Steel Case ammo thoughts

[Principal Skinr]

That Lucky Gunner test involved major mag dumps, heating the barrels up to the point of glowing. I'm pretty sure that magnified the wear from the bi-metal jackets compared to plinking where the barrel doesn't get very hot and you are not dumping mag after mag through the rifle.

Also, by the time you wear the barrel out, let's say in 10k rounds (assuming bi-metal jackets wear the barrel faster), if you save 40 bucks per 1k of ammo by buying steel, you are looking at $400 in savings. You can buy several decent barrels for that price, two good ones, or one REALLY good one, with money left over. The cost advantage to steel is significant. I also believe you'd go well beyond 10k rounds on a good 4150 barrel, especially if not over heating it, and also if the barrel is chrome lined.

 

[russc2542]

At the revere's riders rifle class last weekend, the guy next to me had a few TulAmmo 5.56 get stuck in the chamber (Ruger mini14, day 2 so around the 150-200 rounds mark). The extractor was fine but ripped the lip off the rear of the case. Someone else a few rows over had 2-3 brass cases stick in his rifle (not an AR but similar style) after only a handful of rounds. My Tavor ate Wolf steel case all weekend except 2 that didn't go boom the first time that were loaded back in the mag and did go boom the second time.

 

[Sniper 79]

Brass is the same price as steel or aluminum. If you don't hand load then the used brass can be sold to recoup some cost. Steel or aluminum are garbage.

Never a bad idea to stash ammo. It will never be any cheaper that is for sure.

Some finer guns with tighter tolerances may not like the steel.

I do shoot some steel when I go out to peoples farms. That way any leftover cases will rust and be gone. Had a farmer blow a tire on a rifle case once and he wasn't happy about it. Or if it is snowing or tall weeds where my precious brass will get lost steel or aluminum is a good way to go. I keep a few boxes on hand for those purposes. Makes for good trade fodder as well.

 

[tacticalmaster45]

I typically shoot Wolf steel case thru a couple AR's and haven't experienced any problems yet. Surefire mags do NOT like steel cased ammo though!

 

[lcole1969]

I've been looking for this post. I was trying to ask about this steel ammo specifically tula. I have been having alot of trouble with tula ftf withe good strikes also stuck cases. My question is does it vary by lot or age? I never had this much trouble out of the last 1000 but this lot seems really bad. Same results in all 3 of my ar. Never have problems with the wolf I have.

 

[Cameramonkey]

At the INGO shoot today we could only hold 6" groups at 50yd with wolf steel. Switched to PMC and the groups were halved. (iffy shooter with mediocre eyesight, and 1x optics didnt help)

I suggest staying away unless absolutely necessary. We ended up using a cleaning rod to push out a steel casing in that rifle later in the day. By the looks of it it was overcharged and bulged/stuck in the chamber. the extractor sheared off the lip when I tried to pull it out.

 

[GIJEW]

My experience with steel case ammo is limited to 'wolf' and it sucked. Dirty, mediocre accuracy, and loaded too hot--my ARs bolt routinely over rode the bold stop. Garbage bringing trouble with it.

Having said that, IIRC hornady came out with a line of steel case "match" ammo. "match", not plinking/blasting ammo, but I haven't tried it.

 

[ckcollins2003]

I've been looking for this post. I was trying to ask about this steel ammo specifically tula. I have been having alot of trouble with tula ftf withe good strikes also stuck cases. My question is does it vary by lot or age? I never had this much trouble out of the last 1000 but this lot seems really bad. Same results in all 3 of my ar. Never have problems with the wolf I have.

I've had the occasional failure to fire, but I'd say you got a bad batch if you had a lot of problems with it. I've ran Tula for years with very minimal problems. In fact that's all I routinely buy and shoot out of my AR. However, I have a 5.56 chamber, which isn't known for being tight. Some rifles run Tula well and some simply won't run it at all, but if you had a previous case that ran well, I'd call Tula and let them know. Most ammunition companies will make it right if a customer is having issues. Just save the box so they can get the lot number.

 

[ryknoll3]

My experience with steel case ammo is limited to 'wolf' and it sucked. Dirty, mediocre accuracy, and loaded too hot--my ARs bolt routinely over rode the bold stop. Garbage bringing trouble with it.

