I am looking to stock up on more cheap target ammo, my go to for ages has been wolf or tula but I am seeing some lacquered steel case barnaul around. What is the consensus on lacquered ammo? I've never really dealt with it much, has anyone had any issues?

All lacquered ammo and steel projectiles have "issues" it's just a question of if you save enough in your mind to justify the lower quality. Your rifle will wear out quicker and get dirty quicker. The lacquer causes jams in rifles often after a strong of heating and then sitting with a round in the chamber.

Lacquer and poly will make a rifle into a club after a mag or two on a hot day.  Have a backup plan.  This plan should include a drill motor, a cleaning rod, solvent, and a fresh chamber brush.


I had to sell 5 cases after this caught up with me.  Luckily the market was up.  

I stocked up on brass cased ammo and also started reloading for plinking ammo.

Nobody believes this until it happens to them.  Far away from the ranch.  With no other ammo, and a worn chamber brush...............

Some people have these issues, and some don't. For every good argument against lacquered .223, there is one for it.

There is such a range of rifles that will run it or won't, and there seems to be consistency issues with the ammunition from time to time, there is no "best" answer to this question.

Unless you test your rifles against a particular batch of lacquered .223 it is impossible to know if it is a good idea or not.

Personally, I haven't had any issues. That doesn't mean you won't...

I reload .223, so prefer brass even though I have reloaded steel to prove it could be done.

I'm sorry but you are wrong. There is one argument for lacquered ammo and that is cost. They might have less issues in a loose chamber AK, but in an AR run hard it will cause more malfs than brass blammo.

I've shocked thousands of rounds of Brown Bear. Negligible issues.

If I shoot steel cased it’s  Barnaul. It’s reliable ammo, but obviously dirty. I won’t shoot it in my good rifles but I do in my PSA, it eats it like candy.

Also, I’ve read about the lacquer issue but never experienced it myself. I shot 7 mags in the PSA with no issues at all.

This. Ditto.

It takes a lot of heat to melt that lacquer.  Even the much quoted Lucky Gunner testing dispelled the "laquer melts into your chamber" myth.  They claim they were getting the guns hot enough to cause a cookoff in 10-15 seconds and saw no evidence of melted lacquer.

I shoot almost exclusively steel cased ammo, I couldn't shoot as much every year if all I shot was brass cased ammo.  I only keep about 500 rounds of Wolf Gold around for those times I may have to shoot a match at a place that doesn't allow steel cased.  I run about 6000 rounds a year of rifle and 6000 pistol, majority steel cased.  The only issues I've had with steel cased ammo itself was an early 2009 lot of Wolf ammo that was known to have bad annealing on the casings.  I don't clean after every range session either.  I keep track on a spreadsheet and clean every 500-1000 rounds fired, my carry guns are on a monthly cleaning schedule mostly to knock the lint out of the gun.  

If you've shot any WOLF since late 09 or 2010 then you've been shooting Barnaul ammo, in 2009 WOLF switched over to Barnaul for their lines of ammo.  Unless the WOLF is marked "TCW" then it's coming from Barnaul, "TCW" ammo is coming from Tula.  

Barnaul also makes various store brands that you've probably seen or shot.  Herters from Cabelas or Bass Pro forget which one carries it, and Monarch from Academy come immediately to mind.  SGAMMO's contract ammo in the plain white boxes also comes from Barnaul.  

In the end do what you want but the less people that buy steel cased ammo the more it leaves for me to buy

True.

Think about the hundreds of millions of lacquered steel case 7.92 cartridges the Germans put through MG-34s and MG-42s during WWII. The melted lacquer thing is over-hyped...

Never had problems with lacquer.
They dont rust as fast as poly coated
Ive shot thousands of rounds of the (purple)sealed golden tiger, most of it the hard primered rounds from SG ammo a few years back that you needed a longer firing pin to run.
Never had a case stick yet.  I Had some light primer strikes here and there but then added a heavier hammer spring and all was golden.
I have heard good things about the Baurnal sealed steel and would run it personally.
I also run a lot of wolf steel but it not sealed.
I dont run steel in my custom but I run it in my range toy.
Also at this time I believe most of the Wolf steel is being made by tula.(TCW)
Hope this helps a little.

I haven't shot any steel since I started reloading but prior to that shot thousands of rounds of the SG Ammo Barnaul contract ammo. Outside of the occasional hard primer I never had an issue.

I just pulled a 10.5" barrel that saw the majority of those rounds and was pleasantly surprised at its condition. The gas port had opened up to .076+/- but the rifling, chamber, and muzzle are all in good shape. I'm replacing it but would wager it would continue to be combat accurate for many more rounds.

Used to shoot a ton of Silver Bear and Brown Bear.  Good shit.  No problems or inconsistency like standard Wolf.

Then supply seemed to dry up a few years back.  And I've been shooting brass-cased M193 clones ever since.

I don't know how the Brown Bear and Silver Bear is these days, but I'd recommend it based on past experience.  

Great range ammo.  Cheap and goes bang.  What more do you want?

ETA: just avoid shooting brass-cased ammo after steel-cased without first cleaning your chamber or the brass could stick in all the extra fouling.

I've never had any real issues with it.  I just did a test of some poly coated unsealed stuff.  I left rounds out in the weather for several months and also put some under water overnight.  All shot just fine and even the stuff under water kept its powder dry.

Sure its not match accurate by any means, but it will kill just the same.

I've had great luck with the silverbear ammo.  Never had a stuck case in the 5K or so rds I shot. I still have 2 700rd sealed cans of it.
I tried wolf years ago. It was ok, high failures & yeah 1 AR I had to bang the stuck cases out.

Most of the "issues" are myths by folks who have never shot multiple case of this ammo.
I have shot multiple cases of lacquered steel ammo.

No issues in LWRC M6A2 and Sig516 for multiple cases
I think I ran it through my BCM as well (but not sure on the volume, maybe less than 1000 rds)

I am sure there are some ARs out there have too tight chambers and so it might be an issue... but thats really a knock on the rifle not the ammo.

is steel as good as brass?
absolutely not.

is it good enough?

In my experience resoundingly yes.

PS: Looking at some other posts. Brown Bear and Silver Bear are on the exact same production line as Wolf Military Classic.. Barnaul.. just different coatings.. the old Wolf Polyperformance was made at Luhansk cartridge works (among another one which I dont remember) now its supposed to be also made at barnaul.
There is also a Wolf Basic line that is made at Tula tho (TCW) . Its also labeled Polyperformance so take care when u buy.
so this TCW ammo I would obviously rank a lot lower than the Barnaul made stuff.. would never buy any tula made rifle ammo even for training unless I was out and there is nothing else left to buy.. (but their 9mm is great!)
The TCW stuff is it NOT labeled Military Classic or Brown Bear or Silver Bear... those are all still reserved for Barnaul made ammo... ...

I had a couple of AR's that ran well on standard steel casings until one day they didnt run at all. Clean chamber and all they just decided to stop running it. Now Golden bear will run as well as silver bear , but not the standard stuff. I gave up on it for my AR's as brass was only a few bucks more at the time and have never had issues with brass even when shooting suppressed and getting very dirty.