Start reloading.
A good AR will run steel and brass no problems. A good quality bolt like a BCM and a good barrel and you can pretty much run anything. By the time the steel cased ammo would have worn your extractor down, the amount of savings would make up for it 10 fold including the cost of a new extractor and springs. Heck, you could replace the bolt with the savings. The steel used in quality bolts and extractors are much harder than the soft steel used in ammo cases.
9 times out of 10, if an AR chokes on steel ammo, it's a sign of something a bit "off" with your AR build. Using quality ammo usually masks some of these problems that weaker pressured steel core ammo can shed light on. Typically, I notice steel cased stuff shooting lower than brass cased .223.
My only real gripe about steel core stuff is it's dirty dirty stuff. Cheap brass cased stuff can be dirty too, but the all steel ammo burns dirty. Great thing about shooting steel is I don't feel the urge to collect all of my spent casings like I do brass. There's an ease of mind shooting steel and not caring.
9 times out of 10, if an AR chokes on steel ammo, it's a sign of something a bit "off" with your AR build. Using quality ammo usually masks some of these problems that weaker pressured steel core ammo can shed light on. Typically, I notice steel cased stuff shooting lower than brass cased .223.
My only real gripe about steel core stuff is it's dirty dirty stuff. Cheap brass cased stuff can be dirty too, but the all steel ammo burns dirty. Great thing about shooting steel is I don't feel the urge to collect all of my spent casings like I do brass. There's an ease of mind shooting steel and not caring.
Or keyholing as some would call it.
Some of the guys back from Iraq and Afghanistan that I have talked with said they were wishing for an old M14 when their rifle would not penetrate cinder block walls. Seriously while I prefer the AK over the AR, I can see a need for a better caliber for both. Something in the 7mm range in either a necked up 5.56 or necked down 7.62x39 case.
A Lt Col I have worked with the last year or so was recently deployed. He was issued a M9 and a M14.
I have heard they are reissuing every M14 they have in stock. You would think that after as many wars with as many complaints from the troops, they would take a hint. It can not be that hard to chamber the AR in a slightly larger caliber. I know civilians have been doing it for years.
My son carried an m14 in Afghanistan.
7.62 ammo is more abundant then 6.8spc....Though supply usually isn't an issue in the military. We had more ammo then I could count in a year when I was overseas.
