Steel Vs. Brass

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never cared and never seen extractor wear out from steel. ill buy steel , aluminum, corrosive. its all good to me.
 
The steel case doesn't expand as much in the chamber when fired and will remain loose in the chamber making extraction easier. Also the steel used in the case in much softer than any steel used in the rifle so wear isn't an issue either. The only problem with steel cased ammo is that because the case doesn't fully expand to fill the chamber, it allows a lot of blow-by and is dirty as a result. Not really a problem unless you fire a lot of steel case and then try to fire brass cased ammo without cleaning the chamber first. When the brass swells to fill the chamber under firing all the carbon from the steel cased ammo can essentially glue the brass case in place. Only remedy at that point is to drive the case out with a cleaning rod and scrub the chamber down.
 
Don't neglect your gun, you wont have a problem. If it really does wear an extractor then it does not take long to pay for a new one with the savings. Next you will get a plethora of folks telling you to reload as reloading is cheaper than steel. Not bad advice, but not everyone has the room/time.
 
Yesterday I shot 20 rounds of Wolf 308 through my bolt action rifle. Before I finished extraction was becoming more difficult. After cleaning chamber extraction difficulty went away. I guess how much of a problem this is depends on how tight of a chamber you have.
 
And oddly, it is less of a problem with a chamber that is tighter in the neck area since the case doesn't have to swell as much to prevent blow-by from getting down into the case body area.
 
My cousins Mini-14 does not like steel (does not cycle well), but I say give it a try. If it works great then you can save some money. The argument about steel vs. brass is a powder keg. The wear and tear on you semi-auto using steel cased ammo should not cause if any major issues as long as you maintain your rifle, even if there was any wear and tear as I have always stated in the past it would take a huge amount of shooting steel to do any damage (IMO).
 
The only reason that I don't shoot steel cased ammo regularly is that it isn't consistent. The fact that it is dirty is more of an annoyance than anything, but the fact that it typically turns in groups greater than 5" makes it worthless in my eyes for anything more than filling the berm at the range with lead.

I think I might go buy a box of 20 and compare groups fired offhand between that and my 69gn practice reloads just for grins. I typically shoot my reloads into about 5" for a 20rd group offhand.
 
Ruger put out a notice a year or two ago not to use lacquered steel rounds in their guns. I don't know if this is an ongoing or resolved problem.
 
2ndAmFan said:
Ruger put out a notice a year or two ago not to use lacquered steel rounds in their guns. I don't know if this is an ongoing or resolved problem.
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The problem will always exist with lacquered rounds, but no one is really making lacquered rounds anymore. The Russian stuff is all coated with a high-temp polymer anymore.
 
Yes, you CAN reload steel cases; I have loaded a bunch of .308 and .45ACP that had boxer primers. In fact, the .308 gave very good accuracy using 168 match bullets.
 
While we are on the subject, why do they even make cases out of steel? Is it cheaper?

As a Mechanical Engineer I can see distinct disadvantages such as formability being no where near as easy with steel as it is with brass. Corrosion resistance is certainly an issue as well as the lack of elasticity during firing (as has been mentioned).

It just seems odd to me.

Dan
 
If you reload they are worthless. I don't shoot anything that I can't reload
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Oh?

Tula and Wolf are boxer primed in 45 ACP and Tula is boxer primed in .223. They reload very well.

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Yes, steel cases are much cheaper to manufacture. The steel used seems to be very soft, but like brass does require proper polishing and lubrication before reloading operations. I think we will see more steel cases in the future, as Hornady Steel Match is one recent entry breaking through the domestic market. Brass, copper, and lead are getting more costly every year, so don't be surprised by what comes out next. Sometimes I use .308 plastic training rounds that fire a ten grain bullet; I am hoping something more powerful eventually comes to market that will allow heavier bullets.
 
splithoof said:
Yes, steel cases are much cheaper to manufacture. The steel used seems to be very soft, but like brass does require proper polishing and lubrication before reloading operations. I think we will see more steel cases in the future, as Hornady Steel Match is one recent entry breaking through the domestic market. Brass, copper, and lead are getting more costly every year, so don't be surprised by what comes out next. Sometimes I use .308 plastic training rounds that fire a ten grain bullet; I am hoping something more powerful eventually comes to market that will allow heavier bullets.
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Very interesting, thanks for the info. I'll say it again, learn something new everyday (and sometimes two "somethings").

Dan
 
bergmen, steel cased ammo is much cheaper because steel is much cheaper, as has been mentioned. If you look at how many tonnes (2,204lbs) of steel are produced worldwide each year it dwarfs the tonnes of copper produced. In 2009 there were 15.1 million tonnes of copper produced. Copper generally is 70% of what goes into making brass. Also in 2009, China alone produced 573.6 million tonnes of steel. With steel being more abundant it is easy to see why steel cased ammo is cheaper to produce. Also countries like Russia and China which produce most of the commercially available steel cased ammo, are ranked number 5 and 1 respectively in steel production. Those same countries are number 7 and 4 for copper.
 
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