Steel Case

[Mike38]

Sooo, please refresh my memory. Why run steel?

If you don't reload, the cost of steel case factory ammo is less than brass cased. Or at least it has been, hard telling now with the ammo buying frenzy we are having.

For some (many) people, if it goes bang and puts a hole somewhere on the target, they are happy. If they can save a buck or two per range visit, why not buy steel?

 

[JDBerg]

I had a hard time turning down 150 rounds of Win USA Forged steelcased ammo for $11 bucks;

It shot decently in my Gen3 G17 & G19.
I did not shoot it with any of my other 9mm’s.
It did not damage or wear either of these guns. The smell of it might have done some damage to me - LOL
I would buy more at this price, although the likelihood of finding another deal for 150 rounds of any 9mm ammo for $11 is probably slim to none.

 

[Shadow9mm]

I had a hard time turning down 150 rounds of Win USA Forged steelcased ammo for $11 bucks;

It shot decently in my Gen3 G17 & G19.
I did not shoot it with any of my other 9mm’s.
It did not damage or wear either of these guns. The smell of it might have done some damage to me - LOL
I would buy more at this price, although the likelihood of finding another deal for 150 rounds of any 9mm ammo for $11 is probably slim to none.

I don't care if it was 1000rnds for $11, I wont shoot steel out of my guns. The only guns I would ever shoot steel out of would be guns desinged for it, AK's, Mosins, SKS being good examples, however I sadly don't own any of them.

 

[JDBerg]

I don't care if it was 1000rnds for $11, I wont shoot steel out of my guns. The only guns I would ever shoot steel out of would be guns desinged for it, AK's, Mosins, SKS being good examples, however I sadly don't own any of them.

I know ol’ Gaston himself warns us to not use steelcase ammo in his products, and anybody who is caught doing so is an automatic “dummkopf”, and I should turn in my guns for such blatant irresponsible firearms abuse. If I ever decide to sell these guns (which I won’t do anyway) I plan to come clean with the prospective buyer to disclose that I did shoot steelcase ammo through these. My guilty conscience wouldn’t allow me to not confess to such a transgression.

Similarly, when I sell my car (also no plans) I will admit to filling up with cheaper 87 octane when the owners manual clearly says (when I can find it) to use the 89 octane. My mechanic warned me that the car could blow up and void my warranty (not sure which would come first).

I throw myself at the mercy of the court of internet tribal firearms knowledge and promise to lead a good life and not do whatever it was that caused me to be in all this trouble. It may be the fumes from all the cheap ammo and cheap gas that is causing this behavior!

 

[dogtown tom]

Oh good grief...........

ammo.crafter Steel does not expand and seal the chamber as well as brass and as such, unburned powder escapes and fouls the chamber and other parts like extractors.

It's not "unburned powder", it's carbon (burned powder)
I can't say that I've ever seen an extractor fouled to the point of failure by carbon.

zoo Sooo, please refresh my memory. Why run steel?

It's cheaper. If you like to shoot, but dislike reloading the difference is worth it.

JDBerg...I’m going to venture a guess that HK customer support would advise against using steelcased ammo in your VP9SK if you were to contact them about it. There is probably a blurb in the manual about using quality factory ammo in the gun, and steelcased ammo probably doesn’t qualify as quality factory ammo, and they might remind you of this.

HK waffles on this. They mention using SAAMI spec ammunition, then in other parts of their manual discourage using aluminum or steel case. Steel case ammo may meet SAAMI specs so it seems HK is confused.

Eddiejoe I had an ammo-inspection at a local range east of Mesa AZ. I thought they were looking for armor-piercing rounds.
Why won't ranges allow steel-cased ammo?

Because "steel case" ammunition may also mean steel jacketed......and some ranges. The steel case is harmless, but the steel jacketed bullet is believed to cause damage to backstops that copper jackets do not.

JDBerg.....Steel cases have to be sorted out from the pile of brass cases and this is time consuming & expensive.

Uh, magnets....how do they work?

Shadow9mm
.... The only guns I would ever shoot steel out of would be guns desinged for it, AK's, Mosins, SKS being good examples....

I've heard this often, but really?
I don't think those guns were "designed" for steel cased, but certainly are more tolerant of it.

JDBerg....I know ol’ Gaston himself warns us to not use steelcase ammo in his products...

