Does Steel-Cased Ammo Suck?

[GunXpatriot]

Hey guys, I just put a video up on YouTube that I hope debunked some myths about steel-cased ammo. It would be cool if you guys would be willing to check out my video and also tell me what you think. Thanks!

https://youtu.be/1o7uUlVFevk


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[RickD1225]

It totally sucks to me, but I load my own ammo. I don't buy factory anymore.

[GunXpatriot]

Suppose for like, .223/5.56, if steel case costs a little over $.25 a round, and brass cased is more like 33 cents and up...

Over the life of a case, how much does it end up costing you per shot approximately?

[Targa]

Another good video. You are the one putting in the work/research, I can't contest any information your putting out there. As for my personal experience, my AR gets a steady diet of brass PMC .223, why? Because at $7.00 a box I see no reason to run steel cased ammo through it. Now conversely, my Saiga 7.62x39 will never see a brass cased round through it, $5.00 a box for the steel stuff or $15-$20 foot the brass stuff, no brainer for me and the biggest reason why I went with the Saiga over a Mini-30 for example.

[Model12Win]

My Пистолет Макарова sees only steel cased ammo.

In fact, Никола́й Мака́ров designed it around such.

[Ben Towe]

Does it suck? Well, some of it does. Most steel cased ammo is bargain barrel ammo. It's generally underpowered and made in countries where quality control isn't a priority. Of course there are exceptions: Hornady makes a steel cased match load that is excellent. Cheap steel cased ammo will eventually stick and malfunction rates will be higher, as demonstrated in your video. It should also be noted that the malfunctions will happen at the worst possible time, such as in the middle of a timed event after you've been running the rifle hard all day (ask me how I know).

At one time I shot a lot of steel cased stuff, but as I began to buy and build first rate rifles I phased it out for first rate ammunition. Maybe that's silly, because my rifles now would almost certainly run it more reliably than the old basic ones would. It's just that feeding $500 rifles crappy Russian ammo seems more proper than doing that to one that cost four or five times that much. Your opinion may vary.

[Mobuck]

I'm the proud owner of a S&W 5.45x39 upper so ALL the ammo through it is steel cased. I really don't have any ammo related problems but then, I don't try to make it sound like a machine gun. In SOME cases(pun intended), it's not the steel case but what's loaded in those cases.
For instance, the Hornady V-max 5.45 ammo is loaded with excellent bullets and cleaner burning powder by Hornady and performs as well as I need vs. the mediocre accuracy and nasty fouling left by European loaded ammo.

[surveyor]

I don't shoot it in anything but rifles it was designed for. (Ak pattern, chineese,etc)

If it is solely a economic issue do a analysis of cost per round, of both steel case , and brass case boxer primed, reflecting barrel wear, as well as brass recycling costs.

You may find that you will get your .06 back on the brass case, selling/recycling and get twice the barrel life, the results could be diffrent, or less dramatic.

So either a I shoot steel case because its cheap, and I can accept the wear on the gun as a trade off.

Or I shoot brass and pick up cases to offset the costs, and barrel life is twice as long.

(Yes barrels are a wear item, anywhere between $100-$350)

But a well thought out video

[Gunplummer]

Did not bother watching the video. Had enough problems with steel cased junk years ago. I was looking for bulk 8x57 last week and there is plenty of steel cased out there. It is also corrosive. Who would want to run that into their gas system? A long time ago I bought copper washed steel 7.62x54R ammo for a nice hex receiver rifle I had. The burrs were so bad on the rim it chewed up the face of the chamber. The old surplus ammo used to have some kind of laquer finish on it. It was like putting clover compound in your chamber. I have had enough. I am done with it.

[T. O'Heir]

"...made in countries where quality control isn't..." Different accuracy requirements. 7.62NATO ball was 3" at 100 as I recall. Steel cased stuff is usually not up to North American hunting or target shooting standards. Also Berdan primed and not reloadable. Isn't always European either. Hornady makes it.
That doesn't mean it sucks though. Just isn't the same quality for the price. said price is a whole lot more for Hornady than it is for say Tula. $5.99 per 20 vs $19.29 on sale.

[Mobuck]

" Just isn't the same quality for the price. said price is a whole lot more for Hornady than it is for say Tula. $5.99 per 20 vs $19.29 on sale."

So, you're saying Hornady is simply re-branding European made ammo(like the steel match ammo they're selling)??????
I'd like to see some proof.

[Reloadron]

Does Steel-Cased Ammo Suck?

While not in a steel cased ammunition fan club does the stuff suck? Nope, I would not say it sucked. Steel cased ammunition does what it is supposed to do in the guns it was designed to originally function in.

Do I use Steel Cased ammunition?

The only steel cased ammunition I have used was during the early 90s when the steel cased 7.62 x 39 poured into the country (mostly from China at the time) and US manufacturers had not yet began producing the caliber. At 1200 rounds for about $100 the stuff worked in the SKS and AK variants also pouring into the country. I still have a few thousand rounds of the stuff for an SKS I haven't shot in a decade or more. Today I have no reason to shoot the stuff so I don't bother with it.

