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June 18, 2012
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This question is actually about factory ammo but I figure if anyone knows the answer it would be the reloading bubbas. I always thought my local gun range preferred that I not use ammo with steel case because they want to sell the brass for reloading and didn't want to sort out the steel cases. But I asked the question and they told me it is actually prohibited. When I asked why he gave me some gobble-d-gook about wear on the gun. I told him if that's true, it's my problem and asked what dog he had in the fight. He told me it was hard on his steel impact plates in the butts. I told him I was still lost because the brass stays at the line. He patiently explained that ammo companies that try to save money on the steel case also try to save money by using a very thin copper jacket on the bullet with a steel jacket underneath the copper. It sounded bizzare so I asked if he was telling me they were saving money by using a lead bullet with a steel jacket and then a copper jacket on top of that. He said yup.
From a practical standpoint, generally the man-hours it takes to add a third step would add enough cost to mitigate the savings on copper. That said, I suspect my 240 grain .44 magnum projectiles put a little more stress on them plates than a .38 projectile even if it was a steel jacket. Basically I think it's bull****. But I'm wondering if you fellas know of bullets produced in this fashion. Factory or otherwise.
Thanks for any info.
bjg
October 15, 2010
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There are some ammo that use steel jackets with a very very thin copper layer, mostly military i think.
Sweden's military uses steel jacketed 9x19 (m/39B) in sub machine guns (m/45B) and pistols (Glock), rated as armor piercing in the US (if my memory serves me right).
Steel jackets puts some more wear on the conventional rifling but polygon barrels cope with the extra wear much better.
I wouldn't recommend reloading of steel casings (or aluminum casings either).
With steel casings the crimping doesn't stay as it does with brass, the steel springs back a little and it is hard to get the bullet to stay put without destroying it in the process (the factories uses different tools than common reloading tools available).
The aluminum casings survives one or two reloads before they fail, sometimes quite bad case failures (google "kaboom glock" if you want to see what might happen to a semi auto with a case failure, please note that hot loads are the root cause for this problem but an aluminum case sure does help)
Hope this clears up some.
Regards
Alor
Dans Club
March 2, 2008
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I'm not going for it.
One local indoor range I go to sells ammo (including steel cased) for you to shoot if you want, or bring your own. Another won't let you shoot anything on their range that you did not buy there (but they sell steel cased ammo).
So he's telling you that ammo companies save money by steel jacketing lead bullets, then jacketing the steel with lead? Huh?
A very small enlightenment here might be that I reload with two brands of bullets (Rainier Ballistics and Berrys) that have a thin copper plating over lead. This reduces lead contamination and barrel leading, but they need to be loaded pretty much to lead bullet specs, the higher velocity of a standard FMJ is not recommended.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman "Were is the Self Help Section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
George Carlin
February 11, 2010
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If we are talking about european rifle ammo and not the USA made ammo then
your rangemaster is correct....some what. Most of the russian and china rifle ammo
(Tula, Wolf, Bear, CS, ect) use "bi-metal" jackets for the bullets, consisting of a
steel jacket and copper wash and a lead core.
I have shot alot of these same brands at steel and have noticed a very, very,
very small difference in penatration and damage to targets versus the regular
copper over lead or soft point bullets made here in the States.
Note, It's not hard to "throw a spark" with some bi-metal bullets.
-Blacktop
June 18, 2012
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Live and learn. I suppose I imagined the impact plates would have been something on the order of 1/2"-3/4" gauge. But I suppose if they went pretty light it could be an issue. But it still seems like a 9mm steel jacket would be less damaging than my .44 240 gr jhp. Not my range so I don't get to make the rules. Thanks for the info fellas.
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