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  #1  
Old 01-18-2014, 1:40 PM
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Default Is there ANY decent steel cased .223/.556 ammo for shooting out of an AR?

So I FINALLY got out to Steele PeekE and shot a few guns.

I tested out my AK pistol and it shot steel with NO issues. In fact, 140 rounds not one hiccup. SO it is fixed! YAY! Next I shot my AR varmint with a 24" DPMS upper on it. Shot 30 rounds of the reloads I made at BigBronco's house the other month. NO problems. All shot flawlessly. THANKS Bronco!

Then I loaded up a box of Wolf .223 and the first fired, but did not extract. Needless to say I dumped it out.

So now I need to either find an AR Upper that will eat the .223 wolf steel cased stuff I somehoe acquired a long time ago or I need to trade it for some 7.62x39 stuff somewhere. I would rather find a nice plinking upper that will eat all ammo.

So anyone know of a decent steel cased .223 brand/round that will function in most or all or many .223 semi auto rifles?

OR what a good upper to get to plink with it is nice to know too...
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  #2  
Old 01-19-2014, 10:56 PM
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Any of it should work, unless your rifle is something like a Del Ton. Even then, it should work okay...

Clean your chamber, and polish your feed ramps a bit and see if it doesn't improve.
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  #3  
Old 01-19-2014, 11:00 PM
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Look into some Hornady TAP steel cased ammo. I haven't tried it but it seems to get good reviews from people who have used it.
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  #4  
Old 01-19-2014, 11:22 PM
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I've shot craploads of Tula out of all of mine with no issues. I believe Wolf is just an importer of Tula. Not sure of accuracy though because I suck with long guns but it's always functioned..
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  #5  
Old 01-19-2014, 11:57 PM
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Yep, the Hornady training steel cased stuff is great. It used to go for $16/50 for the 75gr stuff which was a great deal. I think now it's like double that, so brass case stuff is just as cheap.
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  #6  
Old 01-20-2014, 2:00 PM
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:\ I have not cleaned my rifle but I thought that maybe because it was a precision hunting upper that perhaps my chamber might have been a tad tighter and thus not liked that polymer coated steel. My friend's mini-14 did the same thing, after the first shot it did not extract and it took us all of about 10 minutes to unstick it and then after it happened a second time and took longer, we decided to put no more steel in it.I did not want that happening to me on the last trip so I made certain to keep the steel out after that first malfunction.
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  #7  
Old 01-21-2014, 10:33 AM
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Have you tried either the Silver Bear or MFS ammo with zinc plated cases? I've never had any issues with it going bang or extracting, unlike some of the polymer coated stuff.
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  #8  
Old 01-21-2014, 12:21 PM
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I shoot brown bear and Tula steel out of a psa upper without an issue.
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  #9  
Old 01-21-2014, 2:26 PM
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I'm surprised you're shooting steel ammo, Stilly. Aren't you making your own jacketed bullets, for heaven's sake?

Costs for .223 reloads:
Bullet = .10
Powder = .09
Primer = .04

Perfectly hand-loaded brass cased with quality Hornady bullets for .23/round.

Heck even crummy Wolf at $5.99/20 is .30/round!

Sell all that steel to some sucker in the marketplace and get to makin' some ammo.
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Old 01-21-2014, 3:30 PM
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I don't think the .223 is suited for steal cased ammo without a coating like nickel. There isn't enough case taper to extract reliably. A freind of mine has an SU-16 and tried to tire a box of steel cased stuff. Like you, the first one jammed and had to be wacked out with the cleaning rod. he fired another one and it jammed in there so good he had take the gun home before he got it out.
7.62X39 was designed to be steel cased and so there is a good taper on the cartridge so it can extract easily.
Sell it, or trade it straight across for some 7.62x39 for your AK.
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  #11  
Old 01-31-2014, 1:49 PM
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I JUST got started in .223 reloading. I am now trimming my brass. I plan to prolly shoot only reloaded brass or commercial varmint rounds.

I HATE to just dump off my ammo onto someone else SO last night I bought this:
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index...ng-handle.html

It is a 16" .556 nato double thick chrome lined carbine upper from PSA.

