Better ammo is a given. That’s the reason I reload. And the reason I buy only brass cased ammo.

Very accurate. Ballistically similar to T2 TAP. No problems thus far with steel case.

This is is my practice round.

Correct but I'm talking about long term if you keep steel case loaded in mags.  Once you crack a case of old steel ammo then handle it when loading it can form corrosion on the outside of the case where dissimilar metals are in contact.  Brass is largely inert and won't react with other metals the same way as steel.  Again steel case ammo will last a long long time sealed in tins but once it's opened in a shtf situation and maybe gets wet cause its raining or you have to wade through water, etc. That's when you need your long term ammo to be made of brass.

I'm glad there are so many who do not shoot steel case ammo... keeps the cost down for me...

Why would I want to spend more money ???? All my AR's have always shot steel case ammo well... and here's the thing... I've never had issues with it.
No duds, no squibs, no missing primers... Say what you want about those Godless Commie heathens'. They know how to make ammo.

Hell, I had more issues with the Brit made Radway green Brass ammo from the early 2000's then I ever did with steel case.

And the whole wearing a barrel out... Phuleese… I hope I can shoot that much to the point I need to replace a $150 Barrel.

I like to shoot... as often as I can.. and steel case pricing makes that happen.

Is it long range ammo?? accuracy wise no, but I can still tag a steel torso out to 300meters with it.

It's not any dirtier then any other ammo and the whole lacquer sticking deal was all internet hype.

The money I save on just two cases of Wolf vs. 1 case of Wolf Gold, lets me by a case of Tula or Wolf 9mm.

And as far a reloading... yeah, you sit in your basement and resize...tumble...trim... reload.... for hours.. I'll be at the range shooting, and then leave my casings where they lie....
I'll reload for precision, but not for anything else... I find reloading tedious and a simple ends to a means... I get no Joy out of it, I do it to save cost on my .308 Bolt and Garand.... nothing more.

not chiming in on cheap steel (except to say that I do shoot it when i'm practicing drills or not worried about longer ranges) but hornady steel match is fantastic. I use the heavy stuff for my 1/8 JP barrel and it's the most accurate ammo I have shot. I don't load rifle, and 3 gun is mostly lost brass anyway, so never made sense to get better. I used the 55gn for bay stages, 75 gn for distance or when you need to activate a swinger/popper. hits harder and the 55 is close enough if you dial in for 75.

I think they do a powder coating instead of laquor, never gum up my guns and shoot reliably.

If you want cost savings and to do mag dumps just get a conversion kit and shoot 22s. I bought one a decade ago and it paid itself off the first day. been profit ever since.

For the range, sure.  If it's hard on extractors, why don't we constantly hear about broken extractors?

For defensive purposes, thoroughly clean the chamber after shooting it and then use brass ammo.  If you really want to, use one extractor for range only and have another one for self defense.  It's easy enough to switch them out.

because its a myth and stupid people dont understand metal hardness

I already said in another post that it's getting harder to not shoot steel, Hornady steel case with 75gr match bthp $21, beat that copper poppers.

Even the new Tula is better than before , I like it now better than Wolf, that zinc helps with bore lube, and they are more consistent now than before,
you can actually shoot better groups now with Tula better than most of the US military rounds, and better than wolf,  not wolf gold though which is going for 6.99 around here, and shoots awesome.

None of the above will touch the Hornady steel match, or the Hornady steel 55gr sp, @$21 for 50 rds, it like 10 free rds, cant reload them though.

I don't buy it either, never had a problem, and I'm at the point that it don't pay to reload 223, and 308, if you think about Hornady's deal it don't add up at all, a 100 round box of 75gr bthp match bullets goes for about $34-39, box of primers $4m, powder=crazy prices no matter what.
308 Wolf 145gr sp for $8.50 a box, The stuff shoot's plenty good for whitetails, or old washing machines. Does pretty good on targets too, around 2", outta one of my 308's

I've taken 55 gr Wolf out to 600 yds and banged on steel plates with my 1-5X Burris with a BDC reticle...
I wont' be winning any Presidents 100 tab with it, but for practical minute of bad guy, it gets the job done.

Yeah, lots of myths about melting lacquer and wearing out extractors and barrels.,yadda,yadda…

I read the Lucky gunner test, and that was extreme, and the end result, the money saved , would buy multiple replacement barrels, and there using a pretty harsh firing schedule.

I had a Older Bushmaster that had well over 12K on it and most of that was steel. still shot very well.

I'm with ya, the Lucky Gunner test was pure torture, I don't shoot my guns like that, so it means nothing to me.

The new Tula with Zinc coating on the steel case is what I like now, and I know everybody hates Tula, but try it before you hate on the zinc coated ones.

This time around Tula shoots better & functions better, QC is better, and I wouldn't doubt it's easier on the barrels than the thin copper they used to use.

The bullets are silver, looks Kool, shoots better, most times 2" and under for me esp. with the 62gr sp.  Buy em and stack em.

i'll buy 500 or 1000 rounds of wolf poly a year to shoot and run it until its gone then switch back to brass.  i have never ran into that problem.

i need to try lacquered cases though. the poly is really sticky and doesnt move strip out as easy.

Its not the poly or lacquer….It's the carbon that blows back into the chamber due to the steel casing not being as soft as brass. The fancy term is "Obturation"

Brass expands and conforms to the inside of your chamber creating obturation. So the carbon blowback does not get past the casing.

