steel case ammo ever broke your pistol?

Status
Not open for further replies.
bullseyebob47

bullseyebob47

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
249
Location
Louisiana
i shot 1,500 rounds of herters steel case 115 gr in my glock 19 and all i have noticed is sometimes it ejects the case at my feet. not sure if it done that before i shot steel case ammo or not.

i feel like running 1,000 steel case 9mm through my shield to test it. but i don't want to break it. plus steel case can be picked up with a magnet rather the hand(range rules).
 
I don't think the steel cased ammo would break a Glock but it may be really low powered. How's the recoil from it, is it mild?
I've never shot steel cased ammo but I would think we would have all heard about it by now if it damaged guns.
 
The only problems I ever heard of with steel case ammo, was some years ago with the Russian stuff came with a lacquer coated case.

Then, when the guns got hot, some of the lacquer would rub off and could stay in the chamber and then get gummy as it cooled. When cool, a few folks complained of guns not functioning right.

That wasn't DAMAGE, but it was aggravating. In the years since, the ammo makers have found better coatings than the earlier stuff.

(No proof that steel cases would damage extractors... just claims.)
 
I would think that steel cases would be softer and milder than the extractors. I know some folks don't like running the stuff through their Ars, but that might be more due to the aluminum construction of the upper. I dunno.

Are steel cases heavier than brass? Could it be that the extractor just doesn't have the muscle to toss the spent as far as the brass?

I've never had an issue with the stuff and run it as plinking ammo in all of my guns that will eat it. My LCP and low end 1911s choked on it, but I have never had an issue with it in my Glocks, FNHs, Stag Ar, or Springfield 1911. As near as I can tell, it ejects the same, but then again I don't pick up my spents of whatever material where I shoot. It's not required and I don't reload, so I couldn't tell you if my brass goes 6' and my steel goes 4'. If it doesn't hit me in the face, I don't really notice.
 
bullseyebob47 said:
i shot 1,500 rounds of herters steel case 115 gr in my glock 19 and all i have noticed is sometimes it ejects the case at my feet. not sure if it done that before i shot steel case ammo or not.

i feel like running 1,000 steel case 9mm through my shield to test it. but i don't want to break it. plus steel case can be picked up with a magnet rather the hand(range rules).
Click to expand...
Won't hurt it a bit. Think Tokarev TT/30-33 and Makarov pistols..The ONLY negative I've heard was a AR torture test done by Lucky Gunner Labs did in Jan. 2013. The test showed increased barrel wear vs the brass cased ammo. But this was after firing 10,000 rounds!

The test used bi-metal jacketed bullets - obviously the steel cases had nothing to do with barrel wear!..
 
Last edited:
I had problems with an M&P after shooting 200 rounds of steel cased russian ammo, gun was never the same even after replacing the firing pin and a full disassembly/cleaning. Ended up trading it for a Glock 22.
 
EdLaver said:
I had problems with an M&P after shooting 200 rounds of steel cased russian ammo, gun was never the same even after replacing the firing pin and a full disassembly/cleaning. Ended up trading it for a Glock 22.
Click to expand...
Sounds like maybe a lemon, rather than representative of M&P handguns..from what I hear, they seem to have a good reputation..
 
Needing to spend extra time cleaning is the worst thing I've seen happen when I or anyone I know uses steel cased ammo.
 
Soft steel has been used for bullet jackets for a long time. A lot of the time there is a small amount of copper coating over the steel jacket. Steel jacket bullets has been proven to reduce barrel life. Not so much on hard chrome barrels though. Although it dose still happen just not as bad. Use a magnet to tell if your ammo is copper or steel jacketed. It dose not work with steel core ammo though!
 
I've shot enough TulaAmmo .45 ACP through my Glock 21 to know that it hasn't harmed it. It's cheap, accurate, and reliable ammo, but two of the indoor ranges I go to don't allow steel cased ammo, so I don't buy it anymore .
 
I shot 9mm Luger, .45 Auto and .223 steel pretty extensively in the early 2000s. It has never broken anything. I did have a malfunction with some Wolf .223 in a Mini-14 with a case stuck in the chamber. This was c. 2004. It didn't harm the gun at all, I just poked it out with a cleaning rod, cleaned up the chamber and went back to shooting. I think they were using the lacquer coating on the cases then, but they no longer do so.
 
