No lacquer melted: 9x18 case 10 min. in 480* F.

I've shot lots of lacquered steel-case 9x18, with nary a problem. I've put Fiocchi and Geco brass through these same guns, no problem.

However. I wonder about chamber tolerances when it comes to problems with this. I've got a Czech Mauser, and I've shot some of the Hot Shot ammo through it. These are lacquered steel cases, and they are very stiff to feed in the gun. However, I can run them through 3-4 times unfired, and they then seem to feed smoothly. I don't think lacquer melting is an issue, I think sometimes they might be a bit tight due to the layer of lacquer, and friction will rub some off and leave residue.

The myth of "melted lacquer" busted once again.

Despite numerous articles, there still seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what goes on in the chamber of guns firing steel cased ammo.
I believe Lucky Gunner was the last big test.

In regards to "sticky" chambers.......it's due to carbon buildup. Not melted lacquer. Not melted polymer. Just plain old carbon.
Steel cased ammo is not as ductile as brass. Use steel case in an AR and you may see a buildup of carbon near at the front of the chamber. Brass will seal off, but steel will allow some carbon to flow back a tiny bit past the case mouth. This buildup accounts for the sticky extraction some will experience in a firearm with straight walled cartridges (like the 5.56/.223). It rarely if ever is an issue in firearms using a tapered cartridge (like the 7.62x39).

I have a Colt 6933 that has run around 2,500 rounds of Tula steel case without a hiccup or cleaning of the chamber. YMMV.

The biggest reason steel cased ammunition sometimes sticks in the chamber is simply:

Poor heat treating of the case.

Steel, unlike brass, has to be heat treated in order to have the elastic properties required for a cartridge case. Get it too hard, it will crack, too soft, it will expand nicely, but fail to "spring" back for extraction. The US Army has known this since about 1943.

Cheap ammunition is . . . cheap. They trim cost in the time and expense of process control, and since steel cases are more dependent on the manufacturing process for reliable operation, they have a higher incidence of poor "springiness" and resultant poor reliability if the process control is lacking.

This also explains why many people shoot thousands of rounds and never have a problem. Cases are made in batches, very large batches, and the number of bad batches are actually probably rare, but if you get ammunition made from cases in a bad batch, a very high percent of the cases will preform poorly, and you will never buy steel cased ammo again and go on youtube and tell your tale of woe and misery, if you buy a large batch of steel cased ammo and do not get failures, you probably won't, so you love the stuff for its low price, and argue with every one that says it's bad.

BTW, the US Army has toyed with the idea of steel cased ammo since the early 1940, getting serious every time the cost of copper spikes, up until Frankford Arsenal closed. After Frankford closed the US lost all institutional experience and knowledge on steel cases and the tricks required for its manufacture, except in large caliber ammunition, 20 mm and bigger.

EDIT: About the lacquer.... Another thing the Army found out in the 70-odd years of playing with steel cases, in all calibers, is the quality of the lacquer does have a bearing on stuck cases. Crappy lacquer does lead to stuck cases, but usually not stuck to the point of having to be pounded out of the barrel with a cleaning rod, but more along the lines of failure to extract. Again, what are the chances of cheap ammo made with poor quality control leading to ammo made with crappy lacquer? And, a good batch of lacquer will not show any problems.

The Mak is a good pistol, laquer aside.

I'm still thinking it's about the tolerances, and whether or not the lacquer plays into it.

Cooldill said:

The Mak is a good pistol, laquer aside.

Click to expand...

There's really no complaints about these, or about other Warsaw Pact guns in that chambering. Those guns all feed and function with numbing reliability, and the vast majority of ammo fed through them are steel-cased. This little factoid seems to fly in the face of the materials (steel, lacquer) causing problems in other guns.

Now, it's quite possible, even likely, that the Russians etc have perfected the 9x18 because that's their baby, and they don't spend that much effort on steel 9x19 or .45 acp (this would be just commercial exports). But I suspect that the resulting problems come from improper tolerances, not poor metallurgy or heat-treating.

And the different tolerances might not be visible to the naked eye, either- meaning you can't see why there are problems.
I've taken a bit of a fancy to older .32 acp pistols. I've got several. They all seem to love Fiocchi and PPU brass FMJ. One pistol, a Mauser 1914, will cycle those like butter. That same Mauser will take an AZoom aluminum snap cap and jam in the barrel, I have to take a wooden dowel and beat the snap cap out. These same snap caps seem to cycle fine in the other pistols. The snap caps don't LOOK to be a different size than the live rounds, but they HAVE to be just a hair larger. It's really kind of odd the way that happens. Don't know if the lacquer on the snap caps are the difference, but it's enough.