Steel case 45 ammo

[Lefever]

I inadvertently bought 150 rounds of TulAmmo .45acp steel cased ammo. Anyone with experience as to potential damage to my 1911's if I shoot this small amount through them?
Thanks.

 

[LaneP]

Not a problem for that amount. I've shot that through various .45 ACP pistols and it functioned fine.

During WWII when brass was in short supply, large quantities of USGI ball for the 1911 was made with nickel plated steel cases. I have an unopened can of 600 rounds of that stuff made in 1943.

 

[XJBluto]

That steel case ammo has lacquer applied to prevent it from rusting. When you are shooting this, your gun will heat up and melt the lacquer. It will foul your feed ramp, barrel and slide. I darn near ruined a Sig P220 with that Russian junk. Never shot it ever again......

 

[meanc]

your gun will heat up and melt the lacquer. It will foul your feed ramp, barrel and slide. I darn near ruined a Sig P220 with that Russian junk. Never shot it ever again......

:roll:

No... the lacquer will not heat up and melt from firing your gun.

No... the lacquer will not foul your feed ramp, your barrel, or your slide.

And finally -

No... you "didn't" nearly ruin a Sig P220 shooting the Russian junk because of the lacquer.


I've fired well over 50,000 rds of steel cased ammo through ARs - Mini 14s - Mini 30s - 1911s - Glocks - Berettas - Sigs - S&Ws - etc...

At no point in time have I ever had problems from "melting lacquer" - I'm 99.999% certain no one else has either.

So, if the Tula feeds and ejects perfectly fine in your 1911 - shoot it up and enjoy. Just scrub your chamber thoroughly afterward or before going to brass cased ammo.

 

[rammerjammer]

Yup, as long as it feeds properly you're good to go. I don't want a gun that can't stand up to steel cased ammo, because it really has minimal effects of wear on the gun. Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.

 

[Brian48]

I've shot tons of Tulammo through my various 1911s, including my CMD which seems to love the stuff. No issues at all. It's very soft steel so i have no concerns of it damaging my extractor any more than regular brass ammo.

 

[olyinaz]

It's probably polymer coated vs. lacquer. At any rate, it works just fine for plinking - no side effects noted after many thousands of rounds of it down range. (If there were any problems with it, I think our Comm Block friends would have discovered it many years and millions of rounds ago.)

Oly

 

[dakota1911]

Have not had a problem with the few hundred rounds I have shot. Some indoor ranges do not like it as there may be steel in the bullets also and that tears up their backstops.

 

[Lefever]

Thanks for all replys. A friend with a 45ACP revolver said he would buy it from me but based on everyone's experiences and such a small amount I think I'll just shoot it up.

 

[jimjc]

About 12/15 years ago...can`t remember.. 2 friends went in on a large quantity of Russian steel cased ammo.... They bought 10`s of thousands of rounds cheap and preceded to shoot it solely for what seemed like a couple years....Their guns shot perfectly all this time...I had heard bad reports on the ammo...so I didn`t get in on the deal...Ammo shot perfectly and rarely had any problems if any at all... So that changed my mind about shooting it..I'd have no reservations shooting it today...

 

[XJBluto]

[the quote="meanc"]

your gun will heat up and melt the lacquer. It will foul your feed ramp, barrel and slide. I darn near ruined a Sig P220 with that Russian junk. Never shot it ever again......

:roll:

No... the lacquer will not heat up and melt from firing your gun.

No... the lacquer will not foul your feed ramp, your barrel, or your slide.

And finally -

No... you "didn't" nearly ruin a Sig P220 shooting the Russian junk because of the lacquer.



I've fired well over 50,000 rds of steel cased ammo through ARs - Mini 14s - Mini 30s - 1911s - Glocks - Berettas - Sigs - S&Ws - etc...

At no point in time have I ever had problems from "melting lacquer" - I'm 99.999% certain no one else has either.

