Using steel cased ammo?

[spencer60]

Here are a few 40 cal Tula steel case rounds that I have fired 4 times each. After being reloaded 4 times, they still look ok. I have reloaded some steel case wolf 223, but you usually only get 1 or 2 out of them.

Any extra wear on the dies from reloading steel? Also, thought most steel was Berdan primed, being Russian and all.

 

[WIMPOD]

Just remember, Don't shoot brass right after shooting steel unless you clean your chamber. It's a sure way to get a brass case stuck if it's not cleaned.

 

[PA4476]

Any extra wear on the dies from reloading steel? Also, thought most steel was Berdan primed, being Russian and all.

I use Hornady 40 cal dies, the sizing die is the titanium nitride, on the 223 I lube them well before sizing.

The Tula 40's, and Wolf 223's I have shot are boxer primed. The Herters (Tula) 30 Carbine are Berdan.

 

[spencer60]

I use Hornady 40 cal dies, the sizing die is the titanium nitride, on the 223 I lube them well before sizing.

The Tula 40's, and Wolf 223's I have shot are boxer primed. The Herters (Tula) 30 Carbine are Berdan.

Good to know.. I just always assumed all russian steel case was Berdan.

 

[tmoore912]

Brass vs. Steel Cased Ammo – An Epic Torture Test

Why Did The Barrels Wear The Way They Did?

Certainly one of the most visually striking parts of this article is the inclusion of post-test barrel cutaways. The barrels were cut axially with an angle grinder and then longitudinally by the wire EDM process. This lets us see exactly how the barrels wore throughout the test – and there were significant differences.

The first answer to this question is, “Because we shot them until they got hot, and then we kept shooting them.”

The rate of fire definitely contributed to rapid barrel wear. Still, there were other factors which played a major role.

As indicated by accuracy testing, the steel cased/bimetal jacketed ammunition caused accelerated wear to the inside of their respective bores. While the barrel of the Federal carbine had plenty of life left, even after 10,000 rounds at extremely high rates of fire, the Wolf and Brown Bear barrels were subjected to the same rates of fire and were completely “shot out” by 6,000 rounds.

At the end of the test, the chrome lining of the Wolf and Brown Bear barrels was almost gone from the throat forward, and the barrels had effectively become smoothbores, with the rifling near the muzzles acting only as a mild suggestion on the projectiles. A throat erosion gauge could be dropped into the bore from the muzzle end with absolutely no resistance.

The bottom line is that for both Brown Bear and Wolf, the lands had been completely ground down to the diameter of the grooves. What’s still visible is the differences in material, for the grooves have some chrome lining left. Longitudinal scratches are visible inside the bore, and it is believed that they were caused by the projectiles meandering their way down the bore in a casual manner before exiting and tumbling in a fairly random direction.

However, the gas port of the Federal carbine was far more eroded towards the muzzle than the Wolf or Brown Bear barrels. I believe that this is due to the excessive throat erosion and barrel wear of these two barrels – the Federal barrel maintained a good seal between itself and the bullet up to 10,000 rounds, while the Wolf and Brown Bear barrels let a significant amount of gases past the projectile, reducing the flame-cutting effect on the gas port as time went on.

The steel cases themselves don’t have any effect on the condition of the bore. The difference lies with the projectile – the soft copper jacket of the Federal ammunition simply doesn’t cause the same amount of wear as the bimetal (copper and steel) jacket of the Russian ammunition.

 

[spencer60]

Yup, that was the same test I saw. Those bimetallic bullets are much rougher on barrels than copper covered lead.

Kind of like with the dirty powders, you generally get the bi-metal bullets in steel-cased ammo because of the lower cost, although there's plenty of brass-cased ammo that uses bi-metal bullets as well.

The question here is how much does a replacement barrel cost and does the ammo cost savings compensate for it?

 

[chucklenut]

dirty ammo usually, but my cz and sks and ak eat it all day no issues

 

[spencer60]

On a side note... there is this article in BoxOTruth about how steel-cased ammo may cause more chamber fouling by not expanding as much as brass. Interesting article

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu18.htm

 

[Mr.ERB]

I usually dont mind shooting steel. Until one day i bought a box of Tula 45ACP, dear god I left the range that day with black hands. Dirtiest ammo I have ever used.

 

[jeff8600]

I have put thousands of steel cased ammo through my AR and had no issue. The only stuff I didn't like was the Silver Bear after about 300 rounds it was so nasty it would not fully chamber the round. I was told that steel cased ammo could break the extractor in my AR, well after thousands of rounds of cheap steel cased ammo I have saved enough to buy 10 extractors (not that it matters, I still have the original in the weapon)!