School me on .223

[murphy j]

And plenty of our guys wishing they had a bigger round.

And most of those guys can't hit squat. Doesn't matter what size round it is if you can't hit it and that's a big problem. Not enough marksmanship training. Even most of the SF guys I interacted with were running 5.56, with the occasional SCAR-H thrown in.

Now back to the OP's regularly scheduled thread.

To get back to the OP's question, I won't run steel-cased 5.56 mm ammo in my Mini-14, though I know people who do use it in their Minis. I'm sure you will find a similarly divided opinion on steel-cased ammo in the AR. I do have friends who use that stuff in their ARs.

I've shot steel case out of a 'lesser' AR, but was told by a gunsmith friend not to use it. He said in limited use it's fine, but can wear and possibly gouge the chamber over time. I had no problems with it and have heard both sides of the issue. Some say it's best to just run brass case in a quality AR, but others say there's no difference. I know Hornady is making steel case training ammo in 5.56/.223 and I haven't heard anything bad about it. I prefer brass case ammo just to be on the safe side.

 

[OliverKlohzoff]

AR's are a bit more picky regarding ammo than AK's. They need to be cleaned more often and seem to run better on brass cased ammo. Steel cased ammo only seems to be problem if you're blazing through magazines and heating everything up. The combination of the heat, steel cased ammo being more dirty and the harder casing can cause ejection problems under high stress use. For just some range plinking, steel cased ammo is fine. Just clean your AR when you're done.

Brass is an alloy made up of zinc and copper. I personally have had fantastic luck with Silver Bear zinc cased AR ammo. My AR pistol likes the zinc Silver Bear just as well or better than even brass Federal. Although that Silver Bear stuff is impossible to find right now, any decent zinc cased AR ammo is a good cost-effective alternative to brass.

Right now I'm shooting brass Federal, only because I can't find any Silver Bear at the moment.

 

[mightymouse]

I prefer brass case ammo just to be on the safe side.

This is exactly why I only use brass-cased ammo in my Mini.

 

[Seedy]

I found Lake City surplus to be reasonably priced in bulk. Make sure you inspect it though. I've found a few dinged cases and mis-shaped bullets. BTW the green tipped Lake City is steel core and will ruin steel targets.

 

[mightymouse]

Thank you for the new Sig line!

Glad to oblige!

 

[LightningCrash]

I once had a big undertaking to find how much more steel cases wore on an AR-15 v brass.

Ultimately it didn't seem like it would be much. Best I could find, your extractor might check out a few hundred rounds earlier. Even that was just speculation.

 

[andrsnsm]

I have had steel case get stuck in the chamber of my AR and I had to pop it out with a cleaning rod. Case was stuck so tight the extractor tore the rim off. I had the same thing happen in my bolt action .308. Ammo in both instances was Tula. I will never buy that crap again.

 

[mightymouse]

I have has steel case get stuck in the chamber of my AR and I had to pop it out with a cleaning rod. Case was stuck so tight the extractor tore the rim off. I had the same thing happen in my bolt action .308. Ammo in both instances was Tula. I will never buy that crap again.

I have seen the same failure in a Mini-14 with the same brand of ammo.

 

[Drebin]

Here is an excellent article on the differences of .223 and 5.56.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/#more-115

I have shot over 1500 rounds of steel case through my AR and 800 through my old SKS with no issues. Steel case allows me to get in more target practice so I like to shoot it sometimes but I still shoot brass most of the time because thats what I store in my ammo cans. I'm not sure why it would wear out extractors faster than brass cased ammo, does anyone have any evidence of this?

 

[Daryl Licht]

Steel cased ammo won't hurt your AR, especially one like the 6920 that has a chrome lined chamber. Thinking that a chrome lined AR chamber with steel cased ammo will wear any faster than a chrome lined AK chamber with steel cases defies any resemblance to basic reasoning. The extractor might see more wear. In four rifles of varying price point and quality I have not seen it. Even the two that are not chromed and have seen a couple of thousand rounds each of steel cases, neither show abnormal extractor wear.

The steel case does not expand to seal the chamber as well as brass does and the chamber will crud up quicker. Clean it a little more frequently and it should be no problem.

FWIW, I'd prefer to shoot the brass stuff as well since it's generally better ammo, but for blasting the steel cased make$ $en$e.