Anyone have problems shooting it through their AR? I don't intend to smoke a barrel with it, but might like to practice with some. Something like the Wolf rounds.

I have a S&W AR-15 chambered in 5.45X39 (chrome lined) that has about 4000rnds through it and it's never seen a brass cased round. I've heard you can get the barrel extremeily hot and the case coating will transfer onto the chamber walls. I haven't experienced this yet myself. What amazes me is my rifle really likes this ammo. I've shot many MOA groups with it.

One down side is Russian ammo is dirty and a lot of it has has corrosive primers. You'll need to clean it soon after you shoot it.

Terry

Thanks. I will have to try some.

I have a mini 14 in .223 thats used up a bunch of that Wolf steel case ammo.
In mine its not very accurate but it functions flawlessly and with no issues at all, I rarely clean this rifle (shame on me).
It shoots Black hills, Ultra max and my reloads much more accurately but it is fun to burn the cheap stuff.
Had the kids out yesterday shooting the mini and my 9.3.
Kids can run thru your ammo in a quick way!

I run steel .223 through a couple of registered receivers. To date I've put over 20k rounds downrange. In the process I've experienced two failure to fires due to primer defects. Otherwise I have had zero ammo related failures to fire, eject, extract. Russian .223 is dirty, though more recent lots are loaded to higher pressures and, thereby, seem to create less soot.

You should clean the chamber after shooting steel before switching over to NATO-spec brass case. Trust me on this. Or check out the Box of Truth website yourself.

People with little experience like to perpetuate an internet myth that steel cases are somehow bad for chambers and other AR parts(unless you have an AK47......????). This is crap. I have broken exactly one extractor, and no other parts to date. Extractors are around $5. You save about $100/case shooting steel.

Accuracy is 4-5 MOA, which is inferior to most brass case ball. But it's good enough for position practice. And my kid seems able to take out tannerite sticks 125 yds away at MG shoots.

Finally, case dimensions of most Russian .223 are on the large side of spec. If you have a .223 chamber (not 5.56) you may not want to use steel. I always advise people to buy a couple hundred rounds, try it in their rifle. If no problems are encountered feel free to buy a boatload.

Sam

Thanks guys! That's the kind of info I need. I was just going to use it for close quarters practice and drills. Nothing heavy rapid fire. It was hard to buy a black gun after my past experience, but the wife wanted one badly for home defense. I will use frangible rounds in the city home. She says her shotgun doesn't hold enough rounds. I LOVE this woman.

I use this ammo in training exercises when I can't police up my brass. Shoots good and gives good performance.

I've shot thousands of rounds of wolf and brown bear through my AR, and never had any trouble. It is dirtier than US made brass cased ammo, but if you clean your gun after a shooting session you'll be just fine.

My experience is that it is dirtier than anything else, don't know if it's the coating or not. 200 to 300 rounds in a sitting has never been a problem.

I have never shot steel cased ammo in any of my rifles, but I have had first hand experience with a stuck case in a friends first AR, a DPMS Sportical. While shooting at a friends one warm July day last summer his little brother backed away from our makeshift bench leaving a round in the chamber, of the DPMS, after firing a couple of boxes of Russian 223 steel case ammo (Tula I think). A few minutes later I hear one bang and some cussing. The rifle is jammed with a spent case stuck in the chamber and a round wanting to take its place. He got the mag out and a bent up loaded round. The extractor got a good purchase on the stuck case and now the rifle is locked up solid. A block of wood and a hammer got things fixed up pretty quick though. I assume the finish on the case caused the problem but I can't be sure of that.

I went out to a little plinking match with my AR-15 a while back, shooting brass-cased Prvi Partisan 75gr 5.56 match ammo. It was very accurate and flawless in operation- highly recommended for the 7 twist AR. Three other shooters were shooting steel-cased 55gr Wolf (plastic or lacquered coating) and all of them had fired as well as unfired cases get stuck (I mean REALLY stuck) in the chamber. If they kept firing until the bolt locked back with an empty magazine there were no problems. However if you let a live round sit in a hot chamber for even just a minute or so, the coating on the steel would melt and then weld itself to the chamber wall as it cooled. The live round would not extract and if they went ahead and fired the stuck round, the extractor would rip out a chunk of the rim and the case would remain stuck. A cleaning rod down the bore required a pretty sharp rap on the end of it to dislodge the stuck case. This is probably one reason the 7.62X39 case has such a severe taper to it compared to the 5.56 NATO. You won't catch me running any steel case ammo through my rifle. It's the coating, not the steel itself, that causes the problem.