Steel, being harder, does not seal as well causing poor obturation.

If you have a tight chamber, that magnifies the problem.

You may have to scrub your chamber more often,

To me, it’s “any reason TO buy steel case ammo”? You can get decent brass ammo for $0.28 / rd right now.

i was referring to the wolf steel poly cases in the mags.

some people shoot more than you and at 10 cents a round thats hundreds of not thousands a year

if a fudd type like to shoot a couple boxes of ammo a month off a bench, then brass may be the way to go

So what is it exactly that you think the steel casing is doing?? Not stripping from the magazine during chambering?

I see what he's saying.  The poly coatings aren't quite as smooth as the laquer coatings like they use on Brown Bear and other Barnaul ammo that's not Wolf.  Take two cases of poly cased ammo and rub them together or even drag a finger nail over them.  Do the same thing for the laquer coatings.  There's a noticeable difference in how smooth they are.  I prefer the laquer coating over the poly coatings but will shoot either.  The poly coatings just seem to feed that much smoother.

That has been my experience.  Hornady steel match has been very accurate and reliable for me. My only issue with it is that it is not always available.  I haven't run across any for a couple of years now. I've been buying the bulk 247 round packs of Black instead.

Echoing what most others have said - I see no reason to avoid steel, so long as you're aware of the drawbacks that almost always accompany it. I was one of those 'Steel?! Never!' guys, then bought a case of the SGammo contract Barnaul 55gr. Ran 500 or so rounds through the CQBR without a hitch and found accuracy to be in the same ballpark as Wolf Gold, which had been my go-to for training purposes.

I'll stick with 262 for groups and HD, but for general plinking the 55gr SG stuff is what i'll be going with from here on out.

respectfully, you think too much

sitting on 5-6k steel wolf from eons ago, dumped in 20mm cans and I just open and pull handfuls with zero issues.  Don't think, just do....

Go be poor somewhere else. I shoot plenty...but maybe not enough. Maybe 400-600 rds of 5.56 a month.

That's a pretty shitty thought process.  But whatever floats your boat.

I shoot about the same as you it sounds.  ABout the same in 9mm as well.  So about 10-12k rounds a year on a good year.  Sometimes more sometimes less (like half of those numbers if things keeps me from the range), but that's still a significant cost savings over a year time span when youre talking 70ish dollars savings per k on .223 and 30ish dollars on 9mm.

It's good you have the money to throw around like that I guess but those of us who have lives outside of being at a range all the time like to spend money on other things as well.

thats it?

I shoot longer belts than that

Here’s the problem with just calling stuff “steel cased ammunition.”  Hornady’s ammo is anything but “cheap,” though their Steel Match line is quite affordable.  People put too much importance on the casing material and essentially ignore everything else about the product, so they somehow get the idea that a steel case magically makes a round crappy.

There’s a company called American Ammunition, headquartered in Miami, FL.  They use the headstamp A-MERC.  Their brass is extremely consistent - consistently off.  I have never seen one of their cases with a centered flash hole.  You can find tons of reports of how very bad their products are.  Yet they are an American company that makes and sells brass cased ammunition.  It sure isn’t the brass material that makes A-MERC crappy ammunition.

The best information I have is that Hornady gets their Berdan primed steel cases from Barnaul - I have always had good experiences with Barnaul’s products, whether under their own name or the “Monarch” brand from Academy Sports.  Hornady uses their own excellent bullets and carefully selected powders.  I’ll agree that Hornady is likely much more consistently manufactured than any of the Russian made steel cased products - and several orders of magnitude more consistently than Tula, unless Tula’s changed recently.

More like it’s because that’s completely wrong and parroted by people who let the media do their thinking. These same people who know how much the media lies when it comes to guns yet totally hang on their every word when it comes to other matters.

Those are done for entertainment and relaxation. Not trying to save a buck. Not apples to apples, appeal denied.

Extracted are how much again, I forget. How much is saved going steel vs brass, I forget.

To further expound on this...

The big Army has tested steel cased ammo many times in the past, here is what they have learned:

1. Poor heat treating cause problems,
2. Poor choice of lacquer causes problems,
3. All weapons will work fine with properly made steel cased ammunition coated with quality lacquer,
4. Increased part wear was negligible,
5. Steel cases are lighter,
6. There is negligible difference in case strength,
7. Making steel cases is very different from making brass cases.

The take-a-way is that quality control of steel cases has a greater impact on reliability.  So, cheap Tula is a poor performer, because it's cheap, not because there is some inherent "badness" in steel cases.

So, why hasn't the Army changed to steel cases?  Actually, they have to some degree.  All new small arms cartridges introduced, since about 1970 have not been brass cased, of course, that's only been three types, the 30mm x 113, 30mm x 173 in aluminum cases and  25mm x 137 in steel.  (EDIT:  The aborted 6mm SAW rounds was designed from the start to be steel cased as well.)  The reasons older cartridge designs have never switched to steel are all economic, not technical.

Oh, and one other thing . . . some people will state that the AK "was designed to work with steel cased ammo..."  No, that is a false statement.  When the AK-47 was designed the Soviet Union was still using brass cases for M43 (7.62 x 39), and only some WW2 surplus 7.62 x 54R was steel cased.  It wasn't until the mid- to late-1950s did the Soviets start introducing steel cased M43 and not until the early 1960 was it all steel cased.

Stick with Ukrainian ammo to avoid this.