Steel case ammo

[MoreIsLess]

I have never used steel case ammo before. Today I went to a sporting goods store in my town that has been getting some ammo in about once or twice a week. They usually sell out of it within 15 minutes after the store opens. However, when I go there today, 10 minutes after they opened, they had 1 box of Russian made steel case 9mm, so, I bought it ($15.99), I have an M&P CORE, a CZ 75 and a Walther PPQ. Is this ammo OK to use in any of these guns. If so, what difference will I experience when shooting if.

 

[edwardware]

Steel case is fine, and won't hurt a thing. It tends to be lower quality, hence lower and more variable power. In a barely-functioning (closely tuned) semi-auto it might fail to function sometimes; in your mass-market pistol, it should run without issue.

Inevitably, someone will say the steel case will wear the chamber. . . which is true. By the time you've fired enough ammo to notice the wear, you'll have spent tens of times the pistol's price buying ammo.

It's also coated in lacquer to prevent rust. You might spend an extra minute getting the chamber clean vs brass.

Go buy, go shoot.

 

[buddyd157]

I have never used steel case ammo before. Today I went to a sporting goods store in my town that has been getting some ammo in about once or twice a week. They usually sell out of it within 15 minutes after the store opens. However, when I go there today, 10 minutes after they opened, they had 1 box of Russian made steel case 9mm, so, I bought it ($15.99), I have an M&P CORE, a CZ 75 and a Walther PPQ. Is this ammo OK to use in any of these guns. If so, what difference will I experience when shooting if.

i have bought Wolf brand ammo. it did not shoot well at all in my CZ 75B, all other guns, it's ok.

 

[FL-NC]

The short answer, is it depends. I used to shoot the heck out of that stuff with my Glocks and even certain AR's that would tolerate it. Generally speaking, if ammo won't fire in a Glock, it won't work in something else. In my experience, the charges weren't always consistent, and it was much dirtier in a gun than the equivalent numbers of something like American Eagle, with the simple remedy of cleaning your gun after practice. The advice I always gave regarding this ammo in the past was to buy a small amount of it and test it in x gun, and see what happens- vs buying a case of 1,000 for your 1 gun in x caliber only to find out in the first magazine that your gun doesn't like it.

 

[Jonesy814]

I have seen guns where the steel cases like to stick in the chamber...get pulled part way out then slip off the extractor leading to a malfunction, but most run it ok

 

[MoreIsLess]

The advice I always gave regarding this ammo in the past was to buy a small amount of it and test it in x gun, and see what happens- vs buying a case of 1,000 for your 1 gun in x caliber only to find out in the first magazine that your gun doesn't like it.

Fortunately, I only bought one box

 

[cfullgraf]

I have some 7,62x39 steel cased ammunition that I’ve shot in a couple SKS rifles that I have. No issues.

But, since I reload, I generally avoid steel cased ammunition.

 

[TTv2]

Some guns shoot steel fine, some don't. Up to you to find out what it does you what you shoot it in. Steel may shoot differently (Tula and Wolf use some flashy powders) and may take longer to clean out the bore and chamber, it will wear an extractor faster, but we're talking over maybe 10k thousand rounds compared to 20k with brass.

During normal prices, steel case per 1000 rds was coming in close to $30 less than the cheapest brass ammo and $30 will buy you a spare extractor. So, if you buy 10k rounds of steel 9mm you'll save $300 over brass, but you'll need to buy another extractor.

To some people that's a dealbreaker and the end of the world. IDK why...

 

[Slamfire]

I have never used steel case ammo before. Today I went to a sporting goods store in my town that has been getting some ammo in about once or twice a week. They usually sell out of it within 15 minutes after the store opens. However, when I go there today, 10 minutes after they opened, they had 1 box of Russian made steel case 9mm, so, I bought it ($15.99), I have an M&P CORE, a CZ 75 and a Walther PPQ. Is this ammo OK to use in any of these guns. If so, what difference will I experience when shooting if.

I am going to say, the best thing to do with steel case ammunition is to oil the stuff, just as you stuff it in the magazine. I have been oiling 45 ACP ammunition in the 2700 Bullseye matches I shoot, and I have probably shot about 5000 to 7000 rounds of oiled 45ACP rounds. I put a drop right at the junction of bullet and case and fire away. Because I do things obsessively and excessively, I have been doing this to all the rounds in the stack, though I think I could get away with alternate rounds. The older shooters used to lube only the top round in the magazine. Oiling cases absolutely breaks the friction between case and chamber, and also leaks oil into the mechanism, and blows oil up the tube, There is no doubt in my mind that oil blown up the barrel is reducing friction between the bullet and the barrel, I mean, it has to. And my barrels clean up very quickly, hardly any leading at all. And, the oil squeezed out of the chamber, lubricates the slide rails as I shoot.

In so far as steel cases, this will reduce chamber wear, it will keep your extractor alive longer, as steel case ammunition will not be sticking to the chamber, but rather, will pop out when the action opens. It is bad practice to have the extractor pull cases out of the chamber, because that is hard on an extractor. If you look at your extractor, it is really there to hold the case against the breech face, and that includes rifles. Extractors push the case to the side, and that provides strong ejection, as well as keeping the case on the breech face.Shoot enough semi autos and one day cases will be falling off into the mechanism. Extractor tension is gone, the poor thing is worn, or weak.

So, oil away. I used to put a drop of oil on a handfull of 223 steel case and roll the stuff around in my hand till all the cases had a light coating. Worked great in my AR15's. Got my hands messy though.

 

[Speedo66]

I ran Wolf steel 9mm in my Keltec Sub2000 for quite a while. Functioned perfectly; a little dirtier, and smelled funny, but no problems.

 

[Hugger-4641]

I recently chronographed some steel cased 380 and 9mm and was surprised to find that they were actually 150 to 200fps faster than Fed and Blazer target rounds. The biggest difference was in the 380. I got 850 to 1000fps from the brass, 1000 to 1170fps with the steel cased Tull and Wolf.

 

[PoPo22]

I have practiced with Wolf or Tul-ammo for years to reduce the cost. The only problems I've had is that with certain gun's the firing pin will occasionally fail to ignite the "berdan" primers they typically use. My CZ75's don't like the berdan primers. They are dirtier but I haven't found them to be "weak loads" typically.

My other "CZ" models (usually the plastic models such as the P07, P09, etc.) never have a problem.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

I've never had any problems running steel cased handgun ammo. Rifles can be more finicky in my admittedly limited experience. My milspec AR doesn't run reliably with steel but after a few early failures I quit trying to use it in that gun. My Bren 805 runs steel just fine but doesn't see a steady diet of the stuff. And I've yet to try steel in my PWS. All the steel cased ammo I've used has been Wolf, Tul, Silver Bear, etc. which is all exceptionally dirty. In normal times I don't find the slight cost savings to be worth the extra cleaning and wear. But given the current situation I'd maybe buy steel 9mm if I needed ammo.

 

[Double_J]

The only negative i found when shooting steel case ammo is the "unique" smell of the burnt powder. they shot true to aim and were almost as cheap as my reloads. I sold the empty cases for scrap, which is how they cost almost as much as my reloads.

 

[wcwhitey]

The only negative I had was years ago shooting Tula in 5.56. Always worked but between the lacquer coating and dirty powder my rifles got dirty fast. Always went bang though, was fine for practice.