Ol' Gaston does nothing of the sort.
Back when Glock included a fired case in each box, guess what the fired fired case was? Aluminum. And aluminum has the same issues as steel case.

 

[JDBerg]

Uh, magnets....how do they work?

For all intents and purposes, an experienced shooter with brass jacketed ammo will pick up the cases and take them to reload or sell them to somebody to reload, etc. People shooting steel cased or aluminum cased ammo will leave these behind. One gun range that I know of has a kid come in after school to sort the brass cases from the steel and aluminum cases and then sort the brass cases by caliber (you need youngsters to be able read the headstamps - LOL) then they sell the once fired brass and scrap the steel & aluminum cases.

 

[TunnelRat]

For all intents and purposes, an experienced shooter with brass jacketed ammo will pick up the cases and take them to reload or sell them to somebody to reload, etc. People shooting steel cased or aluminum cased ammo will leave these behind. One gun range that I know of has a kid come in after school to sort the brass cases from the steel and aluminum cases and then sort the brass cases by caliber (you need youngsters to be able read the headstamps - LOL) then they sell the once fired brass and scrap the steel & aluminum cases.

I think his point was that you can use the magnets to do the sorting. Even if you yourself are shooting brass, you can use the magnet to get rid of the steel you don’t want. A friend of mine has a magnet on a stick.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nodak1858]

And to really stir the pot, not only do I shoot steel in anything I have. But I also have reloaded steel cases that are boxer primed. I have done 45acp and 223 with no issues with my dies.

 

[rc]

Friends don't let friends shoot steel case ammo in their expensive non com block firearms! Steel can damage some guns like my friends Sig 229 extractor. In a russian /com block made gun steel is fine. Otherwise, pay the extra 2 cents a round and buy brass cased ammo in bulk!

 

[Hawg]

Steel can damage some guns like my friends Sig 229 extractor. In a russian /com block made gun steel is fine.

Wow I had no idea Sig extractors were such crap.

 

[wmg1299]

I run steel in my AK's and SKS but avoid shooting it in any of my handguns. That being said, there have been more than a few days recently when steel case was the only available option at the store. I have picked up a few boxes of steel here and there when the price was right, but it remains in my emergency/SHTF pile. If the supply of 9mm doesn't start flowing soon, I may have to give the steel stuff a shot.

 

[Nodak1858]

Lucky Gunner did a test with steel cased ammo in an AR to check wear. Found added wear to barrel due to bi-metal bullets but the savings offset buying a new barrel. They checked out extractor wear and found a different wear pattern but not much else. I think they ran 10K or something so it's something to read and make up your own mind on. But like many "truths" on the net most are hard to find actual tested proof on, I have had zero issues with steel case and will keep on using it for range and plinking fun.

 

[TruthTellers]

Don't let Winchester steel case garbage ammo turn you off steel completely. I've never had issues with Tula or Wolf steel case before and that stuff can be found at a bargain online during normal times.

 

[dogtown tom]

rc Friends don't let friends shoot steel case ammo in their expensive non com block firearms! Steel can damage some guns like my friends Sig 229 extractor. In a russian /com block made gun steel is fine. Otherwise, pay the extra 2 cents a round and buy brass cased ammo in bulk!

So you are saying Ruskies make better extractors than Sig?

 

[Hawg]

So you are saying Ruskies make better extractors than Sig?

That's exactly what he said.

 

[44 AMP]

I think there is a difference between guns designed "from the ground up" to shoot steel cased ammo and ones that aren't.

Personally, I am underwhelmed at the performance of steel cased ammo, and its lower cost doesn't compensate for that, for me.

what someone else saves over 10,000rds in their gun is irrelevant to me.

I will admit to being a bit of an "ammo snob", in that I disdain to run the cheapest crap that goes bang in my guns.

I don't shoot steel cased stuff, I don't shoot Berdan primed stuff if I have a choice, and i don't shoot the non-reloadable Blazer aluminum.

Didn't steel cased ammo originate as a cost/material saving measure in WWII?

Some combatant nations went to steel cased ammo in a big way. The US didn't. There was one year, 1943, when the US produced a quantity of steel cased .45acp ammo. In 1944 we went back to brass. I think there was a reason for that, just as there was a reason we never made the "important" rifle and machine gun ammo (.30-06) with steel cases.

steel isn't brass. It works differently, it works well enough for some people in certain situations, but in other situations it doesn't. It is cheaper, it is not superior.

