Steel case 9mm, worth $112/1000 rounds?

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I bought a magpul mag for my Glock 17 to try it out. Its more difficult to load than a factory mag, and has produced malfunctions with both steel and brass case ammo in a gun that otherwise functions flawlessly. Glad I only bought 1.
Haven't had any issues with the Magpul Glock mags in both Glocs and my 9mm AR.
 
If I had a place to shoot it, I'd buy it. I only shoot indoors, and the range doesn't allow steel bullets.
Backstops are generally made of steel, shredded tires, gunpowder residue, and bullets. A fire (really a tire fire) is a unbelievable mess. . . and even worse indoors.
 
I see people mentioning stockpiling cheap steel-cased ammo for TEOTWAWKI. If one ever does find themselves in such a scenario, wouldn't it seem that having reloadable brass and reliable proven self-defense rounds on hand would be far superior to garbage plinking ammo that can't be reloaded and is vastly inferior in stopping threats? I guess it's better than nothing, but not much.
 
That is a super cheap price. There is no data to support that steel cased ammo is harder on extractors, ejectors, mags. Some Russian steel cased ammo uses a bi-metal jacket that can cause slightly accelerated wear to the barrel. I've shot thousands of steel cased rounds through my 9mm handguns and they all still function.

As far as more malfunctions, if you keep your handguns clean and lubed, they will be 100%. The only steel cased handgun ammo I have ever had any issue with is Brown Bear. BB might be the only one that uses laquer for the cases instead of polymer, the coating is generally more rough and does not feed as well in tight mags.

With the money you're saving it's a no-brainer for range ammo. It's highly unlikely that you're going to wear the gun out unless you shoot around 10K rounds through the gun.
 
If you shoot a steel target with Wolf ammo it will spark.

All I can say is I have shot many thousands of rounds of Wolf, Tula, Brown Bear, etc steel cased ammo at steel targets in rifle and pistol calibers and never seen a spark. I believe you are confusing things with the 1990's steel core Chinese 7.62x39 ammo that was dreamed "armor piercing" and importation stopped when the Olympic Arms AK pistol was introduced to the market. If you've got some stashed away it supposedly has some collector value if the boxes are in good shape.
 
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I see people mentioning stockpiling cheap steel-cased ammo for TEOTWAWKI. If one ever does find themselves in such a scenario, wouldn't it seem that having reloadable brass and reliable proven self-defense rounds on hand would be far superior to garbage plinking ammo that can't be reloaded and is vastly inferior in stopping threats? I guess it's better than nothing, but not much.
I'd think Aluminum case would be better because it's lighter. Reloading in a future apocalypse is a pretty silly concept.
 
I've shot steel case in 7.62x39, 9mm, 308 and 223 with zero problems. IMO they don't expand as much as brass when fired.
 
All I can say is I have shot many thousands of rounds of Wolf, Tula, Brown Bear, etc steel cased ammo at steel targets in rifle and pistol calibers and never seen a spark.

Shoot it at night at steel or concrete, it will spark in my experience. I was not alive in the 1980s and have never seen the chinese steel core in person.

At our Dept of Conservation ranges they allow non-fmj steel jacketed ammo in rifle calibers. Ive shot the 123gr HP Wolf and it sparks like crazy. 9mm Wolf doesnt spark as often, maybe 1 in 10. Ive seen 223 FMJ spark from an AR pistol at an indoor 2 gun match.



Here is a vid similar to what I’ve experienced. Borderline movie effect. I would be hesitant to shoot it during the summer depending on backstop and weather.
 
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My range does not allow steel cases. They check with a magnet. Say they will kick you out. So it would not be a buy for me.
 
I see people mentioning stockpiling cheap steel-cased ammo for TEOTWAWKI. If one ever does find themselves in such a scenario, wouldn't it seem that having reloadable brass and reliable proven self-defense rounds on hand would be far superior to garbage plinking ammo that can't be reloaded and is vastly inferior in stopping threats? I guess it's better than nothing, but not much.
I wouldn't be shooting it. I will and do keep cheap steel ammo for trade. Just in case.
 
I had questions regarding this ammo a couple of weeks ago and received similar responses, that it's good to go. I ordered 2000 rounds from SG Ammo. It was about $145 delivered ($123.80, $16 shipping plus tax). I've bought a case of Wolf or Tullammo from time to time and haven't had issues.
 
