My first post here. I have a Colt 6940 that has worked perfectly (1500 rounds of assorted ammo) until I fired Wolf steel cased ammo. After about 90 rounds a case stuck in the chamber and would not come out until I squirted some break free in the barrel and used a cleaning rod.
The case was really stuck and required some force to remove. Upon inspection of the case the primer was flattened. Is this a sign of a double charge of powder? The gun still works fine with brass cased ammo. I am afraid to use the remainder of my wolf ammo. Any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
I try and stay away from Wolf steel case ammo. They coat the ammo in a laquer that gunks up the weapon. I also think it varies from person to person. I’ve heard some people say that their weapon eats Wolf up and others say what you’re saying. I stay away from it just to be safe.
Total nonsense.
To the OP, what type of Wolf was it, 55, 62, or 75 grain? By “flattened” what exactly do you mean? Can you post a picture of it?
I am one of those guys that has fired thousands of rounds of Wolf ammo. You DO encounter issues from time to time, maybe once a thousand. Since this is training and practice ammo and not critical-use ammo, it’s a non-issue and worth the savings to me.
Wolf is all polymer coated now, an lacquer rounds are older, but they are still encountered once in awhile, mostly in someones stash ammo, not on the market.
I shoot steel case Wolf, Tula, ect. with no troubles. It may not be preferred 1st string ammo, but if my gun just would’t run Wolf, I’d not want that gun.
They changed coatings quite a long time ago.
I think stuck cases are the most common “failure” with Wolf ammo.
I don’t shoot Wolf but have shot some Hornady training ammo. Both 55GR FMJ, and 75GR BTHP’s. Its a cheaper alternative to brass case but made with Hornady’s components except for the case. Its gotten pretty good reviews from everyone Ive seen who has shot it.
My bad. I can admit when I’m wrong.
I’ve always been told it gunks up your weapon so have stayed away. In turn, since I don’t have any experience with it I shouldn’t have said anything. That does however pique my interest in getting some for training as the price is decent. Thanks guys.
shoots fine for me
Shoot one or the other. Steel, fired together with brass ammo during the same range session = a stuck case. It is the only time I have observered this happening. It doesn’t happen all the time, but enough to cause severe irritation. Do not mix the two in the same mags or alternate ammo in separate mags unless you clean in between. I’ve shot Wolf, Barnaul, etc…with both coatings, and without cleaning. I had no problems with it that wasn’t related to as bad extractor or bad mag.
Thanks for all the responses to my question. To answer some of the questions, The ammo was wolf military classic .223 55gr. fmj. The primer being “flattened” seems to resemble what you find in a loading manual showing pictures of high pressure where the primer is flatter and goes out all the way out the edges of the primer pocket . And I did mix ammo that day having fired federal xm193 ammo before switching to the wolf , so that might have something to do with it.
Steel cases absolutely DO NOT perform the same as brass. They heat and expand differently than brass.
I even tried resizing some wolf cases in my carbide die just for the hell of it. The same die setting doesn’t work for steel… they just don’t size down like brass either.
Some guns just run steel better than others.
Reserve the wolf for plinking etc… Use good brass cased ammo for serious use.
have fired tons of Wolf - no more issues than any other ammo IMHO. A flattened or popped primer is a sign of over pressue normally, but since the shell did not eject…perhaps the fact it staying fixed caused it to flatten ala bolt action, but not quite sure.
Make sure you have a good extractor or at lest the black insert not the old blue extractor insert…or you can try something like an O ring to ensure positive extraction.
This rings true. The only weapons I fire Wolf ammo in is my AK’s. I’m kinda picky about what I feed my AR’s.
In the gun you have run wolf, do you only have issues when you fire steel cased ammo, or with brass now as well?
The steel cases allow more carbon in the chamber because they don’t expand as much as the brass.So when you switch to brass they stick.
This last Sunday I shot about 250 or so rounds of .223 55gr Wolf. The older laquer coated stuff I had stocked up. In the first 90 or so rounds, I had 1 round that must have been underpowered and failed to chamber the next round but ejected the original one just fine.
I also ran 2 mag dumps with no issue. I started having problems only after I ran one mag of 55gr HSM and reverted back to the Wolf. After that I had 1 stuck casing and later a primer that popped out and jammed up my trigger from resetting. If I only run the wolf, I almost never have a problem except for the occasional underpowered round.
I use 9mm wolf almost exclusively in my Beretta 90-Two without one failure at all in the last 2yrs. My 7.62x39 Wolf has never had one issue either in several years of use through multiple AKs.
I agree.
There is nothing wrong with steel cased ammo. General consensus is that it’s not as accurate as brass cased ammo. As others have said, the switching back and forth between brass and steel has caused cases to get stuck. I reload now so if I purchase .223/5.56 it’s brass cased, but if you don’t reload it’s great for range plinking and training.
Happy Shooting
My BCM middy does not like wolf military classic 55gr. After a mag or two, i started to get stuck cases, just like described. they have to be banged out with a cleaning rod. any brass ammo i have used is absolutely no problem, and I have shot about a 1000 rounds of brown bear with no function problems at all. Even with a clean gun it gets gunked up so quick by wolf the cases start sticking within the first few mags. Brown bear is cheaper so no biggie. I only bought the wolf because it was an emergency… I needed some range ammo.
eta. I don’t believe its the coating either because brownbear has it too. I think the wolf just doesn’t expand as much and gunks the chamber with blow by gasses.
I am probably one of the biggest wolf supporters and eve I’m having more issues than ever before. Granted it’s only 1 to 2 stuck cases per thousand but I used to get none and they are getting stuck so tight that mortaring won’t clear them. High rate of chamber cleaning helps tremendously. 75 grain is the worst followed by 55 and then 62 in my experience. I’m starting to keep records now to be able to document the issues.