With brass ammo prices at an all time high, can anyone enlighten me on how to tune my AR-15 to shoot Steel case ammo? Brass is running about $0.33 a round where as steel is running about $0.25 a round per 1k.
I have a Spike’s Tactical SL-15 and when I shoot 55 grain .223 brass I have NO issues at all, but when shooting Wolf 55 grain .223 Steel I eventually get casings stuck in the chamber.
I know Rob said he shoots Wolf but has tuned his weapons to shoot steel case ammo, so any and all info would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t know how you’d “tune” an AR to run steel versus brass cased ammo, other than to make sure that you have a properly cut 5.56mm chamber, keep the chamber clean (using a chamber brush) and don’t use steel cased ammo that allows lacquer or other coatings to build up in the chamber.
10 years ago or so there was a lot of steel cased Russian ammo (including Wolf) that was coated with a lacquer to protect the steel, and it would get heated up by chamber and stick. Supposedly the newer production ammo uses different (polymer) coatings to mitigate that.
There are also some differences in how brass versus steel cases expand and contract within the chamber when fired that can cause issues, but I can’t say I have any idea how to tune a gun to address that issue.
Shoot it, keep it clean. I shot 500 rounds of 223 62gr laquor brown bear in my BM. That 62gr shot more accuratly that any other ammo I had used.
3/4 in groups at 100yd with a 1/9 twist.
If you treat your rifle like it was a child, keep in mind that the case deflector may show signs of wear. Meaning the steel cases may wear away the park from hitting it. This happend on mine.
If you dont care about that. Shoot it, keep it clean.
Edit: The idea of steel case is to save money, so shoot 223 and dont worry about 223 vs 556. If your talking about changin barrels or reaming or what not. Take that money and buy brass. But thats my own opinion.
carry a chamber brush on a short rod. scrub dry every couple hundred rounds. Seems like all steel will have a problem after so many, IDK? even silverbear with that red sealant. it works for me. I also run my gun fairly dry and a carbine buffer.
I think the 5.56 would be the larger of the chambers.
In my experience I find that guns that would not run with steel cased ammo would run with it after using a 5.56mm NATO neck and throat reamer (from Ned Christiansen) and running them very wet with good oil like Weaponshield, Militec or Slip2000.
I had a problem with that red crap getting caught in my bolt face and everywhere else. oil just made it more sticky. after a lot i had 2 mis-feeds with an H2 i switched. I have a Sabre ML and stuck with the carbine buffer anyway. I have had to rebuild the bolt but still dont get crazy with lube on this upper. Ive been through 4000 silver bears on this upper. It was from 04 or 05 and that was the trend i guess, not many ML made at the time also.
My experience is similar. Running dry(er) has a detrimental effect. I theorize that the lube helps carry some of the crud out of the way.
I use Slip2000 EWL and their cleaning products. When I do clean the gun I strip down the bolt, soak it in carbon killer, spray it out with 725 degreaser, and finish up with blasts of air from the compressor before relubing it all with EWL. The only place I stay light on the lube is on the firing pin and firing pin channel inside the bolt.
I don’t know how to “Tune” one, but I did just build an RRA Pistol that has eaten 460 rounds of Wolf 55gr. steel case .223 without a hiccup, after I put an H1 buffer in it. I recently picked up a bunch of Brass LC though so I’ve stopped shooting the Wolf for a bit.
A clean that is dry doesn’t run well. A dirty gun that is well lubed does.
For the record, I generally shoot Hornady TAP Practice. Have done so for years. No issues and in fact cannot remember the last time I had a malfunction.
Do the comments in your link apply to steel case ammo generally or just wolf?
After reading this I took 200 rounds of the 55gr lacquered steel cased Hornady tap training ammo to the range and compared it to 200 rounds of Walmart 55gr Federal bulk brass cased ammo.
I cleaned the bolt and chamber then shot the Hornady first, then cleaned the bolt and chamber and shot the Federal I could not tell any difference in the cleanliness of the bolt or chamber. Both appear to run pretty clean and I could not detect any difference in crud build up.
The only difference, other than 10 cents a round, between the two was the steel cases ejected from the chamber landed more than two feet from the furthest flying federal brass case. This leads me to believe the steel case Hornady is hotter than the federal. There did appear to be a look of disappointment on the face of one brass scrounge.
I did not have any malfunctions.
I used a stock Noveske 10.5, except for the KAC triple tap.