steel case ammo

[7mm ed]

i just picked up my fisrt ar15 20 in barrel and i have not shot one before so can a guy run steel case ammo or should i stay with the brass?

[h2ofowlr]

Depends if you like the gun or not.  I only run brass.  Don't like the steel or the varnish on the cases.  They can be hard on the chamber of your gun.

[7mm ed]

Thats what i thought but wanted to check with you guys first .

[Bean Counter]

i just picked up my fisrt ar15 20 in barrel and i have not shot one before so can a guy run steel case ammo or should i stay with the brass?

I have steel cased ammo for my AK. wouldn't consider it for any other of my firearms.

[muzzlebuck]

...

[dannysdaddy]

Too many opinions with no facts on this subject.  I personally have a bunch of steel cased ammo for my ar but it is specifically for SHTF situation.  otherwise I only shoot brass ammo as I PERSONALLY feel it is easier o the chamber and not as corrosive.

[marlin]

Meh.. If you just want to get some cheap ammo to blast away and do some plinking I dont see why not. its crappier ammo thats for sure, but if you clean your gun after you use it like you should.. no big deal. I have run abunch of the cheap russian ammo with no problems, but if Im trying to be accurate I use my own reloads with pretty polished brass.
 I did buy a box of Herter's .308 from Cabela's, and one of the cases seperated and blew fire out of the ejection port.. Scary. But I never had a problem with steel .223 or 7.62x54r or 7.62x39. Sometimes they will expand and get stuck in your chamber if your gun is too hot or dirty, and you might need a pocket knife for extraction, but thats the price you pay sometimes for cheap ammo.

[Biggerhammer]

Shoot it, I go through AR's and AR barrels to quick to care! 

[FC]

Some people must have awful delicate chambers and barrels in their guns! Try propping them up in front of some Clint Eastwood movies or something. 

I shoot steel-cased ammo through all of my guns, pistol and rifle, I've shot thousands of rounds through multiple guns and have as yet to observe any kind of damage or have any problems except once. So far the only complaint I have run into was with Tula .223 ammo through my AR, it just didn't have enough balls to cycle the action.  I have used steel-cased 9mm, .40S&W, .223, 7.62x39mm, 8mm Mauser, 7.62x54R and .308 Winchester. For your basic plinking it works just fine, if you want match ammo that is different.

If you figure out the price of a barrel or even a whole gun against what you save over 10,000+ rounds you will probably find out that you could buy a couple of guns with the difference.

[rebal69972]

i havent put any stieel ammo in my ar yet but my sk and ak love it and i have never had a problem. Now the guys at OAI told me not to use steel ammo in my wifes ar.

[Special T]

FC what barrel length is your AR? We ran Tula steel holopoints through my bro inlaws Rem r15  20 in barrel and it worked great on yotes. With a buddy we have used wolf on  his and it gummed up the action. I think there may be more varnish on some, and if you heat the gun up by rapid fire it may cause more sticking. 

[FC]

FC what barrel length is your AR? We ran Tula steel holopoints through my bro inlaws Rem r15  20 in barrel and it worked great on yotes. With a buddy we have used wolf on  his and it gummed up the action. I think there may be more varnish on some, and if you heat the gun up by rapid fire it may cause more sticking. 

Mine has a 24" barrel, the Tula stuff seemed to be accurate enough at the range we were shooting but it wouldn't cycle in my rifle. The Brown Bear that I switched back to immediately IS lacquer coated and functioned flawlessly as ever. So far that Tula was the only thing not to cycle in that rifle, it could just be a bad batch or something.

As far as the varnish thing goes, I've tried to reproduce the gummed up chamber bit and have never managed it. I tried hardest in my AK (that thing gets abused) by getting the hand guard smoking real good and then dropping a lacquer coated round in, set the rifle down and let it cool off. 30 minutes later I picked it back up, stuffed another magazine in it and ran another 30 through it without issue.

[Biggerhammer]

I just pounded a bunch of steel cased Tula through my Sig Scorpion, ran great.

[Special T]

FC its not really fair to compare an AK to an AR. Even a medocre range AK like a romainian one has enough slop  in it to run anything anytime.  kinda like the old colt 45.

[FC]

FC its not really fair to compare an AK to an AR. Even a medocre range AK like a romainian one has enough slop  in it to run anything anytime.  kinda like the old colt 45.

What I did to it to try and cause it a malfunction isn't really fair to do to any gun.  It was so hot when I put it down that I single loaded the round into it as I was concerned that it might heat-fire.