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I got some 62 grain Brown Bear steel case ammo. I only have 40 rounds, I won't be using this on a steady basis but is it okay to use once in while? 

 

I have a Rock River AR

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15 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I got some 62 grain Brown Bear steel case ammo. I only have 40 rounds, I won't be using this on a steady basis but is it okay to use once in while? 

 

I have a Rock River AR

 

Separating fact from fiction.  Steel-Case Ammo: Bad For Your Gun?

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The cartridge case is designed to swell during the pressure build up so that the gasses will stay out of the action and away from the shooter.  Brass does this, so does steel.  The problem with steel is that it shrinks back much slower than brass and is very hard, making extraction more difficult.

My opinion and your rifle, your choice.

The least that happens is wear on the extractor.  More serious issues involve chamber wear as the hard and swollen steel case is dragged out of the chamber.

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Saw a guy at a range with a sig ar and he could not cycle wolf steel ammo but i could in my smith and wesson.  We traded .

 

Tried steel in a 9mm revolver smith and wesson the other day and had a hard time extracting the spent rounds even though they were in a moon clip.  Not a real fan.

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6 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I got some 62 grain Brown Bear steel case ammo. I only have 40 rounds, I won't be using this on a steady basis but is it okay to use once in while? 

 

I have a Rock River AR

 

If you have a hard chrome chamber. No big deal.

Otherwise,  I would not use steel cased.

OLG 

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Howdy,

It might help to have that chamber reel clean.

Use what the rifle is designed for. 

When I couldn't get 100 octane leaded gas I sold my Camaro.

 

Best

CR

 

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I've shot a bunch of that steel Russian 5.56 ammo through my AR's.  It cycles just fine.   I guess it depends on what your shooting.   I've found that it's not the most accurate ammunition but it works.  You won't be able to tell the difference without using a benchrest and a good scope.  For your standard, run of the mill AR 15, it'll be good enough for target practice 3 Gun competitions and it's about 1/2 the price of brass ammo.

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I bought a new AR-15 made by Armalite a few years ago, and it so far has not failed to function, either feeding or ejecting.  So far, I’ve fired about 300 rounds through it.
I like ke this rifle a lot.  

 

 I bought a couple hundred round rounds of .223 steel-case ammo from a local guy’s ad, and they functioned flawlessly..  They seemed to ma to make a “clattering(?)” noise cycling through the action, though, and it was difficult to find the empty steel shell casings.  Accuracy did group larger than I expected.

 

Later, I bought 3000 rounds of brass-case 5.56 ammo from the same guy, packed in .30-caliber ammo cans.  Accuracy is very noticeably better with this brass-case ammunition.
 

This brass-case ammo runs flawlessly through the rifle.  It’s more accurate, and it runs significantly smoother through my rifle than I experienced with the steel-case ammo.  It does generate just a bit more recoil, though, which is not really a problem.

 

Cat Brules
 

 

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I won't use steel cased ammo. Folks say it's okay to use but I don't use it because I don't trust that it is okay to use in my ARs or Pistols.. I have used it in SKS's because it was cheap ammo in a cheap gun, One benefit to it is that with a large magnet range clean up  is easier. ;)

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5 hours ago, Ramblin Gambler said:

 

Did you try a big magnet?


 

No, I did not use a magnet, but I do have a good-size 4-magnet set-up.(for another purpose) that might have worked.  
 

After firing 20-25 steel-cased rounds (and then realizing the problem), I laid down a large “blue tarp”’ in the “ejected empties“ zone.  So, I’m using the large-blue-tarp method to catch.ejected AR shell casings, and it does a very good job.  A good followup/backup to that is a cheap metal detector to locate the stragglers.  I don’t like leaving brass behind, on the ground.

 

Cat Brules

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40 rounds should not be a problem. Possible issues with steel cases are well documented above.

 

Another thing to do is take a magnet and see if the bullets are steel. That might be a bigger issue. But even then, 40 rounds should not be a problem. Fore one round first just to make sure the primer fires, just to save time loading the magazines for nothing.

 

Other than that, blow it off and go back to brass cases and non-magnetic bullets.

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Lot of misinformation out there.

 

Steel cased ammo is generally inaccurate, dirty, smelly, usually underpowered and cheap.  Other than that it's fine.

 

Some AR's don't like it, some do.

 

I've fired many thousands of steel cased, way more brass cased, depending on the gun and the task at hand.

 

I have friends that have shot many times the number of steel cased ammo than I have, with nary a problem.

 

The only issue I've ever seen is if you shoot steel cased ammo, and plan on shooting brass cased ammo after it, make sure you clean the chamber really well.  Because the steel case does not seal the chamber very well, (just like .45 Colt :D) carbon and traces of the coating (lacquer is worse than poly) build up in the chamber.  When you then shoot brass, the brass will stick in the chamber and extractor will pull the rim off.

 

The steel that quality extractors are made of, is way, way harder than any steel case, they are pretty soft.  Unless you are shooting 1K rounds a month, you are unlikely ever to wear one out.  Same goes for the barrel, the copper washed steel jackets do impart more wear on the barrel.  The cost savings using the steel case ammo will make up having to buy a barrel after 10K rounds, versus 20K rounds.

 

If you are just shooting dirt, or steel targets, and don't need sub MOA performance, try a couple boxes and see if it works in your rifle.

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