Option 1: Buy it because:
It is cheap.
No need to pick up fired cases.

Option 2: Don't buy it because:
Gun related wear that may happen, but no one posting has ever experienced.
Some ranges do not allow it.
It may cause a fire if certain backstop conditions are met.
It may not function well in certain firearms.

See that all the negatives so far are conditional on where you shoot and what you shoot. I would add that I don't think that it is as accurate as cheap brass cased, like S&B, Geco, or whatever the Black Friday rebate ammo is going to be.
I personally would just buy brass cased so that I don't have certain ammo for certain guns.
I wouldn't fault anyone for buying steel cased though. It's cheap. It's range fodder and doesn't require your time, unlike reloads.
 
No point reloading 9mm at these prices unless you have way more time than money, unless doing something you can't generally find inexpensive -- like 9mm 147gr sub-sonic.

I am willing to spend 20 min to load 500 rounds before I go to the range. And I’m willing to spend some time after shooting to pick up my brass cause I’m usually standing around BSing anyways

If I spend $2400 on a 1050 and a mr bullet feeder, load 50k rounds and then sell it for say $2000. And I include bullets and primers and powder but exclude some minor costs like lube and tumbler media and time value of money and of course brass since I’m paying for that with my time to collect it....

I calculate the break even around $98/k
So $112-98 = $14 x 50 = $700 savings which isn’t much.

(I’m my case I’m still using primers I paid $14/k for pre Obama and cheap powder too so my actual cost per thousand rounds is in the mid $80s. And I have no intention of selling my 1050 but it’s reasonable to include it in the financial analysis)
 
Just out of curiosity does that cost include a fair price for your time?

No, reloaders never include their time. They say reloading is "therapeutic".

My range does not allow steel cases. They check with a magnet. Say they will kick you out. So it would not be a buy for me.

You find a new range then. Both the ranges in my area allow the shooting of steel cased ammo, never a problem.

I am willing to spend 20 min to load 500 rounds before I go to the range. And I’m willing to spend some time after shooting to pick up my brass cause I’m usually standing around BSing anyways

If I spend $2400 on a 1050 and a mr bullet feeder, load 50k rounds and then sell it for say $2000. And I include bullets and primers and powder but exclude some minor costs like lube and tumbler media and time value of money and of course brass since I’m paying for that with my time to collect it....

I calculate the break even around $98/k
So $112-98 = $14 x 50 = $700 savings which isn’t much.

(I’m my case I’m still using primers I paid $14/k for pre Obama and cheap powder too so my actual cost per thousand rounds is in the mid $80s. And I have no intention of selling my 1050 but it’s reasonable to include it in the financial analysis)

So you can reload 500 rounds of ammo in 20 minutes, I call BS big time.
 
For those saying they would never use it an older gun, I say why not??

During ww1 and ww2 there was a brass shortage and lots of steel cased ammo was used to pretty good effect....running through those guns..
 


Hmm, those cases were already cleaned, de-primed, and pockets cleaned BEFORE this was done? How much time was needed in prep work?

Looked at the video, the machine is $2000 new and $400 per additional caliber. The creator of the video states 15 cents per round, that's $7.50 a box of 9mm. New in box 9mm ain't much more than that, and I've bought 9mm ammo off people on Armslist cheaper than that.
 
I see people mentioning stockpiling cheap steel-cased ammo for TEOTWAWKI. If one ever does find themselves in such a scenario, wouldn't it seem that having reloadable brass and reliable proven self-defense rounds on hand would be far superior to garbage plinking ammo that can't be reloaded and is vastly inferior in stopping threats? I guess it's better than nothing, but not much.

Reloading is a funny thing. I reload a fair bit for my hunting rifles and big bore revolvers. It gets hard to justify my time and money when plinking ammo is such low cost as we see today. I can barely buy bulk components for the cost of finished steel ammo when comparing like quantities for 223, 762x39 and 9mm.

Keep in mind most of the new production steel cases are boxer primed and technically reloadable. I've reloaded steel 45 without an issue. Pretty sure if the world ends and someone is still reloading by candle light they won't mind the steel cases. Besides, I suspect it's better to stock up the cheap loaded ammo as folks would much rather have that over a pile of components given the choice for close to same costs.

Regardless though, for having fun at the range the cheap stuff can be just fine. Glad the OP got a good deal. Hope he has fun shooting & takes a few friends with him to the range too!
 
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