Anyone shooting steel-cased ammo thru a S&W M&P or PSA AR?

[Phlipper]

I want (need?) another AR and there are some decent choices in my range, but I shoot a lot and have had to go with steel-cased ammo since the panic buying ensued. Does anyone own an M&P or PSA upper that gets a steady diet of steel-cased 5.56? How's it working for you? Any issues with extraction? Would reaming the chamber help, without raising additional issues?

I've only shot steel from a friend's RRA mid-length, and since the steel cases don't expand the rather dirty ammo (Wolf) was gunking up his chamber pretty badly. We mortored quite a few out in one day. However, I've read on the webz of S&Ws and Colts just burning thru the Russian stuff like butter, with not a single issue. Does anyone have recent experience running steel-cased 5.56 thru either of these two weapons?

[Grand58742]

When I still had my PSA, I ran steel through it with no problems, maybe upwards of six hundred rounds before I sold it. Others I've seen also aren't having trouble.

Just a pain to clean afterwards.

[kaltesherz]

Any decent AR can run steel cased ammo without any reliability issues, but you'll wear out your barrel much faster.

[polymorpheous]

A proper 5.56 chamber will run steel cased.
Your friends Rock River does not have this.

There is STILL a lot of misinfo out there about steel cased.
I suggest you run a search on it.

[polymorpheous]

Any decent AR can run steel cased ammo without any reliability issues, but you'll wear out your barrel much faster.

No he won't.
Heat kills barrels.
In other words, mag dumps and lots of them.
A normal firing schedule won't affect barrel longevity significantly.

[Phlipper]

When I still had my PSA, I ran steel through it with no problems, maybe upwards of six hundred rounds before I sold it. Others I've seen also aren't having trouble.

Just a pain to clean afterwards.

Yes, depending on brand, it can be pretty bad. Thanks much.

[MistWolf]

It's not the steel case that wears out barrels faster, it's the steel jacket of the bullet and I believe it's in part because the steel jacket doesn't seal the bore as well as a copper jacket and the blow by increases wear.

I've shot some steel cased Herter's- I think was around around 500 to 1000 rounds- through my PSA carbine. Every now and then, a case would stick in the chamber and I'd have shorten up the stock and pogo it. That didn't always work so I'd started keeping a steel rod for poking out the stuck case. There's a trick to it though- Don't drop the rod down the bore and go banging away on it with a hammer. That doesn't work very well because the force gets wasted flexing the rod. A better way is to drop the rod and let momentum do the work. The rod will drop down and hit the case with a rap. It may take a few raps but it will eventually drive the case out.

The reason steel cases will stick is because it's loaded to lower pressures so it won't stick in the chamber. Doesn't make sense, does it? I'll explain-

Steel has less elasticity than brass so when it expands when the round is fired, it doesn't spring back as much. To keep it from expanding too much and sticking in the chamber, pressure is reduced. The downside, however, is that it doesn't expand enough to completely seal the chamber. (That's why brass make the ideal case for ammo- it expands to seal and grip the chamber but springs back enough for positive extraction.) Gases leak past the mouth into the chamber to leave carbon deposits. When the deposits build up enough, cases start sticking.

But, you point out, AKs don't have problems with steel cases sticking in their chambers- and rightly so. Russian ammo was designed with a steeper body taper which prevents the cases from sticking even with carbon fouling and steel cases. The trade off is needing highly curved magazines and increased bolt thrust.

It's also been my experience that steel cased ammo feeds better from the polymer Pmags than the aluminum GI mags. Steel cases against the aluminum feed lips results in stiction, requiring more force to strip and feed the round reliably. Since the ammo is loaded to less pressure, you're already behind the power curve. Of course, your experience may be different

[Samson1]

with so many threads on this topic, are we really going to do this again?

[Socom Elite]

My PSA AR runs it fine. It's all I feed it

[RMiller]

with so many threads on this topic, are we really going to do this again?

Agreed. OP us the search button.

A brief summary:

- Properly spec'd chamber has no problem with steel cased ammo.
- Bi-metal jackets will use up a barrel slightly faster
- Shooting steel cased ammo saves you enough money that you could replace that said barrel 3 fold if not more.
- Heat kills barrels.....yea full auto or bubba mag dumps.
- Throwing this steel cased ammo in a plastic grocery sack along with a few squirts of WD-40 and spread it all around goes a long way.
- Be careful when playing with buffers if you plan to shoot alot of steel cased ammo. Most is considered under powered.
- Tula is known to be weakest. Seems to be more functional with a carbine length gas system,but can be ran with a middy with a lighter buffer. The gas port has a lot to do with it too.

Search for steel cased ammo. Search button will give you hours of reading.

And if anybody posts that damn lucky gunner test.....