Sanctions and Joe Biden suck, they have driven the price of ammo through the roof, even previously-affordable steel-cased stuff. This is a huge problem given the recent surge in new gun owners who are looking to hone their skills on their new guns but simply can’t. They either can’t afford the rounds or can’t find the rounds at all – and whenever they can, the majority of the rounds are steel-cased.
These rounds are often maligned for performance, reliability, and being generally inferior to brass-cased ammo. But are they really? Let’s take a closer look.
Steel-Cased Ammo
As its name suggests, steel-cased ammo utilizes steel for its shell casings instead of brass (or in the case of older Soviet ammo, bi-metal). Americans first got a taste for steel-cased rounds when China began exporting its arms and ammo to the US in the 1980s.
With a price tag well below the average cost of American-made brass-cased ammo, many American shooters on a budget gobbled up the ammo in droves. But shortly thereafter, many found that the rounds weren’t performing as accurately, or reliably in their American firearms.
The same held true a few years later when Russian Saigas, Mosin Nagants, and SKS carbines hit the market -but not for those guns. Many shooters began to see the value of steel-cased ammo when $299 Saiga carbines were able to chew through the stuff without a single hiccup. It may not have been match-grade or the cleanliest ammo, but the Soviet calibers ran perfectly in Soviet-designed firearms.
Reliability
What about American guns? Well, it depended on the action and type more than anything. The direct-impingement AR-15 can be ammo sensitive especially when not ran, ‘wet’. This was even more the case a few years ago when most companies made sure their guns were precisely gassed.
In a world where all ammo is accurately loaded, finely-tuned gas systems are ideal, the gun has less felt recoil, lasts longer, and requires less cleaning. But many companies around the mid-2000s discovered that customers were complaining that their guns weren’t reliable because they wouldn’t run Russian steel-cased ammo very well.
The solution was simple – they over-gassed their guns. This is true of PSA, SIG, Anderson, Colt, and basically everyone today. But don’t get me wrong, they aren’t over-gassed to the point of negatively impacting performance. The guns are just slightly over-gassed to ensure reliable operation with underpowered cheap ammo.
Bottom line: most modern firearms will have no issues whatsoever running with steel-cased ammo, but I would still recommend thorough lubrication and regular cleaning.
Pros vs Cons
Why would shooters pick steel-cased rounds over standard ammo?
Price. That’s it. That’s the only real advantage of the ammo.
As far as downsides, there are a few objective drawbacks to running steel and a few man-made ones.
While the steel used in the ammo’s casings is relatively mild, and thus not terribly hard, it is still harder than brass. This means any component it comes in contact with will wear faster than if a shooter was running brass-cased rounds. The other real downside is that steel’s coefficient of friction is greater than that of brass, so when the spent casing is being extracted from a hot chamber, it requires more force to break the initial bond.
This in turn means more force is exerted on your firearm’s extractor which can lead to premature breakages if the gun wasn’t designed for the rounds in the first place. (SKS / AK owners, needn’t worry.)
As far as man-made issues, many ranges ban the use of steel-cased ammo out of concern for their backstops – this is particularly true with indoor ranges. This is because most steel-cased ammo uses a mild steel core, and is difficult for ranges to differentiate from armor-piercing steel-core ammo which would quickly destroy targets.
The other manufactured downside is that some companies will tell shooters that using steel-cased ammo voids their warranty. In my not-so-humble-opinion, this is a cop-out to let companies brush off shooters who want to run cheap ammo in their gun.
Live Inventory Price Checker
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Hornady Black 7.62x39mm 123gr SST Steel Case Ammunition 20rds - 80784 | Palmetto State Armory | $ 43.99 $ 32.99 |
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Hornady Black 7.62x39mm 123gr SST Steel Case Ammunition 20rds - 80784 | Palmetto State Armory | $ 40.99 $ 29.99 |
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Wolf Performance 9mm 115GR FMJ Steel-Cased Ammunition - 1000rd Case | Rainier Arms | $ 449.95 |
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STERLING 9MM 115GR FMJ STEEL CASED AMMUNITION 50rd BOX | BattleHawk Armory | $ 16.20 $ 11.99 |
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Overall
In a nutshell, steel-cased ammo is good to go. It’s not as powerful, clean, or pretty as brass-cased stuff, but it runs fine if your gun is properly-gassed. Just make sure to check your gun’s warranty before running it, just in case.
About Jim Grant
Jim is one of the elite editors for AmmoLand.com, who, in addition to his mastery of prose, can wield a camera with expert finesse. He loves anything and everything guns but holds firearms from the Cold War in a special place in his heart.
When he’s not reviewing guns or shooting for fun and competition, Jim can be found hiking and hunting with his wife Kimberly, and their dog, Peanut, in the South Carolina low country.
The U.S. produced some .45ACP steel cased ammo in WW II. I decided to try shooting some Wolf .45 in my Valkyrie Arms M3A1. Result: Broken expensive extractor. Won’t shoot it again!
For anyone interested, the guys at luckygunner did an extremely thorough and informative test on this topic a few years ago. They shot 10,000 rounds of each of the common steel ammo brands in four identical new rifles, with brass federal rounds as the constant to compare with. It’s a pretty long read but one i would suggest for everyone interested in shooting
Clearing up some misinformation: A lot of recently imported steel case no longer uses a lacquer coating. That was important when foreign ammo bunkers and packaging was 2d tier at best, with a few upgrades and a lot faster shipping of newly produced rounds, it was dropped. The M16 has always required a precise load, and the newer adopted rounds also had to work on the older models – right back to the M16 a nothings still issued in the Air Force. That means the box of ammo cannot be different for a 20″ or an M4. This forces a… Read more »
Cheap ammo is always good, or at least was. The issue I had with steel was I experienced a ‘hard lock’ almost every 60 rounds or so, which required a hammer and steel rod to rectify, as you all know.
The softest of steels has a surface hardness at least 2 1/2 times the surface hardness of annealed brass (on the Brinell scale), that being the case, unless the chamber was manufactured for the use of steel, from a metallurgical standpoint, steel will erode the chamber over time, not just the extractor. The extractor may be the first part to show wear, but the wear is going on nonetheless. I reload, so I’ve no interest in shell casings I can’t reload. The majority of steel cased ammo is Berdan primed. It was never engineered to be reloaded, while it is… Read more »
That’s why I bought an under-seat rifle rack from 4WheelOnline. I agree that the price of steel cases has gone through the roof so the affordable ones are only made in hard plastic.