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Steel ammunition cases are made from soft, mild steel, not the hardened steel you find in weapons manufacturing. I've never seen or heard of any studies showing that steel-cased ammunition causes any significant wear beyond brass-cased ammo. Steel cases have been widely used by the US, Germany, China, and the whole Soviet Bloc for many years. Can someone point to any information that shows any accelerated wear with steel-cased ammo???
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04-22-2012 09:24 PM
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I know that most people will disagree with me, but contrary to popular belief, steel cases are reloadable. You surely don't want to pick up rusty range brass, but if you shoot steel and keep it nice, there's no reason you can't reload it. Read Lee's Modern Reloading Vol II, he states it quite clearly in there.
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I know a guy who experimented with reloading steel Wolf .45ACP casings. He wasn't thrilled with the results, but the rounds did function as they were supposed to. I'll have to ask him what problems he encountered.
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There are some issues with steel, but they can be overcome. Necked cartridges need a good lubing. Steel isn't as pliable so you won't get as many reloads as brass. It's best to keep them for your lighter charges, they'll last longer that way. Again, never use rusty or corroded steel. Clean stuff is ok. If there's a guy at the range shooting steel and he leaves them behind, pick a few up and give them a try.
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In reality steel cases made by the government were meant as a secondary standard in case brass was not available to make ammunition. It was regulated to state side use only and it is reloadable. But there were problems with steel cases and at least one of the carbine makers refused to use it for testing and sighting in their carbines as it did cause problems to new carbines. Brass is softer then even mild steel and is more forgiving. Brass expands much better to fill the chamber then steel and results in less carbon build up in a carbine. Steel can and does rust as brass does not. Can steel be used in any USGI cartridge small arms ever made? Sure can but none were ever designed to use steel cased ammo and steel case has been around a long time. Even today we only use brass in our military ammo. Using steel cased ammo is a personal choice and if your happy with it then enjoy it. Just don't use it in a collectable carbine as parts for them are very expensive now and getting higher all the time if you break a part.
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