Russian steel-cased cartridges

[Stoner_guy]

Hi all. A few weeks ago, I went plinking with a friend using an m4 clone. Not having stockpiled on ammo, I decided to stop by a local Walmart. The typical target-practice .223 cartridges were the 55-grain Winchester or Remington types. But then I saw these Russian import cartridges for half the price of the typical brass-cased ones. It was tempting to purchase, but declined to because I wasn't sure of the long-term effects of using steel cartridges in my clone (steel against steel you know). Does anyone have any experiences-good or bad-using them?

[Country Boy]

Hi all. A few weeks ago, I went plinking with a friend using an m4 clone. Not having stockpiled on ammo, I decided to stop by a local Walmart. The typical target-practice .223 cartridges were the 55-grain Winchester or Remington types. But then I saw these Russian import cartridges for half the price of the typical brass-cased ones. It was tempting to purchase, but declined to because I wasn't sure of the long-term effects of using steel cartridges in my clone (steel against steel you know). Does anyone have any experiences-good or bad-using them?

proly the worst you can expect is a few FTE. chamber gets dirty cuz they don't expand like brass and the steel they use is softer then brass so sometimes the extractor doesn't kick it out when it gets stuck like that. if your at the range jst be sure and take you a cleaning rod with you. if you do shoot steel cased ammo tho, whatever you do don't shoot any with a laquer coating.

give it hell. silver bear shoots lights out for me!

[kal]

The steel used on russian steel casings and bullet jackets are mild and no where near as strong/hard as the barrel steel. What you're most likely refering to is Tula Ammo (or TulAmmo, I think).


Some ar15's handle steel cased ammo and some don't.

[orionz06]

I believe most issues are chamber related and made obvious with the steel case. A good gun should have no issues, if it does I would fix it.

[Robb Jensen]

With true 5.56mm NATO chambers and run very wet with oil and ARs won't have problems. Don't have either and you WILL HAVE problems.

[Eric D.]

There is not a steel in existence that is softer than brass.

I don't know about laquer, but almost every brand (Including Wolf and TulAmmo) of steel cased ammo is polymer coated.

Silver bear is garbage.

To the OP, if you've never shot Wolf before you will find it is incredibly dirty; night and day difference between wolf and remington or any quality ammo. The remmington is worth the few extra dollars just because of how much cleaner it is.

proly the worst you can expect is a few FTE. chamber gets dirty cuz they don't expand like brass and the steel they use is softer then brass so sometimes the extractor doesn't kick it out when it gets stuck like that. if your at the range jst be sure and take you a cleaning rod with you. if you do shoot steel cased ammo tho, whatever you do don't shoot any with a laquer coating.

give it hell. silver bear shoots lights out for me!

[Sigaholic]

Owned a Stag for a brief time and had no issues with the Wolf steel cased ammo. Owned a RRA upper and it choked on the Tula ammo. Sold it and replaced it with a BCM upper...loves the Tula with ZERO issues. Does get dirty, but that's what the 725 is for!

[sjc3081]

I exclusively shoot laquer coated brown bear out of my lmt and bcm carbines and have had zero problems. I used laquer coated brown bear at LAV class and had zero problems. I prefer laquer coated ammo it seams to me to run cleaner than poly wolf.

[Robb Jensen]

There is not a steel in existence that is softer than brass.

I don't know about laquer, but almost every brand (Including Wolf and TulAmmo) of steel cased ammo is polymer coated.

Silver bear is garbage.

To the OP, if you've never shot Wolf before you will find it is incredibly dirty; night and day difference between wolf and remington or any quality ammo. The remmington is worth the few extra dollars just because of how much cleaner it is.

The clue I gave above is that the gun needs to be WET, like the carrier dripping wet with oil and you have to have a 5.56mm NATO chamber. The casing could be made of Inconel, steel, titanium or some other unobtainium space age metal and it would still work. The chamber doesn't care what the casing made out of as long as it's at the proper spec/size for 5.56mm NATO. MANY ARs have some non 5.56mm NATO chambers .I work on these things daily for 8hrs a day 5 days a week, just a thought not a sermon.

[kal]

and you have to have a 5.56mm NATO chamber.

Now when you say 5.56mm nato chamber, are you saying that the throat design is the cause of FTE's with steel cased ammo in 223 chambers, or that the chamber wall is wider in a 5.56mm than in a 223?

I've seen some of those pdf files on reamer dimensions and the difference between the chamber wall diameter on 223 and 5.56mm is really, REALLY small. We're talking 1/20th of a millimeter or smaller.