Having said that, IIRC hornady came out with a line of steel case "match" ammo. "match", not plinking/blasting ammo, but I haven't tried it.

You sure about that? That's not a very common occurrence. It's much more likely that the ammo wasn't hot ENOUGH and the bolt never made it to the bolt stop. This is one of the first tests to diagnose a malfunctioning weapon.

 

[johntheplinker]

I've been looking for this post. I was trying to ask about this steel ammo specifically tula. I have been having alot of trouble with tula ftf withe good strikes also stuck cases. My question is does it vary by lot or age? I never had this much trouble out of the last 1000 but this lot seems really bad. Same results in all 3 of my ar. Never have problems with the wolf I have.

I saw a picture within the last week (not on this site, on Arfcom?) where the primers were all over the place in depth, some were flush, others barely below, others way deep. If you have any left you might want to take a look at yours.

As far as accuracy my experience is the same as Camermonkey's- it sucks. I don't buy plinking/training ammo just because it is the cheapest, I buy that grade because of a balance between accuracy and price. I'm not the greatest shot in the world, but I do like to hit what I'm shooting at without wasting a bunch of ammo, and quite often that little bit of additional inherent accuracy is the difference between a hit and a miss.

 

[amafrank]

I find it amazing that there is even really a question. We have fired tons of steel cased ammo ranging from current production wolf to ancient military stuff. All the problems that are ascribed to steel cases have happened with brass cases as well. As for the lucky gunner tests the heat is what killed the barrels and not necessarily the bullet make up. The powder used in the steel cased ammo probably produces more heat in the barrel. I've seen this in other guns and the difference between Varget and Reloader 17 in the 7.5 Swiss is amazing. Varget gets the cases much hotter and the barrel temps go up quicker too. So in reality the only test that would actually be a good example of what effect each component has would be one where they load the plated steel and copper jacketed bullets in the same cases with the same powder and primers and then do a test. Compare one thing at a time and you'll find out what difference there really is. Buy ammo from 10 different makers and do a torture test and all you find out is that you can torture the rifling out of the barrel.

In any case I see no issues with the steel cased stuff. I've run thousands of rounds of steel cased wolf 45 through the thompsons, reisings and handguns. Its been reliable, has caused no wear issues I can see, and has been about half the cost of brass cased ammo at the time I bought it. In addition the wolf 45 cal was boxer primed and I've reloaded thousands of the cases with no issues at all. The same can be said for the 223 though I haven't seen the boxer primed 223 around in the last year or two. A friend has reloaded 15-20,000 rds of wolf 223 cases for his HK machinegun and we have yet to see any problems with it. No stuck cases, no issues with wear,no broken extractors or any of the other problems the internet experts associate with steel cases.

Accuracy is another problem ascribed to steel cased ammo but the problem is not with the material used for the components but with the fact that you're buying the cheapest ammo you can get. You get what you pay for. QC and loading accuracy isn't going to be top notch in cheap ammo regardless of what its made of. You go out and buy federal american eagle crap and you'll see this is true of brass and copper ammo too. If you want really accurate ammo for whatever reason buy the quality stuff made for accuracy. Black Hills match, Federal Gold Medal Match etc. You'll pay a lot more and chances are you're not going to be doing mag dumps and rapid fire strings with this stuff either. Most won't hesitate to show their buddies how fast they can dump a mag with the cheap ammo though....

You might be surprised to find that some of the steel cases may give better accuracy if you reload or even if you pull the bullets, dump the powder, pop the primer and start over with good well known components. We have reloaded some of the 9mm steel cases from wolf with good quality speer bullets, CCI Primers and Hodgdon powders and found that accuracy is right up there with any good quality load. The same is true of the steel .223 cases. As friend has a nice accurate AR that will consistently shoot 1/2 in groups with match grade ammo. We worked up loads with the same bullets, powders and primers used in that ammo but used steel cases we weighed for consistency and actually managed to get equivalent groups with the steel cases. Hornady has been using steel cases for a variety of ammunition they load and surprisingly it can be very accurate. Its not cheap however so keep in mind what you're buying the steel cased stuff for. You want cheap blasting ammo steel is a good way to go. You want accurate perfect ammo, buy the stuff made for that and very little of it is steel cased or particularly dirty.
Hope that helps

Frank