Quick question, brass vs Steel ammo?
 

I just shoot away but the question came up today what's the difference besides price? I have my thoughts but figured I would get plenty of replies here.

I've shot steel cased 9mm through a glock 17 as well as steel cased 7.62x54r.

​​​Brass is much easier to reload.

Cost.

Brass in my experience typically seems to run cleaner.

People think that steel adds wear to the firearm. They're probably right. But many people will never shoot enough to know.

I've ran many many thousands of steel cased 9mms through my Glock. And it still runs like the day it was new.

I'll continue to buy whatever is cheap and continue to practice often. Glocks are cheap anyway, when it's time to get a new one, that's not going to break the bank.

-Jake

Well, that was my thought, wear. However, as you pointed out, the glock is pretty simple and reliable after thousands of rounds. The barrel would be the only think I would think could wear out faster if that were the case. What's a new one run? Can't be much

from hands on experience with a few hundred thousands rounds of both(class III belt fed guns eat it pretty fast)

steel cases can cause excessive wear and tear, the lacquer on it has been known to gun things up and has broke more than its share of firing pins from it!

I will NOT use steel case ammo in any GOOD tight chambered gun, or gun of higher tolerances and want to keep them that way!
it can EAT away chambers, as steel is harder than brass and after a LOT of expansions ina chamber, it wears faster due to such!

things like most 9 mm-45 and so on pistols meant for so so accuracy(not match grade) they work fine
rifles like AK's they work well, as they just have rather sloppy tolerances
but I will NOT use it in any AR or like (m-16) I have seen way too many issue happen while using it!
YES countless folks use it problem free, but many DON"T
and I don;t care to risk it anymore!

Back to the coating on them to prevent rusting, it can get damaged and over time rust!( I worked in a UV Lacquer flash curing process for 15+ yrs, curing in a matter of hundredths of a second,, and void happen in the coating process from many reasons, from oils or or like on cases(even finger prints an cause them) on metal before coating, air bubbles, contamination from dust to debris) ,its never a100% perfect ALL the time!) same can happen with over coatings of SOME cases in a run!


all depends on how long your thinking of keeping it maybe on this though!
most are sealed up pretty good in military grade cans and cases, some are NOT as good!
I have also seen some primer issues over the yrs too, but not THAT common,
but the lacquer on things will again coat and can cause sticking of firing pins and even cause them to build up
HOW many rounds to make this a issue, varies from MY experience and the tighter again tolerance on the weapon, the faster it seems to show up!


its cheap for a reason folks

I think your missing the OP's point and NO ill intentions meant here, the OP I BELIEVE is talking about the cases NOT the bullets going down the bore!

and to be honest, your NOT going to find many STEEL jacketed bullets, and but yes they would wear on rifling faster due to hardness of the steel over brass or like most bullets are made of.

one perk maybe to a pistol over a rifle will be, velocities will be a LOT lower and thus wear will be a lot less!

pretty hard to wear out a pistol, barrel, I have a few Glocks in 9 mm that have over a 100,000 round out of them and bores still look OK(were range guns shot for many many yrs) However, rest of gun has more wear and tear on them LOL
Hammered a few nails with them too HAHA!
but they still work reliably and shoot about as well as t they did new, nothing special, but always go BOOM when you ask them to!

Thanks, I appreciate the information. I'm certainly no expert by far. I've bought most of my guns a long time ago because the opportunity presented itself. I only hunted a few years with guns excluding taking kids out Turkey hunting. I was a huge bow hunter for years. I prefer just taking a day and blasting away. That pretty much sums it up. So I was just curious because the question came up.

For as much as you seem to plan to shoot I wouldn't worry about shooting steel. But if you can afford it you'd be better off buying ammo with brass cases.

I wouldn;t look at it as HOW much are you going to shoot, as I would, what firearms am I MAYBE going to shoot it thru and use your own judgement on risks , or savings!
things can go wrong a few rounds and NOT always need hundreds or thousands to have a issue
I have seen AR -15 firing pins break in a few boxes of steel cased ammo, not a huge deal or costs,. but is down time and can maybe ruin a guys plans of shooting longer!

on flip side again, I have never seen it bother a AK EVER!
as I said, some guns are just more sensitive to things and well, on a very high end firearm I wouldn't risk it at ALL< not worth the penny's in savings to use in a high costing/tolerance build firearm IMO!