Steel Ammo, So Tempting.

[dogtown tom]

earlthegoat2 The laquer likes to gum it up in there and it can lead to your pistol or rifle locking up pretty good.

Has nothing to do with the lacquer coating. The lacquer or polymer coating does not melt and gum up the chamber.

It's carbon buildup.

Average Joe If my guns can't handle steel cased ammo, they I don't want them anyway.

+1

chris in va IIRC my Kahr manual specifically states not to use steel case ammo.

I own several Kahr pistols (K9, CW9, PM9 & P380) NONE of their manuals have that statement. The OM does recommend using the "highest quality factory ammunition" and to "avoid reloads, surplus and budget priced ammunition... (under the Reliability section). All four of my Kahrs eat Tula & Wolf like a six year old eats candy.

 

[merlinfire]

Have used steel-cased in my (now traded) kel-tec sub2k and my wasr-10/ak, and never had the first problem. with the money you save after 10 boxes of ammo, you should probably buy another extractor if you so were inclined.

 

[pockets]

Steel cased ammo has been a huge non-issue for me.
I run a lot of steel case 9x19, 9x18, and 7.62x39 through a large variety of guns and have never had a problem. Tula, Barnaul, Wolf, Brown Bear, Silver Bear, Golden Tiger, Blues Magoos, Pink Platypus, Chartreuse Cheetah, any shade of animal cartridge gives me zero problems.
Who names this stuff anyway?

Heck, I'd think the steel jacketed bullet used in most of these would be more of a wear concern than the cartridge.

 

[Lazyshooter]

I've got two ar-15's I shoot often. I only shoot brass in one of them and steel in the other to see if steel is harder on a gun than brass. I haven't had an issue with either one of them yet. I tried shooting steel in a colt sp1 but the extraction angle with the colt using steel is different than brass and most of the empties ended up going down my shirt.

 

[BamaBarrister]

Shot tons of it through my Glock 17 with no problems. I'd go for it unless your manufacturer has a specific warning or it would void a warranty (which is unlikely). Great for range practice.

 

[cwcoolcow]

Ain't much of a gun if the steel cased ammo breaks it! Get a brass and a steel empty and crush the case mouths. I think you'll find the steel deforms much easier than the brass.

Okay, if steel does deform easier than brass I have a theory for my problem with the Wolf steel, as my mags were clean and dry lubed. New Beretta magazines are often difficult to load and if you do it by hand, you may not be able to load the last round as the spring tension is just too great. I was using my Uplula and found myself applying a good amount of pressure to fill the mags. I figured it was because the specs of the Wolf ammo was perhaps "variable," but perhaps I was actually doing some deforming myself. Or perhaps it was both Uhmmm...I try hand loading the remainder of the rounds to see how that goes.

 

[Sullyman]

$15.00 for .45 YOU BET!

I have used over 2,000 Wolf 9mm in my CZ85...No problems. Also using Tulammo in a Daley .45, eats it right up. and for less than $15.00 for 50 rounds from Wally Mart its a great deal.

 

[dhodgins]

I've shot tens of thousands of rounds of steel cased ammo in:

- .45
- 9mm
- 7.62mm
- 5.56mm

Never broken an extractor, nor had any problems as a result of the ammo. My AKs and ARs especially ate the stuff up.

 

[Don357]

I've used steel cased Monarch (Privi Partisan) and aluminum cased CCI as well as various named brass cased ammo in my 9mm, .38spl/.357mag, .40S&W, and .45ACP with absolutely no problems in function and very little difference in accuracy. I realize the .38spl/.357mag is a revolver, so it doesn't really count. I think some people think of ammo the same way they think of guns,... bigger price means better product, but that isn't always true. Buy the TulaAmmo and have fun. High priced ammo dosen't make YOU shoot any better, practice does. Cheaper ammo = more practice.

 

[ritepath]

I just come from the back yard, I had my PT145 and LCP and a box of tula for each one. I shot 50 rounds through the LCP without any problems. The PT on the other hand...that was another story. I'm pretty sure I've shot some Tula in it before, and it's been 100% with brass FMJ ammo before today. I had 3 or 4 feed jams, and once two rounds got stuck in the magazine and kept the spring compressed. I did have one round that would fire even after multiple strikes. I've shot the tula in my 9c without incident also. I don't think I'll shooting anymore of the stuff in the Taurus (maybe I should trade it)

I did manage to recover a few of the slugs one from each pistol. Q: is Tula brass over steel jacket?

