Steel Cased Ammo Damage

I don't think there's a magic number for round count. The general idea is steel on steel creates far more wear than brass on steel. Though, I've used plenty of steel case ammo in my guns with no adverse effects.

Steel jacketed ammo can cause more damage to the rifling than steel case would to the camber. (Some people confuse the two)

Oh look, its this thread again.

I've heard that steel cased ammo damages/is hard on guns.

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Hear that from your local gun shop eh?

How many rounds would one have to fire to damage their gun?

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Nobody knows, because it generally doesn't happen

Anybody have pictures of damage caused by steel ammo?

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Nope, because it generally doesn't happen.

I'm able to FL resize and reload steel cases, and it has no effect on my dies.
The steel is really soft steel, it has to be to expand to the chamber. It isn't going to hurt anything.

People complain about steel case ammo all the time, but no one has any proof that it happens

I think most are concerned with the wear that steel ammo will cause to the steel in their guns. Then there is the lacquer buildup issue. Given a choice I'll use brass except for my AK74 and my newly acquired Mosion Nagant.

About 15 or so years ago I was shooting Wolf ammo in my Ruger Mini-14, when the arm stopped extracting the rounds (after approximately 250 rounds). Upon checking the arm I noticed the extractor had broken. I'm not sure if it was the steel based ammo or just a weak extractor, but since that time I've shot a lot brass ( about 5000 rounds) without any problems at all. I gave the last 250 rounds to a friend with due caution and we are still friends, so it must have served him fine.

Many, many, many rounds. And the parts that could conceivably wear out are "wear items" anyway, easily replaced. Extractors, ejectors, barrels. If you shoot enough to wear out the chamber with steel cases, you'll have had to replace the barrel due to throat erosion from firing anyway, multiple times.

What actually has happened that I have witnessed is the lacquer or plastic coating on the steel casings has melted and "welded" everything tight after heating the barrel with lots of rapid fire. Clean your chamber often and no problems are found with the stuff. YMMV

I read this one a while back. Might be worth a read.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/
They took 10,000 rounds of each of four different ammo manufacturers--one brass cased and three steel cased.
Four identical ARs, one dedicated to each ammo.

Interesting read.

JRH6856 said:

Steel jacketed ammo can cause more damage to the rifling than steel case would to the camber. (Some people confuse the two)

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Steel jacketed bullets don't cause any more barrel wear than copper jacketed bullets. The jacket is very soft steel with copper or gilding metal over it. The bullets that look like they're steel jacketed are almost always cupro-nickel jacketed, not steel either.

Matt

Steel jacketed bullets don't cause any more barrel wear than copper jacketed bullets.

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uh

I wasn't comparing steel jackets to copper jackets, I was comparing steel jackets to steel cases.

the link posted above is very interesting. it basically shows that if you shoot a large number of rounds, the steel ammo will wear out your barrel. from what i gather its more likely related to the powder used than anything else.


ok that being said,the cost differential between the steel ammo and brass ammo would pay for a new barrel with plenty of money left over.or thats what they are showing. from what i see.

14 MOA at 50 yards from the Wolf

It is very refreshing to see scientific testing and FACT rather than internet rumor mills