Stripping lacquer off steel cased ammo question

[jjperl]

Would it be a bad idea to strip the lacquer off the steel cased ammo and then shoot it, would it do any dammage to the rifle? The lacquer on the ammo I purchased gums up the chamber bad enough to the point were I get a case stuck in the chamber every 10-20 rds once the rifle heats up.

[luvtolean]

I don't shoot wolf in anything with a chamber not designed for it, but I think it was on Box 'o Truth, they showed it wasn't the laquer, but build up of carbon/fouling due to the fact steel cases don't seal up the chamber as well.

Try scrubbing the hell out of the chamber with a good solvent.

[Mssr. Eleganté]

That's what I've heard too. The ammo experts on many gun forums have tried to make lacquer coated casings "sticky" by heating them up to various temperatures without any success.

Luvtolean posted one of the more likely reasons. Another might be that the steel cases are less "springy" than brass and don't shrink back down after firing, making them hang up in chambers that aren't perfectly clean.

Another study found that it was the red lacquer sealing the case necks that caused stickiness and not the green lacquer coating the casings. Supposedly Wolf changed the neck sealing lacquer or stopped using it all together for their current ammo.

The main reason for lacquer coating the steel casings is to prevent them from rusting. So removing the lacquer prior to firing shouldn't cause any problems. But it would be very labor intensive. You might be better off selling the ammo to somebody who has a gun that likes it and trying brass cased or copper washed steel cased or even another type of lacquered steel cased ammo in your rifle instead.