winter has been sucky.
Aluminum and steel cased ammo.
- Thread starter pbm
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I hear you there. I love the 4 seasons but most years by the time February rolls around I'm ready for spring. Where I am in NY this time of year winter is usually winding down. Not 2022!! Still stuck with overnight lows of high single digits here and there and a lot of mid-teens. Figures, oil and propane sky high so winter comes in to kick you below the frank, in the beans
"Something about Mary" movie never leaves ya!!
Are you talking about copper clad steel projectiles only? The copper cladding is super thin, so I'd think as the bullet travels down the barrel the rifling my cut down through the copper cladding and gets into the steel.
But if the steel bullet has a decent copper casing, then I would think there would be no rifling cutting down deep enough to get into the steel core of the bullet.
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Wolf/Tula ammo consists of a lead core with a bimetal jacket. "Bimetal jacket" to me means NO expensive soft copper and largely a conglomerate of cheap, many times (guessing on this) recycled many times over steel. These aren't steel projectiles. That bimetal is what is harsher on barrels. BUT this is akin to the difference of a UOA showing iron wear at 10PPM where you feel better at 8PPM. My AR with copper jacket will shoot 3" or less MOA for 7k rounds but the Wolf/Tula fed AR is 5MOA at 6k rounds. That is the gist. Obviously, the rate of fire and heat is a big determinent.
Steel core is not usually open for sale to civilians. Handgun steel core ammo often is able to penetrate a level IIIA vest. I will not mention the round but there is a 5.56 commercial round that by mistake, is capable of penetrating steel of a US military Humvee. Millions of these rounds were sold and after it was found to act this way was removed from the market altogether. My department had purchased 2 older Humvees off the mil/LE program DOD offered. One was in good shape, the other was junk but good for parts. We shot the doors with this ammo and sure enough, it was weak but it penetrated at over 80% rate.
That's my understanding. If someone says different, ears are wide open and I'd like to hear it. Unfortunately, it is not easy to quantify. I have used the stuff in handguns and a minute of man AR for 20 years. way back it was $100 for 1k of 45 or 40 and a little cheaper for 9mm and 5.56. Again, nothing you want to run down an heirloom or a legit accuracy built weapon.
There were some issues early on with misfires in the Ruger Mini 14's in 7.62 X 39 MM, with some steel cased Russian ammo. This was due to the Russian ammunition having harder primers than the commercially produced brass stuff in this country. The original 7.62 X 39 MM Mini's had a somewhat weak firing pin spring, that would produce misfires with some brands. This added to the problem.
I ran into a guy shooting one at the range several years back, with some steel cased Russian stuff in a Mini. And he had well over 2 dozen rounds sitting on the bench, out of over a hundred rounds that he ran through the gun that didn't fire. You could see the primer indentations were very shallow. I put them into my Yugo underfolder, and they all ran fine.
I gave him mag full, (30 rounds), of the Golden Tiger 7.62 X 39 MM I was shooting, and every one went bang in his gun. So I swapped him 100 rounds of my stuff for his, and he had no more issues.
I read where Ruger has since fixed the problem. I'm assuming they installed a stronger firing pin spring. As most everyone with a 7.62 X 39 rifle is going to shoot steel cased ammo of some type in them.
I ran into a guy shooting one at the range several years back, with some steel cased Russian stuff in a Mini. And he had well over 2 dozen rounds sitting on the bench, out of over a hundred rounds that he ran through the gun that didn't fire. You could see the primer indentations were very shallow. I put them into my Yugo underfolder, and they all ran fine.
I gave him mag full, (30 rounds), of the Golden Tiger 7.62 X 39 MM I was shooting, and every one went bang in his gun. So I swapped him 100 rounds of my stuff for his, and he had no more issues.
I read where Ruger has since fixed the problem. I'm assuming they installed a stronger firing pin spring. As most everyone with a 7.62 X 39 rifle is going to shoot steel cased ammo of some type in them.
I'm not an expert on the Mini-30, but my Mini-14 has a free floating firing pin? I would imagine the Mini-30 has the same thing. Are you meaning the hammer spring?
My Mini-14 has shot thousands of rounds of Wolf type ammo with no failures. I did get some FTEs with Federal AR223 which I attributed to being really weak sauce.
Yes. I should have made that clear. My mistake. And it was only with a few of the early production rifles. Ruger Mini's today will fire most anything dependably.
I also shoot a lot .
I believe Tula in 9mm is actually pretty good ammo.
reasonably accurate.
Not loaded hot , but not too light either as some 9mm economy rounds are.
Goes bang everytime.
I agree, Wolf, Tula, poly coated steel cased 9mm appears to be good stuff. The only steel cased stuff I have ever had problems with was old Brown Bear lacquer coated 9mm ammo, but that stuff is no longer made IIRC.
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