I think the general understanding is steel ammo these days refers to the case material. A simple check of any online ammunition sight will immediately show ammo described steel vs brass cased and priced accordingly."Steel" 7.62x39 ammo usually means steel core ammo. That means there is a steel core, surrounded by a thin layer of lead, then jacketed in copper.
Buzznrose:——You never told us which rifle you use in this chambering...?
Possible fire danger from steel jackets sparking on targets is real and they often bring up added wear on backstops (I'm not 100% sold on this one).
Until ranges started banning steel case ammo a couple years ago, I shot steel cases almost exclusively.
I think people were mixing 5.45 armor piercing in with their commercial ammo when the surplus stuff was washing over the market 2009-2011ish. That’ll eat the backstop up. So, it was probably that combination that got everyone to go “steel case bad!”
I do remember watching Nut'n Fancy shoot a sub moa group (I think) with a Ruger American chambered in 7.62x39. I want to say he was using Wolf. Of course, that isn't typically, and says more about the gun than the ammo in my opinion.
Pretty sure the video in question was using Hornady v-max which is way better quality than the foreign made ammo.
Stupid doper, no more toys for him.Totally said this is a FPSRussian voice in my head
And WAY more expensive, too!