People should shoot whatever trips their trigger.

Ron

[Mike38]

I've shot four different types of steel cased ammo in .223. Tulammo, Wolf (black box) Brown Bear and Silver Bear. Of those four, Silver Bear was the best, but nothing to brag about, and Tulammo the worse. Silver Bear gave me around 5 inch groups at 100 yards. Tulammo was horrid, 12 inch groups at best. In comparison, LC M855 is around 3 inch groups, and my reloads around 2 inch groups. This is out of a Saiga223.

[GunXpatriot]

I'm surprised your groups were THAT bad with steel case stuff. That's beyond atrocious...

Also, I was talking about non-corrosive commercial ammo, not surplus, just to be clear.

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys.

[tahunua001]

not gonna lie, I didn't watch the movie. I'm just dropping my two cents here.
Hornady makes some select match grade ammo that is steel cased.

my DPMS actually shoots wolf bulk pack steel cased 223 better than more expensive brass cased stuff.

some of the worst ammo I've ever shot was brass cased.

with that said, on average steel cased ammo is usually cheap budget brand stuff that is not made to the tightest control standards and therefore on average sucks more than brass cased ammo. that's a quality issue, not a materials issue.

[doofus47]

The video seems very well written.
I would love to see more vid caps of exploding pop cans and the like... B/c you know that's what people shoot with steel-cased ammo, right? (just kidding).

I try not to shoot steel-cased ammo through my .223 ARs, but I do shoot it through my VZ and haven't had a problem. I'm nowhere near 6K rounds yet.

I can only dream of shooting out a barrel.

[Jimro]

"suck" is subjective.

I expect steel cased Russian or Chinese ammo to go bang every time, be 4 MOA accurate (anything tighter than that would be gravy) and increase bore wear.

But if the cost of a new barrel is less than the savings you gain from shooting steel cased, have at it, barrels are a wear part anyways.

Jimro

[taylorce1]

Reloading .223 with Lapua brass I figure I can do bulk loads for 22-25 cents a reload over the life of the brass. I usually can get a minimum of 10 reloads per piece of brass in .223. It costs me my time to reload, but usually I can find more time to reload than I can to shoot.

However to get it this cheap you buy primers by the case, powder by the keg, bullets by the thousands, and brass about 500 pieces at a time. Last time I bought 55 grain FMJ bullets we paid right at 6 cents a bullet for 6000 delivered. I split that batch with two of my friends so I only got 2K of them, but that'll last me a long time as I rarely shoot FMJ bullets.

[5whiskey]

Ok, I didn't watch the video as others have said, but here I go with my .02...

I reload, hence steel cased ammo is not as economical to me. I can reload ammo that will hold 1moa for 19 cents per round, albeit I have a good bit of effort into it. None-the-less, I did find that steel cased brown bear ammo would hold better groups than everything else (including hornady). So, I am a fan of shooting steel cased ammo out of com-bloc rifles as the ammo is designed (more or less) for the rifle.

Out of an AR? No question I would shoot brass cased ammo. The barrel life argument is valid, though copper-washed steel jackets are the culprit of barrel wear. Not all steel cased ammo has this projectile (some have true copper jackets), while I suspect some brassed case ammo has steel jacket projectiles. None-the-less, most steel cased ammo will have steel jacket projectiles, while most brass cases will have true copper projectiles. This is the biggest reason why I am not a steel cased ammo believer... unless it's a rifle I can't expect better than 3 moa out of in the first place.

[Gunplummer]

I don't buy steel cased ammo anymore, but never heard of "Copper washed" bullets. I fired a lot of surplus ammo years ago that had some type of copper/nickel jacket on the bullets. This had a yellow look to it. Steel jacketed sounds like last ditch production to me. If the bullet was made that cheaply, can you imagine what the powder mix is like?

[tahunua001]

copper washed stuff


solid steel jackets are rare but most of the cheap stuff these days has steel in the jacket, just stick a magnet to it. sellier and bellot, and the bear, and tula brands all do it.

[Gunplummer]

Never saw that before. I do buy some Sellior &Bellot ammo, just not their scrap. I shoot their 150 gran SPCE out of my autoloader and it works great. If they are going over to that, I better pay closer attention when I order ammo.

[Josh Smith]

Originally Posted by gunplummer

I don't buy steel cased ammo anymore, but never heard of "Copper washed" bullets. I fired a lot of surplus ammo years ago that had some type of copper/nickel jacket on the bullets. This had a yellow look to it. Steel jacketed sounds like last ditch production to me. If the bullet was made that cheaply, can you imagine what the powder mix is like?

How in the world have you never heard of copper-washed steel jackets? It's far from last-ditch.

Josh

[Model12Win]

Copper washed is were they put a thin layer of copper on the steel case to keep it from rusting. Cheap and easy to do in bulk. Really popular for Russian and Chinese military ammo in particular.

[Josh Smith]

Guys, the US has fielded steel-cased ammo in the past (1943 .45acp). It's not ideal in my opinion, but it's definitely usable if that's what one has to work with. Russkie rifles work fine with it.

Josh