I know the whole steel vs brass thing gets way too much play here, but I just wanted to put this out there. This was by no means a scientific study and I'm sure it probably won't change any opinions here. It's just my personal experience with a whole lot of steel ammo over a few days of hard shooting. I was lucky enough to get into the Magpul Carbine 1&2 classes in Gainesville, Fl last week. The classes actually filled up last December when they were posted, so I had several months to put together the 4000 rounds I would need. I've had good luck with Bear ammo in the past and $$ is tight, so I decided I would use Bear for the classes. I really hoped I wouldn't regret this decision and end up wasting expensive training time with a jammed up rifle. Here are the rifles I was using. Top one started life as a SW M&P15T, the rail and stock have been changed, but all the internals are still stock S&W. The bottom is a complete frankengun I built myself. There's a mixture of parts, but all are quality including a DD barrel and LPK and a BCM BCG.



Here's the ammo used. 2500 rounds of Brown Bear 55gr FMJ, 1K of Silver Bear 55gr FMJ and 1k of Silver Bear 55gr JHP.







Day one got off to a scary start when I had an FTE right at the beginning while zeroing my weapon. The gun was the SW and the round turned out to have a ripped lip and tapped right out with a rod. The rest of days 1-3 went well. I did have the bolt fail to lock back on an empty mag a couple of times. Both times were with the SW and the same mags worked fine in the build gun. About 2K rounds were fired those 3 days, there were no other FTF, FTE, double feeds, stovepipes, etc. The failed bolt lockbacks were the only two minor issues. The range was pretty sandy and the weapons were very sandy at the end of each day. At night, I just wiped out the excess sand with a rag and lubed the bolts well. I did not perform a complete breakdown of the weapons. This is the lube I used, SLIP 2000..



For the final three days (Carbine 2), I decided to run the build gun exclusively, as it had zero problems with bolt lockback, etc. during the first three days. Those 3 days we fired over 2k rounds. The weapon continued to perform flawlessly thru many high round count drills, mag changes, etc. I know that many people talk of problems with steel ammo with a hot chamber, all I can say was this wasn't an issue for me. The gun was run extremely hard and was often almost too hot to hold tightly, even with a glove on. Thru it all, it fed the steel flawlessly and I had exactly zero malfunctions of any kind during the final three days. I did see all mannner of malfunction in other rifles with brass ammo during that time. Again, during the final three days, the only maintenance performed was a wipedown of the sand and grit in the upper and magwell area and a dose of lube each night. As far as steel ammo being dirtier, i won't argue with that, here are a few pics of the rifle after the 6 days....













There you have it. Again, this is just my experience with steel in two (mostly one) rifle over a few days of hard shooting. I'm not here trying to say steel is as good as brass or anything else. Just putting out my experience for others to see.

This is my experience also. 500 rds silver bear in a class. Ran the gun with grease. No issues. You took it a mile deeper! Bravo sir!!!

That rifle is going to be a bitch and a half to clean. I have been stockpiling WPA ammo since it is $100/case cheaper then brass cased. So far so good.

Nice write up and feed back man!

What's the little part on the top of the hand guard rails on both guns?

I just think that 4,000 rounds in a course is wild. Was that for 1 course or two?

That was two courses, Carbine 1 and carbine 2. 3 days each, 6 days total.

This... Also what did you use for a pistol/ pistol ammo?

Good write up! I just went through 60rds of Wolf Military Classic earlier this month at at $100 less per 1k it made me a believer for practice purposes. Plus, I don't have to worry about collecting up my brass as much.

Excellent write up, thanks!

ETA - surprised to hear about your M&P15 having the odd issue. FWIW, I have an M&P15T that has got around 18k rounds through it (90% of which has been Brown Bear)...and it has been an absolute trooper - even no lube/filthy. Most of that time I have been running a Sprinco Red Spring and a H2 buffer - by the way it feels to me, it is quite clear to me my M&P is overgassed (and they are notorious for it). Your "rip the rim off" problem with it is indicative of that. The fail to lock back last round bolt hold.....I see you are running BAD levers (or similar). The only time I had that trouble with my M&P was when I tried a bad lever.....I believe this is likely to be your problem regarding that. I'd recommend taking off the BAD and running a heavier buffer and/or spring and seeing how you go. My guess is you'll notice the rifle feeling a little softer/smoother, and without the BAD I'd be surprised if you had lockback issues.

Very interesting write up. I'm actually planning on a 14'5" middy upper build with 13" VTAC TRX. I didn't give any thought to heat transfer from extended firing.

Thanks for taking the time to write that all up! Great reporting. I'm waaaaaayyy jealous. Sounds like it was a real good experience.

I have been shooting the WPA quite a bit and I'm glad to say that it runs great in my two mongrels.

Don't forget to post about your ammo experiences in the Ammo Review and Reference thread under the appropriate ammo type!

It can't be done commie ammo will lock up in your chamber rendering the upper as scrap and the barrel will need to be replaced. Plus it will ding your brass defelector .

I love Brown Bear because for me it equals more shooting for the same amount of money. A lot of guys here have more money than me and shoot brass exclusively, more power to you, in the mean time I'll keep on truckin' with commie steel. I hope to take a class this October and if I do I'm going to use my S&W 5.45x39 upper and the Russian military surplus that I bought from Rguns back when it was 11 cents a round. I'm sure chaos will ensue .

Were any of the Eotechs that were crapping out the new style with the sideways CR123? I love the Eotech reticle but I went to Aimpoint T-1s because of the reliability issues. I just bought and EXPS 3-0 and I will run it for practice and in classes, but I will also have my T-1 zeroed to that gun with me as a back up.