steel case 5.56mm ok in Wylde chambers?

[socalbeachbum]

the Wylde .223 chambering is hyped as good for 5.56mm and .223 Rem I believe, and my question is this, should there be any issue with brass vs steel casings in a Wylde?

my latest .223 Wylde AR-15 barrel does not want to feed steel case 5.56 ammo, but feeds .223 and 5.56 in brass just fine. I have had other barrels in Wylde in the past but can't remember if I ever tried steel case ammo in them.

 

[rcmodel]

Why would you want to??

Steel case ammo is for Communist guns designed for it.

The M16 and 5.56 cartridge was designed for brass case ammo.

rc

 

[MachIVshooter]

A lot of steel case ammo is at the ragged edge of spec; a tighter chamber may be the difference between barely seating and not seating.

With brass cased stuff at $0.30-$0.35/rd, why bother with dirty steel cased crap that's barely cheaper anyway?

 

[socalbeachbum]

so I bought up a bunch of steel case 5.56 without knowing it was for communist weapons.

wait, ARE there any commie guns in 5.56?

 

[kdunn]

My AR is a 223 wylde and it doesn't like steel cases either.

 

[benEzra]

Steel case ammo is for Communist guns designed for it.

Steel case Tula and Wolf works fine in my RRA (NATO chamber, chrome lined) and is about half the price of brass. For shooting at 200+, I use brass cased ammo, but for USPSA style shooting or at plinking range, the accuracy difference isn't significant, and my rifle has yet to choke on it.

One thing about Wolf/Tula to keep in mind is that it is typically loaded a little lighter than brass case is, so that if a rifle is optimized for hot loads only, it may short-cycle and fail to feed with steel. My RRA has a standard carbine buffer, but might have trouble with steel case if I were running (say) an H2.

 

[MutinousDoug]

Don't Wolf steel cases have some paint coating on them? What's the regimen for cleaning that out of your chamber?

 

[MachIVshooter]

Don't Wolf steel cases have some paint coating on them? What's the regimen for cleaning that out of your chamber?

Used to be lacquer, now polymer. Shouldn't be a problem in a semi auto, but I've heard of chambers in FA guns getting hot enough to melt it and make a sticky mess.

 

[Jackal]

Don't Wolf steel cases have some paint coating on them? What's the regimen for cleaning that out of your chamber?

They did several years ago. Though the russkies do still make lacquer cased ammo, most is some type of polymer coating. Cleaning after lacquer is nothing special unless you get your rifle REALLY hot.

My 5.56 guns eat steel cased ammo like fat kids eat Cheeto's.

 

[Ash]

Here's an experiment I came across regarding steel and brass.

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

Draw your own conclusions based on the study. However, I did observe that the Bushmasters kept only 3.5 MOA, which they said was acceptable with bulk ammo. It's curious that the one platform with the evident reputation as a hyper-accurate laser-beam, hit a mosquito's proboscis from 5000 yards would remotely be called acceptable at 3.5 inches.

 

[carbine85]

The Wylde chamber is typically found in more accurate barrels and the chambers are tight. My Varmit rifle will chamber Silver Bear with no problems however, I normally shoot brass with a 69 gr SMK.
The comments about 5.56 steel case is for communist rifles don't hold up. The Commies don't use it and it's produced mainly for the AR15. Run 200-300 rounds of good ammo, brush out the chamber and then see if the steel works.

 

[benEzra]

Don't Wolf steel cases have some paint coating on them? What's the regimen for cleaning that out of your chamber

No need to; all current production is polymer coated and doesn't come off

Here's an experiment I came across regarding steel and brass.

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

Draw your own conclusions based on the study.

Interesting.

One thing I will recommend if shooting steel case is that you lube the rifle fairly heavily. They used extremely light lubrication in that test and had issues with hard carbon accretion, which in my experience doesn't happen with heavier lubrication with a good synthetic oil. I personally use Mobil 1 EP 5W30 and keep the bolt and carrier wet, and the carbon stays fluid and wipes right of.

