I doubt many out there will fire enough steel cased ammo to see the added wear and tear.
I have shot tens of millions of it through one gun,
I mighta lied a bit.
If itās in the green boxes made in Russia, and I hope it is notā¦
I had a great deal on it for 5k rounds cheap in the 80ās IIRC.
Was a deal till i shot the crap.
It was the only steel case that ever pissed me off.
Weāve run 1000ās and 1000ās of other steel, Wolf Tula Barnbul with good results.
It is but I only have about 100 rounds so itās no big loss to not shoot it.
Steel case is great in an AK only. Itās hard on everything else in most other firearms especially extractors.
The only steel case ammo Iāve ever run was in a double stack 1911 in .45ACP flavor. It made it a jammamatic since it didnāt have enough lubricity to go from double stack to single stack in the mag. So I used the Minwax trick and polished the cases leaving just a 1 molecule thick, and slick layer. Fed like a champ after that. Zero malfunctions and it runs fine. I never ran it in a single stack, but I assume it would run fine since they donāt go from double stack to single stack (where the problem was). Iād buy more of it in a heartbeat if I could find some for a decent price.
most of my 223, 308 or 762x39 are all steel cased (shiny, copper washed or lacquered". No issues with the bullet thrower, hell I even shot 9mm aluminum if I can find it.
Correction: I also have shot and have on hand steel cased .223. I just needed to dial in more gas. Runs fine.
We have 500 or 600 rounds of 308 Tula. The Veprs seemed to like it ok. We keep it Vac sealed for posterity
It isnāt the steel case itās self it is the coatings that will make it stick in the chamber but you would need to do a couple of mag dumps to get it that hot.
Steel case is hard on extractors. My 5.56 ar pistols donāt like it a bit. Leaves stuck cases in the chamber a lot. My rifles not so much. I shoot a lot of steel case in my Grendels and except for breaking extractors itās fine.
Extractors in ARs are my only concern when shooting steel case. I donāt shoot ARs nearly as much as pistols, so itās not a huge concern and it hasnāt happened to me YET. I really need to have some spare extractors on hand for when it inevitably happens.
I keep spare bolts for the ARs and the Savage with them. Need to get some built for the Winchesters. Donāt have any for the AKs, need to though.
I need an AK that I would then need a spare bolt for.
Yep I agree. Thatās why I donāt have any. Figured they were GTG forever.
ARās are more prone to bolt related issues, like extractors breaking. My reasons for having the spare bolts on hand is itās easier to fix a broken extractor by changing the bolt. Broken bolts are kinda rare. Most AR bolts breaking that I have heard about were with Alt Cartridges, 6.5 G mostly, though 6.8 SPC too.
Extractors are what Iāve heard about mostly with AKs. A bolt swap is snap, extractor not so much. Finding a Vepr 308 Win bolt was never easy, lately its been a unicorn search.
This is from 4 years ago, explains the dilema.
Now I am looking for 74ās and theyāve dried up too.