steel case ammo

[black hog]

will you or do you shoot it through your ar's? I have read its bad also read that there is no problem with it

[jrebel]

I heard it is bad, so I stay away from it.  I also reload so I like brass.

[actionshooter]

Rough on your chamber and the laquer will build up over time. If you gun is just for blasting, go for it. 

[MikeWalking]

From what I've learned old steel case ammo is best left to old Russian guns and their loose tolerances.   

[Special T]

I read/ saw a video about a 20k round test done on a bunch of same AR DPMS rifles. 2 were steel case 2 were brass I think the 2 steel case ones were Tula and Silver bear, and the brass were Remington and something else. After 2k on the silver bear the ar had some kind of non fixable malfunction and the test stopped for that gun. On the Tula, at 6k rounds the barrel was shot out and would not group. it also experienced lots of jamming at that point. The 2 brass cased rounds did fine they made it to the 20 k mark Thier barrels were nearly wore out. There was some kind of cleaning regiment that they did every 2k rounds or something like that and only could use the basic feild tools to solve any problems. 

If you need some "just in case ammo" and what you can get is steel then go for it. IF you are actually gona shoot your AR i'd shoot brass.    My Bro has an AK and it chews through steel cased stuff. I cant tell the diff on it. 

[MadHatter]

I shoot steel almost exclusively... No wear, no problems... I shoot the Wolf Military Classic. There is no lacquer on the casings.  It can also be reloaded.  Just get berdan primers from wolf, that sells them here in the US now.  There are some good how-to's out there on AR15.net...

This notion that its bad for you AR is a myth, the steel in the casings in softer than the steel in your chamber/barrel/bolt so the casing wears and not your parts... Just make sure you get good ammo, its clean and rust free and it will shoot just fine.  The accuracy is not quite as good as LC, but for 1/3 the cost, its great for plinking or running though drills. There are AR elitist's out there that will sneer at steel cased ammo, but in reality its not nearly as bad as the myths out there make it out to be, if its really actually bad at all... Here is a good read...

http://cheaperthandirt.com/blog/?p=2858

[actionshooter]

This is the most concise study I have ever seen on brass vs steel case. Read it and decide for yourself. Its really interesting.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/#erosion

Like I said before, if its for blasting and your not worried about the rifle go for it. My match rifles will never see steel cased ammo.