Will Steel Cased Ammo Damage My Gun?

An old-timer told me long ago, “That gun won’t be worth a hill-of-beans if you run steel through it. It will flat-out ruin the chamber." 

The argument over steel-cased ammunition versus traditional brass ammo seems never-ending and always brought up at every deer camp or campfire, argued relentlessly, and never with a solution. I have run steel cased ammo through my firearms for years and never had problem. Many others have as well.  But there is always that one old-timer in your group (or the new shooter who LISTENS to the old timer and parrots back what he says) that would argue with a fence post and never believes the research. I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard “fake news” used when they hear the research. I recently watched an excellent video podcast explaining why steel-cased ammo will NOT ruin your gun! 

You read it right

Steel-cased ammo will NOT ruin your gun. But don’t take my word on it; There has been extensive research on this topic from many respected gun manufacturers, ammo companies, firearm industry groups, and shooting sources - all with the conclusions.  It IS OK. 

Steel cases are mostly used in inexpensive (some say “cheap”) ammo imported from Europe (mostly from Russia and the Eastern European countries). That is probably why there is a "Steel is Bad" argument. Early on, imported steel-cased ammo did use some corrosive primers (again, “Cheap”), which DID result in chamber damage for the shooters who did not clean their guns regularly.  If you cleaned your firearm regularly - like we all should -  it was not a problem.  If you kept a dirty firearm because you were just too darn lazy to clean your gun regularly (any excuse is as good as the next as to why not), you probably did have a problem with the corrosion from the primers, and blamed it all on the steel-cased ammo. It was not.  Bottom Line:  Clean guns = no problem; dirty guns = problem.

Yea, but what about the polymers?  Another argument for the deer camp campfire, but we have all heard that guy, “that slick polymer coating on cheap, steel-cased ammo will melt off in the chamber and gum up your rifle”.  Nope. Just an old wives’ tale (or old hunter’s tale) and not true.  Here is why: Any rough or damaged chamber will scrape off bits of the poly-coating and create something similar to shotgun wad-fouling (doves hunters know this can happen).  It ain’t the steel case ammo. The easy solution, again, is cleaning your firearm.  Bottom Line: Clean guns = no problem; dirty guns = problem.

OK, I will give you that, but there has to be excessive wear and tear on your chamber - right?  Nope.  Sounds like a good argument - until you remember that the steel in your chamber is MUCH harder than the steel of the shell. The only items that are true is that steel-cased ammo runs dirtier (steel cases don’t expand and seal out fouling as well as a brass), and you just have to clean your gun more often.  Bottom Line:  Clean guns = no problem; dirty guns = problem.

You may still like to sit around the campfire, tell stories about the one that did not come into range (never missed), and argue about steel cased ammo versus brass, but at the end of the day, steel is OK.  Just clean your gun.  You should be doing that anyway, but just a reminder. 

I hope this helps. And, as always, if we can ever any questions, give us a call.

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