Steel Cased .308 Opinions

[Eric646]

I have noticed more and more low price ammo offering steel cases. A friend of mine recently inherited an older .308 lever action rifle and we took it out to plink some rounds and try it out. We stopped at Walmart to get rounds on the way to the range and they had some dirt cheap steel cased ammo. We picked up a couple boxes to offset some Winchester rounds he had already picked up for it.

Long story short is that the steel rounds fired fine but would not extract. Every other round or so had to be tapped out with a cleaning rod because the extractor wouldn't pull it free.

Is this the fault of the steel round? Or the extractor on a very obviously old gun. Btw, all the brass rounds extracted flawlessly.

What are the pros/cons of steel rounds other than price?

Avoiding all the wive's tales and such... what is wrong with using steel round ammo?

 

[wally]

I'd say the old gun needs a new extractor. Steel cased ammo quickly exposes extraction ejection issues that brass cased ammo can hide. IMHO You can blame the ammo and buy something else or you can fix the gun.

OTOH finding parts for an old .308 lever gun is likely to be difficult, so I'd suggest in this specific case the easier solution of just using different ammo.

 

[adelbridge]

Steel expands differently than brass. You say you have an old gun so I speculate the chamber dims might be tight. I have had no luck with steel cased .308 but my issues have been primer related. When I did get one to go off I noticed it was dirty. Most of it is made in Russia and I am thinking it is really 7.62 NATO relabeled .308 for US market. Conversely my POI was about 2" lower than with federal blue box and core lokts. We dont import Russian Cars, Electronics for a reason. If it dont work, stay away from it, if it did work I still wouldnt trust my life on it.

 

[animator]

Steel can stick in a dirty chamber, so if the rifle hasn't been cleaned in a while, that can lead to having issues...

 

[Woodyard]

I wouldn't use steel-case ammo in any rifle I valued. Much of it appears to have been made for the Transylvanian Marine Corps. A gunsmith friend of mine showed me where a stuck steel case ripped the extractor right out of a Mini 14. If the buck of a lifetime is in front of me and for some reason I need a second shot, I want to make sure it goes. Besides that, you can't reload the damn things.

 

[Kachok]

I never had a seconds worth of trouble with steel case 308 or 7.62x39. Unless it is just some really bad ammo I would say that is an issue with the gun.

 

[Eric646]

I would guess that it was likely the gun. We cleaned it really good before taking it out. It wouldn't eject the second round fired out of it. So my guess is either the extractor is worn or a tight chamber.

I will save the rounds and try them in my Ruger Gunsight if it ever comes in.

Eric

 

[cougar1717]

Pros of steel cased ammo:
It's cheap
Used by many foreign militaries
Great for plinking and low cost practice

Cons:
Brass cases are softer and can expand more to fit the chamber- protecting the shooter. Not good for "generous" chambers, like those in Enfield type rifles, for example.
Steel or bi-metal cases need a coating to aid extraction - such as a copper wash, laquer, or polymer. These coatings can end up embedded in your chamber. If you fire enough of it, it can cause issues when switching back to brass.
The quality of the ammo, both in terms of accuracy and components.
Usually unreloadable (or at least more difficult than it's worth).
Usually FMJ bullets (but not always) - expanding bullets needed to hunt where I live

I'm sure there are others, but these are the basic differences.

 

[Edarnold]

Steel cases

Biggest problem with steel cases is friction. Brass against polished steel is low friction, the best old cameras used brass gears and inserts in lens mounts and shutters for this reason.

Steel against steel without lubrication will stick and gall, depending on the load and relative hardness. The Russians in WW2 and postwar got around this by copper-plating steel cases for the 7.62x54R. Lacquer coatings (sounds more impressive if you call it "polymer coating") protects the steel from corrosion, but does nothing for lubrication and can melt onto a hot chamber. Works OK for an AK, but then again anything works in an AK.

'Siver Bear' I believe is zinc-plated, good corrosion resistance and somewhat better friction properties.

The Germans late in WW2 came up with the best answer, which is a gray stove enamel-like coating that is burnt onto the cases at high temperature, which removes the low-temperature organics that might foul a hot gun. When the cases have cooled enough, a powdered wax is dusted over the cases in a tumbler, the wax vaporizes and coats the cases evenly, producing a shiny and very slippery surface. This was successfully used in 9x19 and 7.92x33 ammunition, and I believe in some 7.92x57 and larger rounds. After the war, the East Germans continued to use this method for 7.62x39 and other ammunition. The cases with this coating should extract as easily as brass, but the coating does not protect against corrosion as well as the polymer coating.

From the photos I've seen, Hornaday's 'Steel Match' ammo appears to be using cases with this coating.