Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Here is the luckygunner article. They state that barrel wear is practically doubled or tripled shooting steel case ammo in a .223 rifle.
They had such bad luck with Tula ammo that they stopped using it mid test. Too many malfunctions.
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/
There are also a ton of posts about others that have experienced nothing like that test with regular use. The fact is that bi metal bullets have been used in AK's since the 50's and do not excessively wear out barrels. U.S. Military arms used bi metal bullets in ww2 when traditional materials were in short supply and noticed only a slight increase in wear. Germany used it for their 8mm Mausers, MG's, and other arms with no ill effects. If you have a quality barrel, and especially one that is chrome lined, you won't see any noticeable difference unless you use it as a lead...or in this case, a steel hose.
The test was done more in the form of an extreme torture test. If you plow through tons of ammo in a day and run a gun hot and abuse it you will burn out the barrel much faster, especially on a higher pressure round like the 223/5.56 where you will erode the throat out faster.
My Colt AR has seen thousands of Ruskie rounds with no issue to barrel wear. Same goes for my AK, my SKS's, and my mausers. Maybe I will get a thousand less rounds out of a barrel when it is all said and done. But if there was a problem with this ammo, so many armed forces in so many parts of the world, especially first class ones, like the USA and Germany would not have used them. The US Army was especially very stringent back in the days they used bi metal ammo on their standards.
That is why I stressed the 5.56 in said tests. The 5.56 with its large powder charge to bore diameter ratio makes it hard on rifling with a true copper jacket to begin with. All that high pressure flame being pushed down the tiny pipe to act like a cutting torch doesn't help with barrel life. The AK and pistol rounds are moving a heck of a lot slower than 5.56, hence why I don't have any concern about Ruskie rounds in my pistols (I don't own an AK). As for the AR, if you haven't had any problems, by all means I don't blame you for saving a few bucks on ammo, and the Colt AR is one of the best of the bunch. Just remember that everyone has a different method for calling it quits on a barrel. For some, it's when the rifle no longer cloverleafs at 200 yards, and for others it's when their AR becomes a smoothbore.