Steel-cased ammo in NATO/western calibers: Your experiences?

[fepowered]

EVERY shooter I've seen with steel cased .223 or .308 ammunition has suffered numerous stuck cases and rifle failures on an Appleseed line.

Another way of phrasing that:

I've NEVER seen an AR or M14 or FAL complete an Appleseed with a 100% up-time when using steel-cased ammunition.


Are my observations merely coincidence, or are they grounded in something resembling reasonable deduction?

The only time I have seen problems is with dirty rifles.  I personally shot 2 Appleseeds using only Wolf in my AR15.  I shot the Sunday KD portion of one with an AR10 eating Wolf .308.  A common problem is rifle hygeine at an Appleseed.  Many of the attendees  come with rifles which are already dirty and then try to shoot hundreds of rounds with no TLC.  I have shot Wolf in semi and full autos including belt fed with zero issues of stuck cases.   It may be less forgiving with a dirty rifle, but I can't speak regarding that because I do not allow my rifles to get nasty. 

The steel used is very soft and is definitely softer than your bolt components.   I have seen extractors break at Appleseeds on brass ammo. 

[colycat]

Hello Group; EEL has it right, GO with the chrome chamber and bore when ever you can, its like insurance against malfunctions. Pappy
 

What he said.  OG's rifle, that Pappy built has as of now 500 rds though it, all steel.  She has only cleaned the bore, nothing else.  No Problems.  Sorry Pappy, she is not interested much in rifle cleaning.

[dragonfly]

Hello ALL; This past summer we had a couple with Mini 14`s and steel cased ammo. Two instructors were hit by EJECTED casings and needed a patch as they were bleeding one on the arm one on the lip.. The Mini`s should be on the far right also, if just to save the bandaids!!!!!!   Watch out.Pappy

OUCH You had to remind me Pappy. and I didn't even have time to bleed.

D-fly

[dragonfly]

We had a shooter at Elk River MN with a brand new Mini/30 shooting steel case, alot of miss fire's. Firing pin not hitting the primer hard enough, or to hard of primers in the wolf. Thought it was the ammo. It was, kind of. I saw him at another shoot and he said the ammo worked fine in his SKS. That is the only problem I have seen, besides keeping your chamber clean. You get what you pay for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I only shoot it in my SKS, But that's just me.

D-fly

[fepowered]

We had a shooter at Elk River MN with a brand new Mini/30 shooting steel case, alot of miss fire's. Firing pin not hitting the primer hard enough, or to hard of primers in the wolf. Thought it was the ammo. It was, kind of.

That is an issue with Mini-30s, not an ammo issue..     The same thing can happen if you are using surplus military 7.62x51 ammo.
The harder "military" style primers are the issue as some rifles are engineered on the conservative side to fire the softer primer commercial ammo and not get slam fire.   I have heard of this issue with some AR10s and lighter than factory hammer springs. 

[bedford]

I have had a very good experience using steel cased ammo.  I have found Barnaul to be the best.  One thing to keep in mind is that if you switch from steel cased ammo to brass ammo, you will have malfunctions.  The steel case does not expand as well as brass.  Some back blast occurs, and melts the lacquer.  This has the effect of forming your chamber to your ammo.  When you switch to brass, the brass expands much more, and the cartridges get stuck.

Barnaul is very accurate.  For the price, it is hard to beat.   

[biathlon]

I shoot lots of the steel Wolf in my M1A as hot cases disappear quick in the snow and I've yet to have a problem. I do keep my rifle very clean

[LTR]

I have a Standard (Chrome Lined Barrel) Springfield M1A I purchased new in May of 2009. I've put 1500 rounds of Laquered Brown Bear thru it. I've had two malfunctions both "failure to fire". The first round I put thru it did not go off. The second occurred when I failed to let the recoil spring freely drive the cartridge into the chamber (somewhere between 1400 and 1500 rounds). I ejected the cartridge reloaded it later in the day and fired it. I clean it around 350 rounds but have run it in excess of 450 with no trouble.

The purists frown - a lot.