STEEL CASINGS vs BRASS

[DetBrowning]

I have a SIG 365 XL, it belonged to a friend who passed on and I'd like to treat it with the respect it deserves.
I've only shot 9mm brass casings thinking steel would damage it somehow.
I'd appreciate input from those who know more than I...and that ain't hard

 

[American_Fusilier]

Steel cased stuff won't hurt it. It might be dirtier, but it won't damage it.

 

[Rodfac]

I use brass only, with the idea that steel is tough on extractors/ejectors....and can't be reloaded. Best regards, Rod

 

[Ohen Cepel]

When steel was cheap I shot a lot of it. Also, nice for times when I am shooting in the woods and know I will lose brass I care about.

May be a bit harder on the extractor but not changing my life if I need to replace one every decade or so.

 

[cfullgraf]

Steel cases are pretty soft as compared what steel could be.

Factory new shell cases should not be a problem but they may not reload well.

I’d rather stick with brass cases since I reload.

 

[Riomouse911]

It is a budget thing for me if I were to buy any. But since my local range doesn’t allow steel cases I don’t often buy it. (They also wont allow bullets made with steel cores or the steel jacket-copper washed varieties, probably to reduce backstop damage and sparks.) Lots of ranges have a similar policy, so if you do go to a range you should check before you buy.

You may see an increase in wear on extractors after many, many steel-cased rounds are fired, or you may not. I honestly haven't fired steel cased ammo enough to tell a difference.

YMMV

Stay safe.

 

[Gork10]

I've put many thousands of steel case rounds through several 1911's and hi powers over the years with never a problem. Im drawing a blank on it now, but I believe one ammo manufacturer makes a nickel plated steel case round. I've not tried it. The steel used in the cases is not hardened so any wear on extractors would be about the same as brass cases. Extractors wear out regardless of the ammo used over time.

 

[JoeHenry]

I reload all the ammo that I shoot. Steel is a no no for me.

 

[wayneinFL]

I'm sure the steel case is way softer than the extractor. It has to be soft enough to expand and seal gasses.

But suppose it did wear extractors. How long would it take? 20,000 rounds? The extractor for your gun is $17.99. If you saved just a dollar a box, you would have enough money for a new extractor in less than 1000 rounds. You could buy a new extractor with every case of 9mm, and still be ahead.

Not that it's going to wear an extractor in the first place.

 

[trackskippy]

Isnt most of the steel cased ammo Berdan primed? The only steel cases Ive seen that were Boxer primed, were WWII era 45acp.

Not that you cant reload the Berdan, its just more of a PITA.

I have seen, and reloaded, the Boxer primed aluminum cases, and they actually work quite well. They don't have the life of brass, but they are reloadable, and these days, I would assume more readily available than the steel cased stuff. What commercial makers here are loading steel cased ammo here these days? Most of the steel cased stuff Ive seen and shot was import stuff from places that now seem to be on ban lists.

 

[Gork10]

Wolf, tula, sterling, freedom munitions, magtech all have steel cased ammo listed now. Not sure if Winchester is still making there steel cased ammo. I'm sure there is some makers I'm missing.

 

[jmorris]

9mm might be the most prolific caliber of brass around here, the only steel ones I have are stuck to the magnets I cull them with. I don’t reload aluminum either.

There are also nickle and brass coated steel cases out there, the only way you can tell is a magnet. If you don’t use a magnet but do use “rang brass” you have probably already shot steel cases and just didn’t know it.

I keep a magnet on the case feed tube clip, to catch them before they can get to the shell plate, just incase I miss them in my normal sorting process.

 

[halfmoonclip]

Always assumed that steel cased ammo should only be fired in guns designed for it, like the old and current AK rounds. Those steel, bottleneck cases are designed with more taper than, say, our 5.56 ammo.
Now as far as, say, steel 9mm ammo, the 9 Luger was never designed for anything but brass. Brass, or even aluminum cased ammo remains relatively inexpensive, so I simply won't mess with the steel stuff. YMMV.
BTW, to my surprise, some steel cased ammo is indeed boxer primed, but it still isn't worth trying to reload it.
Moon

 

[JDeere]

To each his his own but I have always shot strictly brass. It's a lot softer than steel. steel on steel without a lube, nah...

 

[entropy]

I prefer brass, particularly in a defensive pistol. I've fired steel though milsurp handguns, as well as rifles, however.
Steel is actually reloadable, but hard on dies, and there's really no reason to do so. I did it to see if it could be done, but it would have to be quite the emergency before I'd do it regularly.

 

[dfariswheel]

Because steel isn't as elastic as brass and doesn't seal the chamber as well, you may see more chamber fouling and fouling in the action.

