# Steel Case Ammo



## huntingbuddy (Sep 10, 2007)

I have the chance to buy some steel case ammo dirt cheap. But I have heard steel case ammo isn't good for your gun. I have an AR-15 that I will be shooting out of. Is the stuff good or bad?


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

I personally dislike it for four reasons:

1) The lacquer coating on the steel case (used for corrosion resistance) builds up on the chamber of the gun and is terribly annoying to clean out.

2) Steel on steel.... not my favorite recipe for wear and tear. Since brass is softer, it cant cause any potential damage to the chamber.

3) You cant reload it

4) Most steel cased ammo is made in a foreign country, and is made with terribly dirty burning powder. Although Hornady now makes steel cased ammo, and I'd hope that was cleaner burning that Wolf


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## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

I shoot it through a couple of my AR's and havent ever had a problem with it. If you pass on it, let me know cuz I'd be interested.


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## Cooky (Apr 25, 2011)

To me it is a matter of cost-benefit. I use Wolf in my Rock River mid-length and my brother uses it in his Bushmaster Varminter. Here are my observations… 
The old lacquer coated stuff will make a mess in your chamber but it will clean out. Most of the newer stuff has a polymer coating that doesn’t come off in my guns. The chamber and lugs still get quite dirty. I believe the steel case doesn’t obdurate enough to get a good seal. I have one of those chamber brushes just for AR-15s. There is a lot more powder residue in the upper than with American made ammo. I keep a coat of CLP on everything to make it easy to get off. I work cheap when I’m cleaning guns.

I’m not sure about the wear issue. I don’t have any direct observation and everything I read seems to just be someone else’s opinion. I’d like to know if there is any real evidence somewhere. The polymer coated stuff feels smooth and slick.

If you can buy the steel case ammo cheap enough it doesn’t pay to hand load. 

It is not as accurate as good hand loads or factory ammo. I can stay on a clay bird at 100 yards and my brother can do about 1-1/2” with his gun. With good ammo my gun will do a little under 1-1/2” and his not much over ½”. The cost of better ammo outweighs the benefit of improved accuracy for what we are doing with those guns. It works out differently for me on my Rock River Predator Pursuit. The gun will do ½” three shot 100 yard groups with good ammo if I am up to it at the time. I’ll pay the money for good ammo or hand load to get the accuracy that I paid for and want in that gun.

If you put it in your DPMS it voids the warranty. The DPMS uppers I have bought come with a hot pink card in the box warning you about it. Rock River and Bushmaster don’t say anything about steel case ammo.

I have been told by a several co-workers that their guns would not function reliably with Wolf ammo. If I remember correctly the guns were a Colt, an Armalite, a Rock River and an Olympic. I have no reason to doubt them. The Olympic ended up back at the factory because the next ammo he bought was 556 NATO and he was popping primers in the 223 chamber, but that’s another topic. I have not had any reliability issues with Wolf but I’ll bet you could get a gun dirty enough to stop working fairly quickly. 

Patrick Sweeny says lots of good things about Wolf in his AR-15 books as well as many of his magazine articles.

So…To answer your question...finally…Yup.


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## huntingbuddy (Sep 10, 2007)

Thanks for the input guys, I will probably buy the ammo and try it out.


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## Cooky (Apr 25, 2011)

I just had a conversation with a representative at the Rock River Arms factory in Colona Illinois. I brought up the topic of steel case ammo. His response was:
A. Steel case ammo does not spring back after firing as much as brass case ammo so is difficult to extract.
B. There is still a lot of lacquer coated steel case ammo out there and it will gunk up you chamber and cause difficult extraction.
C. Steel case ammo can quickly wear out your extractor and may even chip it.
Therefore they don’t recommend its use. 
I think they don’t want to deal with problems that may arise from its use. I don’t blame them. 
But I think that if you choose to use it, knowing the possible consequences, you can buy a BCM extractor spring upgrade kit for $5 or a D-Fender for $12 if your AR won’t pull stubborn cases.
You can clean your chamber.
A new extractor is $14 and is expected to be replaced occasionally anyway.


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## angrychair (Jan 19, 2011)

I hope I am not stealing this thread, but does anybody know where I can get brass corrosive noncommie rounds? I can only find steel case ammo. I have a colt AR 7.62-39 an keep breaking extractor pins. I attribute this to steelcase noncorrosive rounds. I know from my experience that this ammo works great in AK's, but not my AR. I hope I did not turn this into AK vs AR.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

angrychair said:


> I hope I am not stealing this thread, but does anybody know where I can get brass corrosive noncommie rounds? I can only find steel case ammo. I have a colt AR 7.62-39 an keep breaking extractor pins. I attribute this to steelcase noncorrosive rounds. I know from my experience that this ammo works great in AK's, but not my AR. I hope I did not turn this into AK vs AR.


Im not sure I am understanding your question properly, but I saw lots of American Eagle brass 7.62x39 at Sportsmans Warehouse in Midvale three days ago. Seems like it was $16 per 20 rounds....


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## angrychair (Jan 19, 2011)

I was not very clear with my sarcasm. I am looking for 7.62-39 bullets that are brass case,corrosive, and hopefully made in the U.S.A. So you answerd my question wonderfully  thank you.


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## Frisco Pete (Sep 22, 2007)

> I have been told by a several co-workers that their guns would not function reliably with Wolf ammo.


A fellow forum member and I went shooting. He was using Wolf 55-gr HP, the old lacquered stuff in his Daewoo DR-200 5.56 that we bought really cheap way back. We ran into functioning problems.
Thinking about this later, I remembered that when I chronographed this Wolf it was _very_ slow. Therefore I don't think it had enough "ooomph" or gas pressure to cycle the gun reliably. Unfortunately at the time both of us had forgotten that the Daewoo has an adjustable piston gas system _ala_ the FN-FAL and we could have changed the gas setting and probably have gotten 100% functioning. :roll:

Certainly this Wolf was horribly inaccurate in any of my guns, but other brands of Russian .223 seem to be superior (Brown Bear etc.)

Yes, it is hard on AR15 extractors, but they are cheap, so you will still save money. And yes, Rock River says using steel case ammo voids the warranty.

So it is up to you, but personally I would pick another Russian brand over Wolf if I were to try the steel case stuff.


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