I got it because 1. It is chambered in .556 and 2. it is 16" and not a 24" bull barrel for shooting song dogs... I expect it to be MUCH lighter and I am looking forward to gettting it.

I am starting to make some .223 ammo hopefully by this weekend. Right now I am just concentrating on prepping the brass. But then once I get started, I will only have 2 lbs of W748 powder... I guess that is enough for about 500 rounds...

Anyways, yeah I need to get some more projectiles and what not too. I only have a few thousand of them.
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  #12  
Old 01-31-2014, 3:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stilly View Post
I JUST got started in .223 reloading. I am now trimming my brass. I plan to prolly shoot only reloaded brass or commercial varmint rounds.

I HATE to just dump off my ammo onto someone else SO last night I bought this:
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index...ng-handle.html

It is a 16" .556 nato double thick chrome lined carbine upper from PSA.

I got it because 1. It is chambered in .556 and 2. it is 16" and not a 24" bull barrel for shooting song dogs... I expect it to be MUCH lighter and I am looking forward to gettting it.

I am starting to make some .223 ammo hopefully by this weekend. Right now I am just concentrating on prepping the brass. But then once I get started, I will only have 2 lbs of W748 powder... I guess that is enough for about 500 rounds...

Anyways, yeah I need to get some more projectiles and what not too. I only have a few thousand of them.
I was able to find powder out on the net today. PowderValley even had some that works well for 223 (but it was $30 a pound; high end... but they have cheap primers which helps). VIHTAVUORI N133
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  #13  
Old 01-31-2014, 2:22 PM
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Steel ammo in general is cheap because one it's steel and 2 the components are cheap and not precise.


That said there is "match" grade steel ammo. Not the best of ammo but listed as match and ok ammo for steel case. But technically all steel should run through your guns.
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  #14  
Old 01-31-2014, 3:07 PM
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Reload swap the ammo for ak ammo.
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  #15  
Old 01-31-2014, 4:44 PM
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I am a cheap bastige. I want to buy at least an 8lb bottle of powder and I want it for around $17 or less a lb. There is no way that I will ever use any $30/lb powder. I would load and then be afraid to shoot them, then try to sell them later on down the line to people that don't care would make me mad.

Yeah so I think maybe now I need to sell off my ria 1911 and GSG-5 to pay for it and the powder that I want...
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Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model...



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  #16  
Old 01-31-2014, 5:47 PM
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Who made your lower and what type buffer spring are you using? Does your gas system have any leaks? Is your extractor set up properly or missing its o-ring. The majority of AR15s are over gassed to make sure they function with lower pressure ammunition. This also means the bolt can be moving to the rear and chamber pressure is still holding the case firmly against the chamber walls. In a case like that you need a super strong extractor spring and a good o-ring to eject the case and not slip off the rim of the case.

I have the exact same PSA upper and a PSA lower and it fires the same ammo your using "without" any problems. I also have a DPMS A2 HBAR and it fires anything I put in it.

5.56 vs .223 – What You Know May Be Wrong
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/


Brass vs. Steel Cased Ammo – An Epic Torture Test
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/bras...el-cased-ammo/


Last edited by bigedp51; 01-31-2014 at 5:50 PM..
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  #17  
Old 01-31-2014, 6:09 PM
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I don't have an AR, but had the exact same problem with Wolf not extracting from my Mini-14 on every single round. Herters worked flawlessly but I don't know why since they appear to be the same.

Since then I only shoot brass case stuff.
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  #18  
Old 01-31-2014, 6:45 PM
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Hmm, $30 for powder for quality hand loaded ammo or $30 for questionable commie ammo you can't even reuse the cases on.
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  #19  
Old 01-31-2014, 8:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mark501w View Post
Hmm, $30 for powder for quality hand loaded ammo or $30 for questionable commie ammo you can't even reuse the cases on.

NO. Your numbers are incorrect. I already had the ammo. I don't care enough to go and try to work a trade out somewhere. I do not intend to buy more of it but if someone else wants to shoot it, they can shoot the steel as well instead of my reloads. now let's look at the math:

WHATEVER bottle I get will most likely give me about 250-290 rounds therefore I will need at least 4 bottles to get me to 1k rounds. THAT is 4 x 30 = 120 + hazmat and shipping. But since I intend to do about 4k rounds, I will need about 16 lbs of that, so 16 x 30 = $480 + hazmat and shipping.

