Ammo
- Thread starter Majickcom
- Start date
I personally haven't heard of steel cased ammo causing any damage to a firearm and it seems to be just a typical myth you'd here from the uninformed.Recently acquired a brand new M1A national match! Nice rightwill it hurt it to fire Steel cased ammo out of it? I know some fire arms it’s not a good idea.
I'd try it out and see if you're rifle likes to feed it properly.
jfmorris
Master Class
Personally I would avoid steel cased ammo in a nice firearm like that. Why? Because the firearm was designed with brass cased ammo in mind. Steel cases simply don't have the same expansion properties under pressure as brass cases do, and while the M1A may work with it just fine, I would rather not do it if it were mine. I've read reports online that the M1A uses steel cased ammo just fine, but again - may be more wear and tear on the rifle. I would save the use of steel cased ammo for a cheaper semi-auto than the M1A.
HansGruber
Ronin
Funny thing:
The US used steel cased ammunition during WW2...so, obviously, they figured weapons designed around brass cased ammunition could handle steel cased loads.
So...will the M1A be able to shoot them?
Yes. Absolutely.
Will they possibly cause a little more wear? Probably. A lot of foreign (Russian) steel cased rifle loads use mild steel jackets, which have been shown to shorten barrel life by 25-33% with a constant diet of it.
However—if all you can find right now are steel loads? Run them; a couple hundred rounds won’t do irreparable damage.
The US used steel cased ammunition during WW2...so, obviously, they figured weapons designed around brass cased ammunition could handle steel cased loads.
So...will the M1A be able to shoot them?
Yes. Absolutely.
Will they possibly cause a little more wear? Probably. A lot of foreign (Russian) steel cased rifle loads use mild steel jackets, which have been shown to shorten barrel life by 25-33% with a constant diet of it.
However—if all you can find right now are steel loads? Run them; a couple hundred rounds won’t do irreparable damage.
HansGruber
Ronin
For further review:
www.luckygunner.com
Brass vs. Steel Cased Ammo - An Epic Torture Test
This comprehensive 40,000 round brass vs. steel cased ammo torture test examines at key indicators of ammo performance and cost in AR-15 rifles.
www.luckygunner.com
HansGruber
Ronin
And, my personal, entirely subjective experience with steel cased ammo:
In the early-mid 2000’s, I took several high round count classes. Since steel cased ammo was cheap (under $90/1k rounds for 9mm, and usually around $150/1k for .45, and $200/k for .223/5.56)...I ran a lot of steel. I don’t recall a single stoppage/event directly attributable to steel cased ammo.
In fact, I decided to see if steel ammo would choke/damage a pistol; I chose a Gen2 Glock 21 .45; a well-used police surplus pistol I was able to pick up cheap. It was fairly dirty when I got it; I did not clean it, just lubed it at the usual spots, with a normal amount of lube...and ran it HARD.
Many thousands of rounds went through it, all steel—Wolf, Silver/Brown Bear, Tula. At, iirc, between 2 and 3k rounds, it got sluggish, and started to FTFeed; I pulled the slide, whacked it on the bench to knock out the worst of the crud (it was CAKED with residue), put a few drops of lube on the rails, barrel, etc, and put it back to work...no issues.
I never broke an extractor, and I don’t recall a reduction in accuracy. I sold it after about 5k rounds to a friend's son (after a detail strip, deep clean, and a new extractor that I installed for good measure).
It is still running today, but has had a Lone Wolf barrel installed to facilitate lead bullets.
TL: DR:
Steel might damage your weapon, but you're going to have to run a crap-ton through it to get to that point.
So run the steel.
In the early-mid 2000’s, I took several high round count classes. Since steel cased ammo was cheap (under $90/1k rounds for 9mm, and usually around $150/1k for .45, and $200/k for .223/5.56)...I ran a lot of steel. I don’t recall a single stoppage/event directly attributable to steel cased ammo.
In fact, I decided to see if steel ammo would choke/damage a pistol; I chose a Gen2 Glock 21 .45; a well-used police surplus pistol I was able to pick up cheap. It was fairly dirty when I got it; I did not clean it, just lubed it at the usual spots, with a normal amount of lube...and ran it HARD.
Many thousands of rounds went through it, all steel—Wolf, Silver/Brown Bear, Tula. At, iirc, between 2 and 3k rounds, it got sluggish, and started to FTFeed; I pulled the slide, whacked it on the bench to knock out the worst of the crud (it was CAKED with residue), put a few drops of lube on the rails, barrel, etc, and put it back to work...no issues.
I never broke an extractor, and I don’t recall a reduction in accuracy. I sold it after about 5k rounds to a friend's son (after a detail strip, deep clean, and a new extractor that I installed for good measure).
It is still running today, but has had a Lone Wolf barrel installed to facilitate lead bullets.
TL: DR:
Steel might damage your weapon, but you're going to have to run a crap-ton through it to get to that point.
So run the steel.
BangBang
Professional
From my limited experience with steel cases ammo, I have seen that it was less accurate than the brass counterparts I had with me. Lucky Gunner does some good test, however speaking with steel case I have seen some extractors weakened well before they should have with a steady diet of steel case in certain 1911’s. I understand that we are talking two different platforms and I have shot a limited diet in both, rifle and pistol with good results, in terms of function. I would not be afraid to run it if it’s all I had or could find.