Even were I so inclined (and, I'm not) I couldn't shoot steel case ammo through about 80+% of my firearms, because steel ammo isn't made in those calibers. Being a dedicated reloader, and having only a few guns that would take steel cased ammo, and considering its drawbacks, steel cased ammo has no appeal to me.

Go ahead and use it all you want in your guns, I wish you well with it. It's not for me, or mine.

 

[JDBerg]

I was at my LGS / LGR today, I shot Blazer Brass that I had on hand with my CZ 75B. Since the pandemic hit it has been really difficult to get reservations at this range but I’ve been averaging range time about every other week. At this place, their inventory of 9mm handguns and ammo of varying types is the lowest I’ve ever seen there. I’m not buying any new firearms with this limited stock and at these inflated prices, but I always buy ammo and they can’t tell me when they expect to get in another shipment.

I’ve been through the ammo shortages before, and this situation isn’t nearly as bad as those situations were, at least not yet. I still have some ammo squirreled away so I probably have a few months worth of range ammo that I can use. But what I have to wonder is that if this situation doesn’t improve and the only ammo I can find at a decent price is steelcase, am I going to buy it? If the steelcase ammo is about half the price of brass cased ammo, I have to say, yeah I might have buy some more of this ammo in the near future. I have to have ammo to shoot at the range, that’s all there is to it.

 

[Skans]

Some weapons handle steel case ammo no problem, others seem to have difficulty. I've had no problem shooting steel case ammo out of my AK's, AR's, AC556 and most 9mm's I have. The bigger concern for me is the bi-metal (steel jacketed) bullet which I've heard can wear barrels a little more than copper jacketed lead. I have two guns where barrel wear would be a big problem for me, so no more bi-metal bullets in those guns.

 

[7.62 man]

Some weapons handle steel case ammo no problem, others seem to have difficulty. I've had no problem shooting steel case ammo out of my AK's, AR's, AC556 and most 9mm's I have. The bigger concern for me is the bi-metal (steel jacketed) bullet which I've heard can wear barrels a little more than copper jacketed lead. I have two guns where barrel wear would be a big problem for me, so no more bi-metal bullets in those guns.

Yes the bi-metal does cause more wear in the softer barrels, I would only shoot it through the chrome lined barrels like come in most of the communist bloc guns AK, SKS, PSL, Ect.
I have had people argue that the copper coating on the steel case protects the inside of the barrels, after doing some research I found that the copper coating is only .001" thick & it is there to help remove it from the stamping die at the factory, not to protect the barrel. Some of the steel cases are as much as .020" thick that will wear the rifling fast.

 

[jfruser]

Friends don't let friends shoot steel case ammo in their expensive non com block firearms! Steel can damage some guns like my friends Sig 229 extractor. In a russian /com block made gun steel is fine. Otherwise, pay the extra 2 cents a round and buy brass cased ammo in bulk!

yes, the old, wily & creative combloc firearm designer ivan mosesski browningski.

I don't care if it was 1000rnds for $11, I wont shoot steel out of my guns. The only guns I would ever shoot steel out of would be guns desinged for it, AK's, Mosins, SKS being good examples, however I sadly don't own any of them.

Do you own a 1911? Then you, too, can shoot steel.

https://www.firearmstalk.com/threads/world-war-steel-cased-45s.6119/

The steel cased .45 ACP rounds of World War II are an interesting development and interesting source of study....

The War Department, and Army Ordnance, accepted the steel case ammunition for .45 pistol cartridges, for use in both submachine guns and pistols....

During a fairly brief period of a couple of years, billions of rounds or .45 steel cased ammunition were turned out. Chrysler Corporation was awarded the "E-For Efficiency" pennant and commendation from a grateful government. A company brochure was circulated, entitled "Bullets by the Billions."

back when i had acess to such, i shot several boxes of wolf laquered 9mm through a sub gun. ripped through the magazines after we shot all the brass cased 9mm and wanted to see if there would be a problem. no problem, 3-5 round bursts.

my 1911s like wolf .45ACP hardball, shoots a bit better than winchester white box.

steel case is the mcdonalds hamburgers of the ammo world. cheap, sufficient quality to meet specs, but not to be mistaken for high end eats. and both can leave a mess behind if you consume too much, if you catch my drift.