I have seen Winchester 748 for 19.99 a bottle but it was out of stock, I want to get 2 8LB bottles since 8LB bottles will likely be around $180 or less. I THINK I might have seen them for around $158 or something like that once. ANYWAYS, there is almost a $200 difference here. THAT is $200 that I can spend elsewhere for reloading components. PLUS I have been wanting to pick up an AR upper for some time now because of this exact reason. I do not want to throw any steel down my hunting rifle. Also, I do not want a rifle that needs to be rested to plink with. It aint as much fun to me, I would rather get a light plinker.

Now, as for particulars, I am uncertain, I think I have a CMMG lower with a DPMS LPK installed. Everything should be fine with no leaks and everything functions FINE with brass ammo. But when we run Steel in it, issues pop up. JUST like in the Keltec SU-16 and the Mini-14 do not like steel very much either.

So, forced upgrade to a PSA upper that is made to eat junkfood and decent stuff. I want to shoot off some of my cheap steel ammo first and then start going through my reloads but still keep cheap mil surp on hand for others that wanna shoot it.
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7 Billion people on the planet. They aint ALL gonna astronauts. Some will get hit by trains...

Need GOOD SS pins to clean your brass? Try the new and improved model...



And remember- 99.9% of the lawyers ruin it for the other .1%...

Last edited by stilly; 01-31-2014 at 8:37 PM..
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  #20  
Old 01-31-2014, 8:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stilly View Post
NO. Your numbers are incorrect. I already had the ammo. I don't care enough to go and try to work a trade out somewhere. I do not intend to buy more of it but if someone else wants to shoot it, they can shoot the steel as well instead of my reloads. now let's look at the math:

WHATEVER bottle I get will most likely give me about 250-290 rounds therefore I will need at least 4 bottles to get me to 1k rounds. THAT is 4 x 30 = 120 + hazmat and shipping. But since I intend to do about 4k rounds, I will need about 16 lbs of that, so 16 x 30 = $480 + hazmat and shipping.

I have seen Winchester 748 for 19.99 a bottle but it was out of stock, I want to get 2 8LB bottles since 8LB bottles will likely be around $180 or less. I THINK I might have seen them for around $158 or something like that once. ANYWAYS, there is almost a $200 difference here. THAT is $200 that I can spend elsewhere for reloading components. PLUS I have been wanting to pick up an AR upper for some time now because of this exact reason. I do not want to throw any steel down my hunting rifle. Also, I do not want a rifle that needs to be rested to plink with. It aint as much fun to me, I would rather get a light plinker.

Now, as for particulars, I am uncertain, I think I have a CMMG lower with a DPMS LPK installed. Everything should be fine with no leaks and everything functions FINE with brass ammo. But when we run Steel in it, issues pop up. JUST like in the Keltec SU-16 and the Mini-14 do not like steel very much either.

So, forced upgrade to a PSA upper that is made to eat junkfood and decent stuff. I want to shoot off some of my cheap steel ammo first and then start going through my reloads but still keep cheap mil surp on hand for others that wanna shoot it.
8lbs of vihtavuori N133 is $196 which comes out to $24.50/lb which isnt bad considering it is a really good powder.......and it's in stock which is a plus lol.

http://www.powdervalleyinc.com/
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  #21  
Old 02-01-2014, 9:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stilly View Post
So, forced upgrade to a PSA upper that is made to eat junkfood and decent stuff. I want to shoot off some of my cheap steel ammo first and then start going through my reloads but still keep cheap mil surp on hand for others that wanna shoot it.
I see what you did there. You bought ammo you wouldn't shoot in your rifles to justify getting a new upper! Well played, sir!

Last edited by BruinGuy; 02-01-2014 at 9:28 AM..
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  #22  
Old 02-01-2014, 6:32 PM
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The Tula shoots well in all my guns. I do clean out the bore every 200 rounds to remove the coating that can come off. I got a bunch for 23 cents per round.
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  #23  
Old 02-02-2014, 8:23 AM
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The point is ,even over priced quality hand loaded ammo is better than questionable Commie ammo that your gun isn't designed to shoot.
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