Any problem w/ steel cased ammo in a bolt action???
- Thread starter rocpyro
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cleardiddion
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I shoot steel cased stuff (mostly Bulige and Hungarian, along with some Romanian) all the time through bolties. Seems to work fine as any other unless you're REALLY looking for that extra edge. For what you're looking to do it should do good.
jonnyc
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The Germans put a lot of steel-cased 7.92 through their Mausers.
Ditch-Tiger
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I run wolf through my C-Z 527 carbine (7.62x39mm) when wanting to do some cheap practicing...no issues as of yet.
ColtraneM3
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I've never had any issues when using steel ammo with my 700 SPS Varmint, still shoots very accurately.
Nicodemus38
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depends on the rifle your using. some newer target chambers may not work with steel cased ammunition. but a general point of fact is if your using a bolt action rifle that was made by a country that was using steel cased ammo, it will work.
wally
Member
No problems other than the accuracy may not be good enough to do much more than find the paper -- I shoot mostly steel cased ammo as its cheap and I shoot realistically sized reactive targets (steel plates and 2-liter plastic bottles) so its plenty good enough. "Quantity has a quality of its very own" 
But I've yet to have any group much better than 10 shots into ~3" at 100m when sighting in off sandbags. Vertical stringing is the usual group opener. Wolf usually shoots bimodal groups where two ~1.5" groups are ~ 2" apart -- like the output of two production lines is being merged into a single lot. Of course some lots do significantly worse.
--wally.
But I've yet to have any group much better than 10 shots into ~3" at 100m when sighting in off sandbags. Vertical stringing is the usual group opener. Wolf usually shoots bimodal groups where two ~1.5" groups are ~ 2" apart -- like the output of two production lines is being merged into a single lot. Of course some lots do significantly worse.
--wally.
dispatch55126
Member
My question is: Why sight your rifle in on a ammo type you won't regularly use?
Unless you're a reloader, grab a box of several types of ammo plus and sight in with that. Take 2 shots, adjust and take 2 more. You should be dialed in within 10 rounds. After that, you can find which is the most accurate in your rifle.
Unless you're a reloader, grab a box of several types of ammo plus and sight in with that. Take 2 shots, adjust and take 2 more. You should be dialed in within 10 rounds. After that, you can find which is the most accurate in your rifle.
wally
Member
Good point as I often find the difference in various ammo is about the same or greater than the group size. Cheap ammo will get you in the area, but less than a 10-shot group and you are kidding yourself about accuracy.
--wally.
Wolf is the crappiest ammo I have ever fired through a bolt action rifle. Wildly innacurate, inconsistant at 200 yards.. maybe I just got a bad batch but I would NEVER buy that Russian steel cased stuff to hunt.
I wouldn't use it to sight in either.
I have heard good things about Wolf GOLD, which is brass cased.
I wouldn't use it to sight in either.
I have heard good things about Wolf GOLD, which is brass cased.
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jojo200517
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I'd say shoot it if you just wanna put rounds down range and hear it go bang, but if your going to hunt with something else sight it in with what you plan on hunting with. I have some .308 monarch steel case and I did check a few out of a box to see if they would feed in the old lever action and they did just fine but I haven't fired any.
jpwilly
Member
Use good ammo in good rifles IMO. You'll just be dissapointed with the cheap steel case ammo.
Steve in PA
Member
If you are just target shooting or plinking, there is nothing wrong with shooting Wolf. I've shot plenty of the steel cased Military Classic out of my Savage 12FV.
If you have it and want to shoot it........do so. Don't get hung up on "commie ammo for commie guns". People like that are just ammo snobs.
For hunting purposes, of course you should use quality ammo designed for hunting.
If you have it and want to shoot it........do so. Don't get hung up on "commie ammo for commie guns". People like that are just ammo snobs.
For hunting purposes, of course you should use quality ammo designed for hunting.
If you are going to shoot steel case, then a bolt mechanism will be the most reliable in extraction and feed.
Steel makes for a stiff cartridge case. Steel cases will jam up a semi automatic mechanism if the cases are large and the chamber is small. Something that will happen with brass cases, but the size differences have to be greater. Semi auto's need perfect ammo.
Because you supply the muscle power in feed and extract in a bolt rifle, steel cases are less troublesome. I would guess a limiting issue for steel cases in a bolt rifle is if the extractor can't jank the case out. Then you would need a cleaning rod.
I think steel case ammo is capable of excellent accuracy, if you get rid of the awful bullets. I loaded some chinese steel case with decent bullets and the stuff shot very well.
Took too much work to extract the chinese bullets, grind a radius on the inside of the case mouth, then add a reduced amount of powder and a new bullet. But it shot well.
If hunting, I would use quality ammo with quality bullets. Same for target shooting. For rock busting, who cares?
Steel makes for a stiff cartridge case. Steel cases will jam up a semi automatic mechanism if the cases are large and the chamber is small. Something that will happen with brass cases, but the size differences have to be greater. Semi auto's need perfect ammo.
Because you supply the muscle power in feed and extract in a bolt rifle, steel cases are less troublesome. I would guess a limiting issue for steel cases in a bolt rifle is if the extractor can't jank the case out. Then you would need a cleaning rod.
I think steel case ammo is capable of excellent accuracy, if you get rid of the awful bullets. I loaded some chinese steel case with decent bullets and the stuff shot very well.
Took too much work to extract the chinese bullets, grind a radius on the inside of the case mouth, then add a reduced amount of powder and a new bullet. But it shot well.
If hunting, I would use quality ammo with quality bullets. Same for target shooting. For rock busting, who cares?
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