Lust at 1st sight

[poff09]

Now don't laugh too hard:

Me and the wifey were enjoying a day off together cuz it rarely happens anymore so we went to Academy...of course there wasn't much ammo but I did see 3 boxes of Monarch 223 just sitting there...so without any hesitation I bought a box and made her buy a box...usually I woulda at least done a lil research but was shocked that they had some while I was actually there

So then came the research and found that it is the steel cased ammo ..the $7 price tag shoulda warned me..I still consider myself new to the firearm arena and have heard nothing but evil about steel cased ammo..are these stories usually exaggerated or will I be safe shooting the 40 rounds I picked up or should I just offer them up on here to someone who's AR might be able to handle them

Just for reference I bought the Wally World Black Friday special Sig M400.

Any help is appreciated

 

[WILWORK4GUNS]

http://gulfcoastgunforum.com/showthread.php?9063-Brass-vs-Steel-Cased-Ammo-%96-An-Epic-Torture-Test
Short story.....all the bad press about steel cased ammo is BS.
Unless you fire more than 5-6 thousand rounds ....firing the weapon until its too hot to hold....then you will not know the difference, and neither will your weapon.
If you want to shoot the best...shoot brass....if you want to shoot any time soon....and at a good price....shoot all the steel you can get your hands on.
Wish I had some.....I have a bunch of brass stuff that I can't bear to shoot ...all I see is dollars going down range.

 

[joe]

YOu will be fine.

Read all about it for yourself.
http://gulfcoastgunforum.com/showthread.php?9063-Brass-vs-Steel-Cased-Ammo-%96-An-Epic-Torture-Test

 

[Ken232]

You can shoot steel case ammo just dont make it a all the time thing.its worse from what I have heard when rapid firing and the gun heats up and the case sticks and pops your extractor i got some steel and shoot it at the range when in practicing for accuracy with the iron sights and i loaded 1 steel per every 4 brass...no problems and shot slow and it did fine...

 

[WILWORK4GUNS]

You can shoot steel case ammo just dont make it a all the time thing.its worse from what I have heard when rapid firing and the gun heats up and the case sticks and pops your extractor i got some steel and shoot it at the range when in practicing for accuracy with the iron sights and i loaded 1 steel per every 4 brass...no problems and shot slow and it did fine...

There is a lot of conflicting info floating around. I saw another study that indicated that mixing ammo caused stuck cases. The coatings on some of the older steel cased stuff could melt and deposit in the chamber....a brass case - without a coating would stick to the deposited coating and jam. Always made worse by rapid fire.
A lot of the newer steel cases have a better polymer - which does not usually come off.
Either way....I think rapid fire/overheating is the cause....and probably not something anyone is doing right now hwell:

 

[Rebuilt]

I had this discussion once with the guy behind the counter at walmart, the bottom line is this the mild steel cased ammo is way softer than the hardened extracter. The diffrence isnt that much fron the brass. Just clean your gun well after shooting and you will be fine.

 

[FrankT]

It is terrible, I will take it off your hands...do not use it!

 

[donr101395]

From 2007 until present my training ammo was all Wolf 55gr, 62gr, and 75gr. The internet is bull of BS about running steel case ammo. With few exceptions the only issues I've seen with it are when people try to run it in substandard guns which are known to have widely varying chamber dimensions regardless of how they stamped it. I run them hard and usually have 2-3 stuck cases a year from letting it sit in a really hot chamber.

 

[ilintner]

I've put a lot of that monarch ammo through my sig 556 without any ill effects, very few failures.

 

[Scrooge]

I try to avoid it but have not had any problems shooting it. No issues, I just don't like it...

 

[FrankT]

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

 

[Patoz]

One thing I learned when I posted that article was that 'steel case' shells are not 100% steel. They are a bi-metal made up of steel and copper. I bought a case of Wolf (1,000 rds.) several years ago, and have shot about half of it with not even one stuck case yet.

 

[SAWMAN]

I have never(ever)shot a single rd of the steel/laquor cased ammo thru any of my past and/or present AR's. AND.......I never will. I look at it like this. WHY is ammo steel cased ?? Why does the US military NOT use steel/laquor cased ammo ??

My opinion.......some ammo is made with a steel case and a laquor or "polymer" coating because it is designed to be shot thru the absolute lowest cost gun at the rate of 10,000rds per year(just guessing). The steel cased stuff must me cheaper to make,right ?? Otherwise it would be brass,right ?? How much more does the manufacturer make produceing this ammo rather than brass ?? (Gotta be a reason why there is so much of it out there,right ??)
If some shooters want to buy,and feed your gun the "other than brass" cased ammo,that's fine. BUT.......think about all the places that the steel case comes into contact with when you use it in your gun. Mag feed lips....a brass case is usually scratched when pushed into the chamber. Why ?? Because the mag feed lips are harder than brass I would guess. Brass is also softer than the bolt face including the extractor and the ejector plunger...right. How about steel ?? Another question ---> what happens to all that lacquor/polymer that the steel is coated with during firing and especially after your chamber gets super hot ??

ANYWAY......your gun ..... your choice of ammo. Personally ..... I have been "known" to pass on the purchase of a gun because of how the owner "bragged" on how well it shot the steel cased ammo.

Good Shootin' To All --- SAWMAN

 

[joe]

Most everyone has more experience with Steel case & ARs then me but I am not seeing the value in brass for plinking ammo.

I have never had any sort of misfire, jam etc.. in a 350 hundred rounds of tula. It was steel torso accurate at 250 yrds, really better then that. From my experience it was not any dirtier then Federal ball. I can not comment on other brands of steel case.

I would never have guessed I would turn out to be a steel case fan but for the type of shooting I do most with my Ar it is hard to beat.

I would always choose brass case if price was not a concern but seeing how ridiculously priced 5.56 is now I would not hesitate in buying & using it. If I bought one case of steel for say $450 & one brass for 650 I have just saved 200. A new barrel can be bought for $200 to $375.


If it did in fact wear all these parts out you would still be ahead of the game.

A new extracter $14 to 35.
http://www.brownells.com/search/index.htm?k=ar+extracter&ksubmit=y

New barrel $200 to 400
http://www.brownells.com/rifle-parts/barrel-parts/rifle-barrels/index.htm

New magzine $15

There are alot of russian guns that run this stuff full time.

 

[FrankT]

Joe if your gun shoots steel OK and no issues, you might as well save the $$. Tula and several others like the link I posted above have shown with the modern metals and improvement there is little harm till the 10,000-20,000 rd count, at that time it is time to re-barrel again anyway. Oh an you can re-barrel for about $150 unless going for something special.

From Luck Gunner field test report:
The difference in price between brass and steel cased (more specifically, copper jacketed and bimetal jacketed) ammunition means that you’ll have plenty of savings with which to buy new barrels – even if you shoot so fast that you replace them every 4,000 rounds. For this chart, brass ammunition was calculated at $130 per thousand higher than steel and replacement barrels at $250 apiece.