steel cased .223 in a AR-15

[smartshooter.45]

i have a Doublestar Star-15 that i have been modding and shooting quite a bit. it has quickly moved into the do not sell category.

i just wonder if i should stay away from steel cased ammo. i have heard that it could damage my receiver over time. has anyone shot tons of steel through their AR without any issues? since i plan on keeping this rifle indefinitely i dont want to subject it to any unneeded abuse.

im looking for personal experience and real information. cheers.

 

[greyling22]

in my research into it, general consensus is that steel is hard on ar's and should not be the first choice of ammo. doesn't expand to fill the chamber and leads to excessive fouling that can lead to jams and the hard steel could potentially damage the chamber. also, if you get the gun real hot the old lacquer/new polymer coating can maybe melt off the casing and gum up the chamber leading to jams etc.

That said, check my math here, but if you save $2 a box of 20 shooting steel instead of brass, you only have to go through 200 boxes (4,000 rounds) before you have saved enough money to completely replace the whole upper if it does get trashed. BCG and charging handle included.

I've got a couple buddies at about 1000 rounds of steel each with no ill effects. one of them is a doublestar.

 

[smartshooter.45]

thanks greyling. your math seems to be sound. i would bet the rifle could handle atleast 4000 steel rounds if i cleaned it after each outing.

if you get the gun real hot the old lacquer/new polymer coating can maybe melt off the casing and gum up the chamber leading to jams etc

makes sense, noted.

if anyone else has experience with this id love to hear about it.

 

[nalioth]

Did you even search a little bit?



There are dozens (if not hundreds) of threads on this, on THR alone.

 

[RP88]

in a nutshell:

-it's dirtier
-it's generally inaccurate when even compared to cheapo brass ammo
-usually smells and grimes up the gun
-causes a negligible (if any) amount of accelerated wear on the extractor

there is no real harm to be done to the gun other than to the harm it'll cause to your groups.

 

[smartshooter.45]

Did you even search a little bit?

i should have, my mistake.

 

[jem375]

I don't like the idea of steel on steel, so don't use them in my AR's..

 

[Onmilo]

I avoid Wolf steel case but happily shoot Silver Bear steel case in my 5.56 chambered rifles without problem except for the noted less than match grade accuracy.
Plain and simple, the Silver Bear steel case is superior to the Wolf in all areas and this is my reasoning for my personal choice.

The steel used in case production is nowhere near the hardness or quality of gun steel, part wear isn't a major issue and I have yet to see a rifle with parts broken or sheared off from using steel case ammunition in an AR15 rifle.
I know of NO weapon explosions using steel case ammo, can't say the same for the 5.56 NATO brass case surplus everybody likes to recommend.
Take that into consideration and the steel case ammunition is certainly no worse than brass case surplus

If your rifle has a commercial spec .223 Match chamber I wouldn't recommend shooting any brand steel case ammo.
Actually, I won't recommend shooting brass case 5.56 NATO cartridges either, stick with commercial .223 Remington dimension cartridges in these rifles for best results.

Since Double Star rifles normally come equipped with Nato dimenstion 5.56 chambers I say give the steel case ammunition a try.

Again, as noted in earlier posts, KEEP THE CHAMBER CLEAN! Heck, keep the rifle clean and well maintained.
The steel case ammo is dirtier and does seem to fuse itself into excessively dirty chambers.
I have removed a lot of stuck steel cartridge cases from AR15 rifles and in every single case the contributing factor was a rifle that was poorly maintained, excessively fouled, and/or had a commercial .223 chamber dimension. HTH

 

[nalioth]

I don't like the idea of steel on steel, so don't use them in my AR's..

. . so you're good with steel on aluminum, then?

 

[Rshooter]

. . so you're good with steel on aluminum, then?

Last time I checked the chamber, bolt, and extractor are steel.

And ease off about the search function, I might learn something new.