Steel vs brass casing

[SAC]

I'm having a hard time getting my Grendel to hold a consistent group. Cutting holes, then out of nowhere a flyer. Only have about 50 rounds down it. Been reading that it may take a few hundred rounds to break in the barrel. I've been told by a few not to run steel cased through regardless. But at a fraction of the cost, its tough not to consider burning through a few rounds for "break in".

Thoughts?

[sierracharlie338]

Steel cases are harder on your gas gun in almost every way. I cant say that I have seen a direct correlation between steel cases and accuracy but have seen differences between various brass brands.

I stay away from steel period. No matter how cheap it is because I have seen steel cases rip an extractor apart.

[duckmanep]

Running a few hundred rounds of steel through a modern rifle should not be an issue IMO.

[TacticalCowboy]

Can’t tell you how many steel cases have been through my AR. I haven’t had any trouble with extraction or ejection. That being said, it hasn’t been as accurate as handloads (big surprise), but it’s cheap, easy, and does the job on hoser three gun stages.

[Tony Pic]

I have shot many rounds of steel case through my AR's also. Never had a issue with the AR platform. I run them wet when I shoot steel case. Now with the AK, Had shoulders torn off cases and case walls stuck in chamber. If you are going to shoot steel case ammo I recommend you buying a broken case extractor for your caliber. If a case breaks in the chamber this is the only way to make the gun operable again.
On the shot the steel case expands and does not shrink back to the extent like brass does. That makes it harder on your extractor to pull the shot case out of the chamber.
Brokencases762x39007 by Tony Pic, on Flickr

[meltingfeather]

Running a few hundred rounds of steel through a modern rifle should not be an issue IMO.

Can’t tell you how many steel cases have been through my AR.

My experience.
I've heard the extractor story a bunch on this forum... never seen it or worried about it.

[Mike D]

I’ve shot thousand of steel cases through my Colt ARs.

Ate every bit of it like candy and not extractor issues.

Accuracy wasn’t great but didn’t see the issues the OP mentioned.


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[sierracharlie338]

I’ve shot thousand of steel cases through my Colt ARs.

Ate every bit of it like candy and not extractor issues.

Accuracy wasn’t great but didn’t see the issues the OP mentioned.


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Cause you are using genuine TDP quality parts from colt.

My experience.
I've heard the extractor story a bunch on this forum... never seen it or worried about it.

4 duty rifles in the past 5 years. 3 of which happened while I was present. All 4 steel case ammo.




Sierracharlie out…

[meltingfeather]

4 duty rifles in the past 5 years. 3 of which happened while I was present. All 4 steel case ammo.

Crazy... I believe it happens, just haven’t seen it. Wonder what the factors are.

[DaveC]

Here is a great in depth write up on the subject-

https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

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[sierracharlie338]

Crazy... I believe it happens, just haven’t seen it. Wonder what the factors are.

I’m not sure. I can tell you all four of those rifles were not genuine colt spec parts so that make me think it had something to do with it but not really sure.


Sierracharlie out…

[Mike D]

Cause you are using genuine TDP quality parts from Colt




Sierracharlie out…

Yep. [emoji1303]


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[AxisAddict]

I'm sure there was more to it, but I've had the fabled extractor issue happen to me. Did some serious damage to the firearm and scared the everliving daylights out of me. I'm not educated enough to tell you for certain that it was the steel cased 55 grain Tula FMJ round that caused the failure, but i can tell you that my brain-thing just won't let me consider steel ammo anymore.

On a completely unrelated note, I have a few hundred rounds of 55 grain Tula FMJ laying around if anyone is interested. Only a couple years old.

[TacticalCowboy]

I'm sure there was more to it, but I've had the fabled extractor issue happen to me. Did some serious damage to the firearm and scared the everliving daylights out of me. I'm not educated enough to tell you for certain that it was the steel cased 55 grain Tula FMJ round that caused the failure, but i can tell you that my brain-thing just won't let me consider steel ammo anymore.

On a completely unrelated note, I have a few hundred rounds of 55 grain Tula FMJ laying around if anyone is interested. Only a couple years old.

How much?

[SAC]

Thanks for all the input. After reading that article, I don't figure a couple hundred steel cased round will hurt anything.