Went to the range this afternoon to test how my middy cycled cheap Russian steel cased ammo. It did well and I didn’t observe the excessive fouling or the bad smell everybody talks about.
What I did notice was that the cases were ejected about twice as far as the brass NATO rounds I shot last week. I’ll have to go back to the range soon just to confirm it wasn’t my imagination.
Anyone else observe this?
I know even Rob S wrote something on shooting the Wolf ammo, didn’t read it, but if he advocates it, I disapprove. It’s simple, brass expands and contracts more easily than steel, the steel case is exerting more friction on the chamber walls and is therefore harder to extract, so when it does it goes flying. It really stresses the extractor.
The driving factor in the cases going a differnt distance is probably more related to the fact that the steel is probably a hair lighter than the brass.
Steel cases also do not expand as uniformly in the chamber as brass,and therefore do not have as much friction in theory.Thus the amount of fouling that is deposited in the chambers causing cases to stick,which is a driving factor in why chamber cleaning is so important when using the steel cased ammo.
As for direct effect on ejection distance and function of related components…I’d say the steel cases have little to nothing to do with how far the cases are tossed as the ejector spring and how fast the BCG is moving due to gas provided/timing and buffer used.Extractor sping,insert and o-ring can all have an effect as well.
As far as added stess to the extractor,I’d say the the steel cases contribute little to no concern and the cycle rate detailed again by how close to proper the barrel is gassed.Then you have to factor in that the steel cased ammo in most cases is loaded to the weak side.
While I would not advocate the use of cheap steel cased ammo for defensive use I have yet to see any issues as range fodder.If a person burns as much ammo as some here,I can say for a fact that the cost savings in just a year is dramatic.
your steel casings are flying twice as far because they’re flying out clearer than your usual brass ammo. your brass ammo, being higher pressure, ricochets off the brass deflector or port rim on it’s way out, absorbing flight energy.
This sounds like the most logical explanation - the deflector doesn’t appear to have been impacted much by the steel cases
That and you wont have the brass smear on the deflector from the brass case ammo with steel lacquer/polymer coated steel cases.
you’ve got this wrong.
steel doesn’t expand like brass. the carbon and fouling get into you chamber because of this. extraction slows down because of this fouling. not because of steel on steel friction you mentioned.
if you run your weapon well lubed and take a chamber brush to it every once and a while, steel cased ammo should be no problem. (assuming you are running a quality upper.)