Steel Cases & the Chamber

[royce]

Someone told me that they don't use steel case ammo in their good guns because they worry about steel against steel damaging the gun or wearing it pramaturely. Any comments would be appreciated.

[JA]

Wouldn't it be steel on chrome? As all AK's have chrome lined chambers and bores.

[The Reverend]

Well,

that's what the Chinese and all Eastern bloc countries have been using in their Kalashnikovs since the beginning, and there is little doubt that the reason for the use of steel cases vs. brass is the cost. Steel is cheaper to obtain than copper. Also a reason why much of the eastern bloc ammo is bimetal, to use as little of the more expensive metals as they can get by with.

I, for one,am not worried about the steel cases hurting my Bulgarian in any way. AK's are designed to take nearly anything you throw their way, except excessive neglect.

[Tantal]

Steel cases don't expand as much, and because of this, they are not as picky about headspacing. Using brass cases in an AK with tighter than normal headspacing usually presents problems such as failure to extract and ruptured cases. Most AK's (ie 7.62mm and 5.45mm) were designed to shoot best and most reliably with steel cases.

[Packrat]

And one of the advantages of the chrome is that it has a "lubrication" effect with steel, so the steel case should slip out easily. Anyway, the cases have lacquer on them, so you don't get steel-to-steel contact.

Anything involving guns has to deal with a lot of superstition and legend. There is so much gun - shooter interaction that your beliefs color your ability. I once heard of a shooter who loaded a bunch of rounds, which he gave to his friends, all target shooters. But he told them that some of the rounds were "the best he ever loaded", and the others were a failed batch that he was just shooting up to recover the cases. They all agreed about the ammo, and none realized it was all the same.

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Packrat