Blasting ammo.. Herters. (Update Pg 3)

[Magelk]

Nothing "extreme tightwad" about it -- some of us don't have ranges with an endless supply of 5.56/.223 brass to reload, so we make do with what we have available.

I've never had any problems resizing, loading, or shooting steel cases, nor is there any clear evidence of damage or increased wear to resizing dies (or rifle parts for that matter) when playing with steel.

They sure look good here. Like nickel plated cases.

[NeoNeanderthal]

Overall, my short experience is showing that, so long as the steel rounds are kept in ammo cans (just like all my other ammo is stored) and the cases are prepped using the methods I mentioned above (no clean rinse, compressor dry) there are no rust/corrosion issues worth mentioning. Since I mostly use the steel-case reloads as practice and plinking/blasting ammo, I don't foresee them ever being in long-term "deep" storage", so I am not too concerned with how to ensure corrosion resistance over more than just a year or two.

So besides the rinsing, what changes do you do to reload the steel? I've seen people punch out the berdan primers with water and a tight punch, and then they have to modify only a few other steps.

[HackerF15E]

So besides the rinsing, what changes do you do to reload the steel? I've seen people punch out the berdan primers with water and a tight punch, and then they have to modify only a few other steps.

Tula (and some Wolf) .223 cases are boxer primed.

Other than the drying methodology, there is nothing different about reloading steel. Maybe I use a little more lube than with brass (I lube every case when sizing steel and not when I size brass).

[Warp]

For everyone going on about the used brass, be sure to factor in the cost of a reloading setup. Or.....do your own study and publish it.

Or just sell the brass...

It's really quite simple to sell. And you can fit more than 1,600 of them into a medium flat rate USPS box that ships for like $11.

The last 1,600 round lot I put on Gunbroker went for $190, with the buyer paying shipping.

[Littlelebowski]

Or just sell the brass...

It's really quite simple to sell. And you can fit more than 1,600 of them into a medium flat rate USPS box that ships for like $11.

The last 1,600 round lot I put on Gunbroker went for $190, with the buyer paying shipping.

So, does your math make selling used brass to by new brass save more money than buying steel cased?

[Warp]

So, does your math make selling used brass to by new brass save more money than buying steel cased?

Everybody needs to make their own numbers based on:

1) Their actual ammunition costs
2) Their personal rifle's barrel life, which of course is based on several variables in itself
3) What they do with/get for brass cases, and what % of their brass cases they recover
4) And more



But let's look at what they had in the article:

"Although ammunition prices are volatile, the prices of brass and steel remain similar to one another – that is, brass is generally more expensive...For this chart, brass ammunition was calculated at $130 per thousand higher than steel and replacement barrels at $250 apiece."

So they used $130 as the difference. The brass I sold was net me about $112 per 1,000. I figure that, on average, I recover 80% of the cases I get from firing brass ammo. That would be $90 per 1k that I get back from selling the brass, using actual numbers.

That puts the price difference as $40 per 1,000 which means that steel case ammo is not only inferior in performance, but it doesn't even save money once you account for premature barrel wear. Remember that the Federal barrel still had plenty of rounds to go before it would have worn out, and the steel case barrels were "shot out" at around 5,000. That means I would have go buy 1 or 2 replacement barrels while shooting all steel while buying 0 replacement barrels shooting brass case.

Using my numbers, I'd have to get at least 6,500 rounds out of the $250 barrel in order for steel case to be AS INEXPENSIVE as brass case...and then there is the case of the inferior performance of steel case on top of that!

[Hwikek]

I actually didn't like buying Tulammo due to forum reputuations. However, accidently bought 100 rounds of Herter's before I knew better. So far it's done fine in my S&W - which has also shot about 500 rounds of Wolf and Silver Bear without issue.

That being said, my friend has a Bushmaster that won't cycle any Russian stuff either. Your guess is as good as mine, but I suspect a different buffer system.

What buffer does your rifle have? If it is factory then it is likely the same as your friend's Bushmaster. The difference is most likely the diameter of the gas port. A larger gas port has less trouble running the steel cased ammo since it will allow more gas into the action.

[Peadog]

I was shooting with a friend today and he had a case stick in the chamber of his colt 6920. It was a 62 gr Herters. Took a couple of taps with a steel rod and hammer to get it out. Primer was flat, not sure if that would be a sign of over pressure or not. He's gonna scub the chamber and give it another go. He's never had trouble with Wolf...

[Hwikek]

Primers pop out if pressure is very high. Wolf has consistently proven to have a higher pressure so that is probably why he hasn't had a malfunction. A good tool to have on hand is one of those broken case extractors, not sure of the exact name.

[HackerF15E]

Wolf has consistently proven to have a higher pressure

Do you have some data that you can link to showing that?

This other LuckyGunner test pressure plots don't show that with Tula or Silver Bear....

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/