 

[jbauch357]

I've got thousands upon thousands of steel cased rounds through my GLOCK's and haven't had any issues.

My buddy had to send his S&W back on three seperate occasions to fix broken extractor caused by steel cases.

Some guns can handle it, others can't - only one way to find out...

 

[cheygriz]

During WW2, U.S. makers manufactured hundreds of millions of rounds of .45 ACP with steel cases. They never caused a problem that I am aware of.

I was given a full case of new steel cased .45 ACP ammo in the early 60s when I first started to reload. Money was tight. I cast bullets from scrap lead, lubed them with axle grease and reloaded the steel cases 2-3 times each.

Reloading them is a hassle, and I hope I never have to do it again.

But as for shooting them. Hell yes! By the thousands!

 

[Seven High]

Try this: Take a 9mm round with a steel case and hold it up against a 9mm round with a brass case. Look at the extractor groove area. You will see a significant difference. IMO this is why the steel case ammo is unreliable.

 

[mcdonl]

I really can't understand why anyone would willingly purchase steel cased ammo for anything other than a commie block gun.

I cant understand why anyone would ever buy a gun that cannot shoot steel cased ammo as well as other ammo.

Then again, I see people spend 1000's on a pistol just so they can spend twice the money. Your right, it is fun to watch people sometimes.

I shoot steel case ammo when there is two feet of snow on the ground and I do not want to hunt for my brass.

 

[SIGLBER]

In 1943 the U.S. was having problems with a shortage of brass. They made steel cased ammo in .30 Carbine, .30-06, and .45. As far as I can tell none of the guns were destroyed by it. Hornady has recently come out with some steel training ammo in steel for both pistols and rifles. The steel used in the rounds is a much milder steel than your barrel or extractor. It shouldn't hurt them. During the great ammo drought sometimes the only thing I could get was the steel stuff. It's hurt none of my pistols.
I have never seen it hurt any handguns at my range. I have seen it jam some AR's. And not bother others a bit. If I can get brass ammo for about a buck more which I usually can these days I get brass. But the worst problem I ran into with some steel ammo was the cat piss smell and it was dirty. i clean my guns after every range session so it was not a problem. I don't think I would trust a gun that wasn't durable enough to handle steel ammo. If your not comfortable with it don't shoot it. Like I said I have seen a few AR's that don't like it. That's about all.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

IIRC my Kahr manual specifically states not to use steel case ammo.

Both my Ruger manuals (SR9 and P95) specifically state that steel ammo is OK.

Just get the boxer primed stuff so you can still reload it afterwards. (unless you have a source for Berdan primers...)

 

[brnmuenchow]

Fact is some guns like it and others may not, I personally have not had any issues with it. I have however had people I shoot with, have problems with it from time to time.I still beleive it would take thousands of rounds to do any harm if ever any. but, I am one of those people who have just made the conscience decision not to run it in any of my high end guns (and I don't care what people have to say about it), for running through the rounds I use steel cases and cheaper guns I don't care about as much. I will say the biggest steel cased issue we seem to come across is .223Rem, especially in the mini-14 series that a few of my friends use.

 

[NMGonzo]

Try this: Take a 9mm round with a steel case and hold it up against a 9mm round with a brass case. Look at the extractor groove area. You will see a significant difference. IMO this is why the steel case ammo is unreliable.

My old Dan Wesson CBOB shot it without problems.

 

[rellascout]

$15.00 for .45 YOU BET!

I get brass cased stuff for about $17.

 

[FC]

The only problem that I have had with steel-cased ammo was with one of my AR magazines but that one would scar the piss out of brass cases too. I've shot a ton of 9mm, .223, .308, 7.62x54R and even some .40 S&W, the only issue was with that one bad magazine in my AR.

 

[Ben86]

The only problem that I have had with steel-cased ammo was with one of my AR magazines but that one would scar the piss out of brass cases too.

That's one reason I only use magpul pmags now.

 

[Hendiadys]

I have the steel cased ammo on hand for when I may be shooting someplace that brass recovery is not feasible. But most of the time, I'm using my brass/brass and recover it for reloading.

The steel cases have caused me no trouble other than when it's on my home range, the dark cases are hard to find and leave a mess of jagged metal when they get hit by a mower. This is grazed pasture so "hardware disease" is an issue.

 

[SIGLBER]

By the way Hornady is has now gone from making just steel training rifle ammo to making steel pistol ammo. I am aware of no special warnings from Hornady of these rounds possibly causing harm to someone's gun. In fact in todays sue happy America I doubt they would put out a round that had any such potential.