Stupid steel cased ammo...

[CHS]

I was warned never to use Wolf 45 in my 1911's and was shown this barrel which I took this pic of - unfortunately I have alot of Wolf 45 left, I guess for my revolver with half moon clips - ever see anything like this with steel cased pistol ammo?

What does that have to do with the fact that the ammo was steel?

Crap ammo is crap ammo. And even the best ammo occasionally leaves the factory in bad batches. Remember all that wonderful amazing BRASS, AMERICAN, federal XM193 that was blowing up AR's a year ago? Of course not. It's not steel so no one remembers or cares about it. Brass is good, steel is bad. That's the party line.

That picture doesn't give any context whatsoever. I see a split barrel. That could be caused by any number of issues. That cartridge could have been an overpressure/double-charge cartridge, causing the split. The barrel could have had a void or other defect in it from the factory. There may have been a previous overpressure round or bad reload that weakened the barrel, and that cartridge was "the last straw" before a failure. There could have been a squib load (no powder) that lodged a bullet in the barrel right before this round, and this round caused an overpressure situation that lead to the split.

Wolf ammo isn't great ammo, but not because it's steel. And just because ammo is steel doesn't mean that it's bad ammo.

[repubconserv]

I went shooting with my cousin and his mini 14 about a year back, and he was using wolf. we probably shot 300 rounds that day and within the last 15 rds there were 3 FTEs.

I asked "is that because it is steel?"
He said "probably"
"so what is better?"
"steel, it's way damn cheaper than brass"

I see his logic, and can agree...

[FNH5-7]

OP, what brand AR? did you build it or it came complete from factory?

If you built it yourself, what brand barrel, upper receivers, DI or Piston?

I've never had problems with steel cased ammo

[Thecrazyone1]

I shot about 800 rounds of steel case tulammo from walmart in my AR and at first it barely ever jammed at all 2-3 times per 200 rounds. I usually use about 200 each trip to the range and then thoroughly clean it (taking apart the BCG and using pipe cleaners to clean the gas tube...) On my last trip to the range it kept jamming maybe 2-3 of every 10 shots.

Its the same problem that everyone else has, the shell gets stuck in the chamber and I have to use a cleaning rod to push it out.

I notice that when the shell gets stuck, when that bullet fired there was more recoil.

I looked at my extractor and compaired it to a new one I have in another AR and it looks a little scratched up but not really worn. It still extracts when I rack rounds through it not firing them.

I too also think (as someone above stated) that heat could be a factor because when I first started shooting my AR it was around the end of last winter, and now the temperature is alot higher than it was and it jams more.

My question is how often do you normally have to replace the extractor?

Shouldn't a steel case be less likely to fracture from pressure than a brass case?

I still plan on shooting mostly steel because the only real part that I can see wearing out is the extractor and it's cheap and easy to replace. Also the money I save shooting Steel vs Brass can buy me plenty of extractors.

On my next trip to the range I plan on taking what I have left of a 100 round box of Wally World Brass Federals to shoot after the Tulammo starts jamming / the gun gets really hot to see if the Federals will / won't jam.