As mentioned above, steel ammo made specifically for foreign weapons intended to use steel being more tapered, in American weapons it may not be as reliable in extraction. This is mostly the case with rifle ammo.

This comes down to a case of "Well it may not be BAD for the gun, but it doesn't do it any good".
Most Western country firearms are designed with no thought to the use of steel, only brass.

 

[hoardingthemanual]

I’m a brass man.

 

[halfmoonclip]

This comes down to a case of "Well it may not be BAD for the gun, but it doesn't do it any good".
Most Western country firearms are designed with no thought to the use of steel, only brass.

This is the Cliff's Notes summary of the whole discussion.
The West has been wealthy enough, and blessed with the resources, to use brass cased ammo. Whether this changes in the future, with the coming demand for copper for everydamnthing, remains to be seen.
Moon

 

[dogtown tom]

Always assumed that steel cased ammo should only be fired in guns designed for it, like the old and current AK rounds. Those steel, bottleneck cases are designed with more taper than, say, our 5.56 ammo.
Now as far as, say, steel 9mm ammo, the 9 Luger was never designed for anything but brass. Brass, or even aluminum cased ammo remains relatively inexpensive, so I simply won't mess with the steel stuff. YMMV.
BTW, to my surprise, some steel cased ammo is indeed boxer primed, but it still isn't worth trying to reload it.
Moon

This whole "should only be fired in guns designed for it" is nonsense. Steel cased ammunition has been around for over a century. It was and still is, not as desirable as brass. It may mean more diligence in cleaning, but is not harmful in the least.

 

[halfmoonclip]

It may mean more diligence in cleaning, but is not harmful in the least.

Your guns, your call. I'll stick with brass, but that is just me. YMMV
Moon

 

[Speedo66]

I’ve shot steel in my Mini-14 and an AR I used to have, 9mm in my KT S2K.

Can’t really tell any difference, except i get more ammo for a lower price.

 

[doubleh]

I have never used any steel cased ammo in a rifle. I have shot steel cased in 9mm and 380 for plinking and had no problem with it.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I did this when I moved from brass to Blazer aluminum-cased ammo and have seen people do it with steel-cased ammo. Basically, for the savings of the non-brass case ammo, versus the damage, means that you save enough money to buy plenty of replacement parts. If you have shot enough to wear out the "gun" (extractor, bolt, barrel chamber, whatever), you have saved many times the amount of money to cover the replacement.

I remember the claim was that aluminum and/or steel ammo would wear out the extractor on my 1911 much faster, but buying Blazer was so much cheaper (while still being good enough for practice) that I could have purchased 1 extractors with every 1000 round case of ammo and still had money for lunch with the savings. Mind you, this was 20 years ago, but I bet the same math generally applies. I put over 80K rounds through one 1911 and wore out the rifling in 2 barrels, but extractors were not an issue.

This whole "should only be fired in guns designed for it" is nonsense.

I keep having these discussions with people who seems to think that design intent or "design for..." is somehow deterministic of the limits of what may be used, as if the gun was designed to only be shot with brass cased ammo so nothing else should be used. Never mind that most of the people making such claims have little or no insight into what the designer were designing for at the time or have knowledge of the designers' wishes (in this case) that only brass be used.

While I have lots of barrels and/or firearms that specifically state the cartridge or caliber to be used, absolutely none of my guns say anything about brass-cased ammo only.

Along these lines, I have seen countless 1911 discussions where folks talk about the condition the 1911 was designed to be carried in (versus the others which are wrong). I have read for Condition 1, 2, and 3 were all solely designed by John Fricking Mosely Browning to be carried in that manner (not the others), despite absolutely no historical documentation by Browning that any were specifically his idea of any one condition being the sole and only way in which he designed the gun to be carried.

I do have to wonder about guns that were designed with pretty much only steel cased ammo in mind as that was what was primarily available at the time, such as cold war AK47s. That was pretty much all Russia had a the time. Do people rant that the gun isn't designed for brass when people shoot brass-cased ammo from them?

 

[entropy]

I will say that concerning steel-based shotgun hulls in some older and or top quality made (particularly games based guns, Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays) the failure to extract rate nears 100%. This is easily fixed by honing/polishing the chamber(s). I choose not to on my Ljutic Mono Gun, as this is akin to enlarging the chamber on a 6mm Dasher for positive extraction under adverse conditions.

 

[crstrode]

I have a SIG 365 XL, it belonged to a friend who passed on and I'd like to treat it with the respect it deserves.
I've only shot 9mm brass casings thinking steel would damage it somehow.
I'd appreciate input from those who know more than I...and that ain't hard

Casings are stuffed with sausage.
Cases are stuffed with bullets.