Is steel cased ammo a bad idea?

[nalesq]

Even if steel cases do cause additional wear on extractors compared to brass cases, extractors are a lot cheaper than brass cased ammo.


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[GOTURBACK]

From what I understand the primary problem with shooting steel case ammunition is the rate of expansion and contraction, that is why when firing them in HK pistols they get stuck they have expanded during the firing phase and have not contracted sufficiently before ejection and therefore get stuck in the chamber.

[Leroy Suggs]

Another thing about steel case ammo. Most are loaded with bi-metal bullets. Not too good for your barrel.

[willie]

Jeff Cooper is my source. He mentioned this fact occasionally in magazine articles and probably in at least one of is many books. He said that placing a drop of oil on the extractor reduced wear. His reference was steel case ammo fired in 1911's during training when the same pistols would be used over and over again. Also, this ammo would have been made no later than 1952 and would have been manufactured by different companies. Cooper retired from the Marine Corps, and his information came from armorers. I have no idea about steel softness of cases made then.

[Nephrology]

Another thing about steel case ammo. Most are loaded with bi-metal bullets. Not too good for your barrel.

This has been shown to be of minimal concern for rifles, and so far no evidence to suggest it will do much to your pistol barrel. The price savings alone will pay for a new barrel way faster than you will wear one out.

[Kyle Reese]

Another thing about steel case ammo. Most are loaded with bi-metal bullets. Not too good for your barrel.

I view my practice guns as consumables, and treat them as expendable.

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[KhanRad]

Here's an interesting test involving AR-15s. Just food for thought:
https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/bra...el-cased-ammo/

[LtDave]

The P30 stepped chamber is known to not work with steel cased ammo. And, FWIW, the manual does specifically say not to use it.

Also, like TYR, I’ve not had any problems with steel cased ammo in my Glocks.

My HK45 wouldn't chamber Hornady Steel cased practice ammo either.

[echo5charlie]

In the past 5 years I have shot in excess of 15,000 rounds of steel cased ammo in .380, 9mm, .40, .45, .223, 7.62x39, and .308. Total number of issues: 8. 2 were in regards to Magpul GL9 mags where the rounds bound up in the tube and caused a failure to feed. 3 were complete misfires (2x9mm, 1x.380). 3 were with my HK P30: 2 failures to feed and 1 failure to eject.

Of note: during one outing our G36KE fired ~1000 rounds of TulAmmo on full auto running a Gemtech Halo can. No failures. Our UMP .45 also likes steel cased ammo.

All that being said, I prefer brass cased ammo and YMMV.

[1986s4]

I found my old P-30 to be rather intolerant of out of spec cases, brass or anything else. Ammo that ran fine in my other pistols was a no go in the HK. On the other hand it was noticeably more accurate with ammo my Beretta and CZ shot poorly. It also ran best with full power ammo, choking on weaker stuff. A service/duty pistol meant to be used with duty quality ammo.