So, if the Tula feeds and ejects perfectly fine in your 1911 - shoot it up and enjoy. Just scrub your chamber thoroughly afterward or before going to brass cased ammo.[/quote]
So says the Russian ammo salesman..........

 

[old 41]

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

 

[meanc]

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

Great article. Thanks for posting.

Here is a little snippet that further backs my experience and claims:

"We shot them until they were too hot to hold – hot enough that a chambered round would cook off in ten to fifteen seconds. We also tried leaving rounds chambered before temperatures reached that point. None of this harsh treatment caused extraction problems.

We found no evidence to back up the claim that lacquer coatings melt in the chamber and cause extraction failures."

 

[pisgah]

The supposed damage caused by steel-cased ammo is one of the multitude of myths that has been spread for years among the gunning community that has absolutely no bearing in fact. (Dare I intone one that seems a particular bugaboo -- WD-40, which I used almost exclusively on my guns for decades and has never shown a single sign of causing the slightest harm -- but then, I don't soak my guns with ANY gun oil). Tulammo is not necessarily the best ammo out there, and tends to be pretty sooty, but it will not hurt your gun. If it feeds, use it. Just because "my brother-in-law" or "the guy at the gun store" says it -- or 10,000 yahoos online, for that matter, some of whom I suspect have never seen a gun outside of the movies -- does not make it true.

Hey, in Russia there are still thousands who'll swear Stalin was a saint...

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.

How? The steel core is inside lead that is inside copper (usually). I'm not aware of any steel core handgun ammo.

Now if you're talking about bimetal ammo that's a lead core with a steel jacket that covered with copper.

 

[pisgah]

Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.

How? The steel core is inside lead that is inside copper (usually). I'm not aware of any steel core handgun ammo.

Now if you're talking about bimetal ammo that's a lead core with a steel jacket that covered with copper.

I give up. Believe the world is flat, if you want to. :roll:

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Seriously, please name some brands of steel core handgun ammo. It's good to learn something new.

If you throw it out there you've got to back it up.

 

[stubby001]

Will not damage your firearm.

 

[silvermane_1]

i wonder if the steel cased ammo runs flawlessly in a SR1911 CMD?

 

[Rabon]

i wonder if the steel cased ammo runs flawlessly in a SR1911 CMD?

Easy enough to find out.

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.

How? The steel core is inside lead that is inside copper (usually). I'm not aware of any steel core handgun ammo.

Now if you're talking about bimetal ammo that's a lead core with a steel jacket that covered with copper.

I give up. Believe the world is flat, if you want to. :roll:

5 days later and nobody is coming up with a list of steel core handgun ammo..... :?

 

[sousana]

I've been running a test bed 1911, an auto ord that's running as much MIM parts as possible and nothing but steel cased ammo. So far, after 32k rounds, no malfs, no nothing but decent combat accuracy at 21 and 35 ft. I have noticed some extractor wear, but that's a simple fix from spare parts. Shooting this tula does require a very thorough cleaning, but then I'm a ret corpsman with 3 years fleet and 17 years with the USMC as a fleet marine corpsman, and I clean my weapons 3 days in a row after shooting.

I've been shooting the 1911 now for 45 years, and currently have 242 in my collection, not counting that worthless Llama 1911 that I bought in the 80s and still can't get it to work.

One 1911 I love to bits are my 3 norinco 1911s made out of reclaimed railroad steel. Beasts they are.

Thing is, if you shoot combloc ammo, give your weapon a better clean than you would had you used good brass cased ammo.

My auto ord went 3713 rounds before needing a cleaning to continue, whereas the same weapon using winchester target loads went 6138 rounds before cleaning.

 

[DA_TriggR4Ruger]

I've never had a problem running steel cased ammo in anything I own. Even the Beretta 92 inox i used to own ran wolf stuff good. I didnt own the sr1911 long enough to run steel through it, but the Springfield ran it fine, so i know the ruger would have too.