frederick County
    Shot at least 10K rounds of 9mm Wolf, tula and brown bear with no malfunctions at all threw my Glocks.

    Shot prob at least 2K of .45 Wolf through my Glock 41 and a Ruger SR45 with no malfunctions.

    Shot idk how much steel case in my various AR's. Has to be north of 25k over the years. Never had any issues. For rifle stuff silver bear was my favorite.

    The brown bear was hands down the dirtiest and smells like cat piss imo. But never had a lick of trouble with steel case.

    Still have a good stock pile of steel case thankfully. Bought it cheap and stacked it deep.
     

    Chat-Bot

    Disinformation Governor
    Oct 17, 2020
    4,627
    под скалой
    Never an issue with anything (excluding .22s) until a CZ came onboard. Doesn't matter which brand, feeding .223/5.56 steel has been a sporadic issue. I try all kinds of brands/loads on everything to see what works.

    Seems the former soviet bloc isn't all that it's hyped up to be.
    vegan-hipster.jpeg
     

    Mr.Blue

    Living In A Bizarro World
    Nov 21, 2011
    1,523
    Miserable in MD
    I bought 1k rounds of Hornady Steel Case Match 5.56 ammo a few years ago. I started running it in my ARs over the last year. After about 500 rounds, not one problem! It is accurate too, hence the name. Doesn’t seem any dirtier than typical brass.

    Because of prices, I recently went looking for it, but it seems Hornady has temporarily stopped making it. I think I read that they did so to focus on ammo lines with a higher profit margin. Maybe they’ll bring it back after the shortage is over.

    I wouldn’t shoot the Foreign steel rounds in my top ARs unless I had no choice.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    I shoot steel-case when it makes sense. That is to say, for com-bloc calibers, situations where I can't retrieve brass (and really want to), or when it's cheaper than reloading (especially 6.5 Grendel). My only caution would be that, like any other ammo, steel-cased is not all made the same, and some of it is better than others.

    I bought 1k rounds of Hornady Steel Case Match 5.56 ammo a few years ago. I started running it in my ARs over the last year. After about 500 rounds, not one problem! It is accurate too, hence the name. Doesn’t seem any dirtier than typical brass.
    Steel Match has Hornady bullets and is using Hornady loadings, it is not going to produce the same sort of barrel wear or weird pressure curves as the Russian stuff.
     

    Mr.Blue

    Living In A Bizarro World
    Nov 21, 2011
    1,523
    Miserable in MD
    Steel Match has Hornady bullets and is using Hornady loadings, it is not going to produce the same sort of barrel wear or weird pressure curves as the Russian stuff.

    Yeah, that’s the only reason I’d shoot it in my higher end ARs. It was never as cheap as the Russian crap, but it was still worth it.
     

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