Steel case ammo

Am I being silly bypassing the better prices on steel case 9mm handgun ammo?

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JT

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Call me names, please!
 
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I thought this was gonna be a steel case ammo in yer AR thread. I was like , now you’ve done it
 
Majicmike said:
If actually shoot your guns price matters. If you only shoot a few times a year then it doesn’t matter. I’ve got where I prefer alum over anything
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May I ask why?
As to price, aren't steel cases the cheapest in bulk?
 
Majicmike said:
If actually shoot your guns price matters. If you only shoot a few times a year then it doesn’t matter. I’ve got where I prefer alum over anything
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Yeah I bought 2k of aluminum instead of steel cased, mainly because the friction of steel cased rounds. I cant get 30 rounds of steel cased in a scorpion mag due to the friction. Saw similar results with 32 round m&p mags also hard to load and tended to hang up in mag.
 
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The stuff runs just fine in my Glocks. I don't save anything reloading the brass especially if I count my time. Even if your extractor wears a little faster, it's only a few bucks to replace. It is dirty but so is every other plinking ammo. I'm a fan-stack it deep.
 
JT said:
May I ask why?
As to price, aren't steel cases the cheapest in bulk?
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If you shout
JT said:
May I ask why?
As to price, aren't steel cases the cheapest in bulk?
Click to expand...

Price wise if you only shoot 500rds a year the price isn’t enough to matter. Shooting at least 500rds of various ammo I ahoot the cheapest thing I can get
 
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If, as has been stated, steel case works in your firearms then it really is not an issue. Most older Communist bloc firearms were made so that steel cases were not an issue. Most American firearms are made to work with quality ammunition with brass cases and so there can be an issue if they work or not. I doubt if there will be any real damage to a gun using steel cases. One issue I have heard of on occasion is the addition of lacquer or polymer case coat to the usual mix of fouling and unburned powder left behind after each shot. Just my 2 rubles worth of opinion.
 
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Steel cases will make your gun dirtier. Steel cases allow a lot of crap past the case along the chamber walls.

So, a little more cleaning might be required.
 
The only steel case ammo I have ever had issues with is the Winchester in the brown box. I had issues with 3 different guns so I never tried it again.
 
Majicmike said:
The only steel case ammo I have ever had issues with is the Winchester in the brown box. I had issues with 3 different guns so I never tried it again.
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I’m not an ammo snob by any means and I have posted multiple times about how I enjoy shooting steel and so forth...

But Winchester forges is/was garbage. It was dirty, and not in a “leaves residue behind” kinda way...but in a “my hands were black after loading magazines” kinda way. I’d shoot 10 year old Tulammo mined out of an Afghan shepherds rectum before I would actively seek out Winchester Forged.


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Steel case wolf ran better in my 30 carbine than brass armscor.
 
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Majicmike said:
If you shout

Price wise if you only shoot 500rds a year the price isn’t enough to matter. Shooting at least 500rds of various ammo I ahoot the cheapest thing I can get
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This is the truth. If you shoot a lot then the steel core stuff is the only way to go. You will need to replace the barrel after 10k rounds or so, but the money you save will pay for the barrel. The vast majority of shooters will never shoot 10K rounds out of their gun ever.... So the point is moot for them.

Now if its ammo buying day I will buy aluminum or brass cased ammo if its close in price. I shop at targetsportsusa.com with prime membership. I shoot mostly 9mm and 5.56/.223.
 
I've noticed no difference in brass, alum, or steel in my firearms. I do solely use steel in my C93, CETME and my PTR-91.
 
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This is a good read about steel cased and bimetal jackets ammo in Ar15s. I can't find it but there is also a great article that theorizes that the cheap powder used in cheaper steel cased ammo while not corrosive its chemical makeup causes excessive wear in barrels compared to brass cased ammo. Really the price difference is not as large as it used to be between steel and brass cased for the most common calibers. Also most people are not going to shoot enough to see the difference. If you shoot enough steel ammo to wear out a barrel you can afford to buy a new barrel IMHO. All that said I reload and pretty much shoot only brass cased ammo except in my Commie rifles.

https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/
 
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Specifically to the OP for 9mm you can get 115gr Tula or Wolf for about $.13 a round. You can get brass cased 124gr or 115gr for about $.15 So you are looking at about $20 per thousand rounds. These factory brass cased ammo is so cheap I have been buying it instead of reloading. I have been saving my power and primers for when the price of 9mm goes back up which it will.
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
I have seen striker fired guns have occasional ignition problems.
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Agreed. Even my totally stock G34 occasionally has failures to fire, I just clear it and move on. If it's in a match I put the once-struck round at the top of the mag for the next stage, have yet to have one not go off on the 2nd strike.

If you lighten the trigger by weakening the striker spring, it can really get out of hand. Just depends on the batch of ammo.

23,786 rounds of steel through the G34 to date, still waiting on the extractor to break. Have a spare on hand which is probably why the original is still working. :)
 
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YES! The Lucky Gunner study once again appears!

That test shows mainly that if you abuse the crap out of your firearms then a preconceived conclusion will be a given.


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wvsig said:
Specifically to the OP for 9mm you can get 115gr Tula or Wolf for about $.13 a round. You can get brass cased 124gr or 115gr for about $.15 So you are looking at about $20 per thousand rounds. These factory brass cased ammo is so cheap I have been buying it instead of reloading. I have been saving my power and primers for when the price of 9mm goes back up which it will.
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Where is the brass 124gr for 15 cents? Got a link?
 
Henry Brown said:
Most American firearms are made to work with quality ammunition with brass cases and so there can be an issue if they work or not.
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Many American firearms won't work with any ammo until you've done their suggested 200-500 round break in.
 
NKD said:
Steel cases will make your gun dirtier. Steel cases allow a lot of crap past the case along the chamber walls.

So, a little more cleaning might be required.
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It varies a lot by batch too. The last case of wolf I ran was so dirty I ended up pulling the striker out of the channel to clean out the crud, and you could see where soot was coming out of the witness holes on the mag and making spots on the inside of the mag well... all the way down the frame. So it was blowing enough crap down to come out all 17 holes. That's a lot of crap.
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
This should come on automatically when Steel Case Ammo is typed anywhere.
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It's my mission in life to prove steel wreks yer guns!

(round count has not gone up as much lately, been shooting other things and with the Wake matches not run for 8 weeks there was a lot of slacking going off in the practice department).
 
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