I've shot thousands of steel through my CZ83 and CZ75.
Have not hurt a thing. Cases still fly 15' away to my 4 o'clock.

Every Glock I've shot seems to eject cases quite weakly. With any ammo. They always hit me in the forehead.
 
The only issue I have ever personally had with steel ammo was that it wouldn't feed in some of my Beretta 92 mags. The rounds would gall against each other and not feed.

I have heard horror stories about steel ammo but haven't had an issues other than that one myself.

For the round not ejecting as far it could be that the pistol was dirtier than before or that the spent casing has a lower lubrication factor than brass so it's taking more energy to remove it from the chamber.
 
Ever sine the GEN4 Glocks came out about 3 years ago both GEN3 and GEN4
Glocks have been having erratic ejection and brass to the face issues. Many blame weak ammo or limpwristing. Simply not the case. Glock has gone through several redesigns of the RSA. New ejector (30274 vs. old 336) and a straight extractor to fix these problems.
Newer ones are better than a couple of years ago. But still a having problem guns. Make sure your Glock (9mm) has the 043 RSA and 30274 ejector. Anyways back to the question. The steel ammo is made of a milder steel than your extractor. It shouldn't damage it. Some bullets are steel with a copper wash. Some lead cores thin steel case overlaid with copper, and some are lead core and copper covered.
Just depends on where they were made and by whom. In 1943 the US used steel case ammo in .30 carbine, .30-06, and .45 ACP because of a copper shortage. I've seen boxes of them. Their were not massive reports of guns breaking because of this. Some AR's don't like the laquered cases. When the gun becomes hot it can melt and jam the gun up. The steel also does not expand as much as the brass letting more crap get in the chamber.
But as a whole steel ammo in most other weapons should not hurt them. Yes it may cause premature wear on some parts. But only after a lot of rounds. I've fired it in quite a few of my guns. Usually use brass. But I've noticed no problems in my weapons shooting a few hundred to a few thousand rounds. Some manufacturers recommend against it and some guns don't like it. But shooting it here and there will not be a problem for most guns.
 
p.s some gun ranges don't like steel because they say it creates sparks. Some feel it's because they don't get to sell the brass you're not shooting. And some Chinese rounds with a steelbullet and copper wash were band because the could cut throughbody armor.
 
The gun ranges I go to don't allow steel cased ammo since they can't or don't want to sort it from their brass bucket. I always pick up my steel hulls & toss them in the trash when I'm done shooting.
 
I think a lot depends on the gun. TulAmmo and Wolf are underpowered compared to WWB and other makes. I have an M1 carbine that I got off one shot and the shell jammed in the chamber. I also have German & Russian WWII rifles that shoot steel cased ammo no problem. My Ruger P95 9mm works with steel cases too. It's Hornady ( I think) that sells steel cased plinking ammo for center fire pistols now. If it's your EDC or home defense gun, test a decent amount of high end ammo to be sure the gun works properly. I'm not saying 100's of rounds, that costs a lot of money. If it needs breaking in, use the cheap stuff. None of my guns have ever needed breaking in, but haven't liked every brand I play with.
 
I have shot a lot of Brown Bear through my cZs and BHPs with no issues other than that mentioned in post #3.
 
First off, Herters is aluminum cased, not steel.

Second, the only pistol Ive ever seen advised against steel cases was the Luger pistol. in WWII ammo boxes were clearly labeled brass case for P08, steel for everything else. They did away with the 8,82 chamber ring on BYF41 and newer lugers, as they were not ejecting the steel case stuff after firing and expanding, and it would break the extractors after time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

C
  • Locked
herter's steel case 9mm ammo good?
Replies
4
Views
902
GRIZ22
G
The_Shootist
  • Locked
Steel Case Ammo in a Glock 19
Replies
7
Views
1K
MisterPX
M
bullseyebob47
  • Locked
tula steel case 9mm has any kind of coating?
Replies
19
Views
3K
Bama Drifter
Bama Drifter
T
  • Locked
Anyone shoot steel case ammo?
Replies
3
Views
473
kokapelli
K
R
  • Locked
S&B copper plated steel cased 9x19 ammo.
Replies
21
Views
2K
CoinMan
C
Back
Top