FWIW, here's a no-frills, nothing-special AR after 15,000 rounds of steel-case Wolf, without cleaning:

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010/06/09/a-clean-wouldnt-hurt/



He just lubed it generously (not just 1 drop in the vent hole) every 700-1000 rounds with a good oil (Militec-1, in this case).

 

[LiveLife]

ARE there any commie guns in 5.56?

Yes like Saiga chambered for .223.

But only managed to produce mediocre groups with my "brass" reloads and did not do much better with "steel" Tula ammo it was "made" for (even when scoped).

I sold it and much happier as my ARs "love" my brass reloads.

 

[Jackal]

Yes, steel cased ammo will put more wear on your rifle. However, its also about $100/case cheaper than most brass cased ammo. After firing 2,500rds or so, you've saved enough in ammo costs to buy a brand new barrel, which you wont need until around the 10k-20k round mark (depending on how hot you get it). That means that the economics greatly favor steel cased ammo for practice.

 

[LiveLife]

And reloading brass cases will save you even more money.

And my reloads are more accurate than steel cased factory ammo.

 

[Jackal]

And reloading brass cases will save you even more money.
And my reloads are more accurate than steel cased factory ammo.

Surely. However, about 95% of gun owners do not reload. I myself have tried it and find it nauseatingly tedious. Its definitely something you have to enjoy doing in order to stick with it.

 

[LiveLife]

I find reloading a delightful hobby and a passion of more than 20 years.

Yes, I agree with you that reloading is not for everyone like 1000 yard precision rifle shooting.

 

[velocette]

I'm a range officer at a large municipal range in south Florida. It is typical that when we encounter a stuck case in an AR rifle, it is always a steel case. It is quite common. We have steel rods to knock the fired cases out. I have never seen an AK, SKS etc with a stuck case steel or otherwise, but with ARs is not uncommon for steel cases to stick.
We suggest to our shooters that the steel cased stuff be used for practice and to clean their chambers thoroughly after use and to use high quality US made brass cased ammo for any "serious" purpose.
Just my experience seeing hundreds of shooters every weekend and at least one or two stuck cases each weekend.

 

[dvdcrr]

Case taper might be part of the reason you dont see jammed steel case in the AK and SKS.

 

[Ash]

A tremendous number of steel rounds were used in M1 Carbines stateside and those cases weren't tapered.

 

[jerkface11]

The lacquer wasn't what was come off in the chamber it was the bullet sealant.

 

[Hacker15E]

And reloading brass cases will save you even more money.

And my reloads are more accurate than steel cased factory ammo.

I reload steel...and the reloads are more accurate than the factory loads they came from.

Obviously.

The problem with the Wolf, the Tula, the Uly, and the never-ending litany of Russian cheap ammo isn't the case material. The problem is the crappy powder with inconsistent burn and inconsistent charges. The problem is the randomly-shaped and weighted projectiles that give random POI even if they were on top of consistent charges.

Heck, even cheap projectiles on top of good powder and a consistent charge are more accurate (check out the cannelure on the two cartridges below with trimmed-to-length cases and identical COAL).

 

[primalmu]

I agree with Hacker15E. I, too, reload steel cases and haven't noticed any differences in accuracy or reliability with my brass reloads.

 

[Ash]

It would seem that would be obvious, but there remains many folk who think it is magic - brass is magically better than steel because, well, I suppose it is all goldy in color. Consistency is superior, and that is the only reason hand loading is superior and then only when consistenly-shaped bullets are used.

 

[carbine85]

So what's the difference between rifles designed to shoot steel cased ammo compared to brass cased ammo?
My Bulgarian barreled AK74 has a very tight chamber, small bolt and extractor compared to my SHTF AR15.
Bolt action Mausers shoot anything you can feed it.