In search of BRASS cased .223 or 5.56 ammo

[Southern Shooter]

Hello...I too, am in search for .223 ammo in BRASS cases...NO steel. Does anyone have this that they are wanting to part with?

Thanks

 

[Richard in LA]

Hello...I too, am in search for .223 ammo in BRASS cases...NO steel. Does anyone have this that they are wanting to part with?

Thanks

You're probably SOL on anyone on this board wanting to sell some brass .223 ammo for anything reasonable. I know I havent shot any brass cased .223 from my stash for quite some time now, and if the steel cased gets scarce or too expensive, It'll just be the spikes/ceiner kit only for me for a while.

how much ammo are you looking for, and how much are you willing to pay?
A lot of guys permanently add a box of the .223 Remington UMC on the wives wal-mart shopping list, and let it add up over time.

 

[Southern Shooter]

willing to pay?

Not sure...I guess it depends on what is being sold.

I used to buy up a box here and there when I was at Wal-mart. Wish I had kept that up. There is none to be found.

 

[dantheman]

Okay , I have to ask . Why not steel cased ?

 

[Southern Shooter]

extractor

I am still of the belief that, although many folks use them with no problems, steel casings add extra wear to the extractors. I am just not wanting to add undue risk/wear to my AR and Mini-14 extractors. My SKS and Mosins??...no worry there.

 

[Barney88PDC]

Steel cased ammo adds wear to your chamber and extractor. If you are not shooting thousands and thousands of rounds it probably will not be a factor but IT WILL shorten the life span of your chamber. I stick to brass as well.

Everything I can find is $380/1000 and up.

 

[dantheman]

Steel cased ammo adds wear to your chamber and extractor. If you are not shooting thousands and thousands of rounds it probably will not be a factor but IT WILL shorten the life span of your chamber. I stick to brass as well.

Everything I can find is $380/1000 and up.

I'm really not trying to be arguementative here , but how do you know that it will wear the chamber ? Do you have experience with that , or are you assuming that it will because it's steel ?

 

[Barney88PDC]

Ok to answer your question no I have not personally had any issues with steel cased ammo because as stated before I do not shoot it and stick with brass. But I am not out to prove everyone else wrong either. Many people claim to fire several thousands of rounds of wolf and not have a problem so I went do some research. Maybe I am just stubborn to pay more for brass cased ammo but its my money so oh well. Anyone who stated that they did have problems said the ejectors wore out prematurely. I could not find much information on chamber wear so maybe I am wrong but to truly tell you would need to mike the chamber at regular intervals. I could not find anyone who has done that. I actually have a 5.45 x 39 on order that I intend on abusing as my plinking gun and will shoot steel out of it so this might be a good test (my .223 as well as all of my other kids w/ the exception of my SKS will never see steel casings).

Ok the follwing is copy and paste from others experiences that I pieced together.

I have had bad experience with Wolf laquered case ammo in my SU-16. The laquer melts off in a hot chamber. Enough to make cases stick with the extractor ripping a piece of the rim off and me having to go hunt for a rod to bang the stuck case out. Since, the 2nd or 3rd time this happened I have switched back to brass ammo only and have not had a stuck case since. On the other hand, my SKS's eat Wolf steel case ammo all day long without a hitch.

Brass is softer and seals better when the round goes off. Steel is harder and seals worse, nence the dirt in the action. The soviet block weapons were designed to shoot steel-cased ammo with out a problem. If you look for the newer, non-laquered wolf, you shouldn't have a problem. One caveat-I would not shoot .223 wolf in any ar. rifle due to the nature of the gun. It prefers cleaner ammo.

My SKS's eat Wolf steel case ammo all day long without a hitch. The tapered case on the 762x39 helps extraction and keeping the chamber clean... the straigher cased 556 doesnt have that advantage. Russians learned it from 8x33 Kurz

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu18.htm

The casing is soft steel. Much softer than bbl steel. If _any_ barrel or extractor/ejector wear were to occur it's _still_ far cheaper to shoot Wolf and tolerate the possilble-ever-so-minor increase in wear than to shoot more expensive ammo. (New bbl on an AR: $250ish, new extractor, $10ish - and you save $100 per case of ammo - so 2.5 cases of Wolf will 'buy' you a new barrel.) Now, Wolf 223 is a bit lower velocity and has wider groups but it's good blasting ammo and always goes bang.

So...........I have tried to give both sides of the story. I like cleaner burning powder and can afford the brass stuff. Thanks for calling me on my previous post I hate BS replys and dont mind vadilating my point.

 

[nikolai]

I'd like to tack on to the OP. Where's the best place to get RELOADABLE brass cased .223? Not that I reload now, but it's nice to already have the brass in the event that ammo prices make reloading more viable.

 

[Paulup]

I know you can buy the empty reloading cases at Bass Pro in Denham, and I assume pretty much any brass .223 is reloadable.

 

[Richard in LA]

I'd like to tack on to the OP. Where's the best place to get RELOADABLE brass cased .223? Not that I reload now, but it's nice to already have the brass in the event that ammo prices make reloading more viable.

I have heard that the Federal XM 193 w/ Lake City brass is **** for reloading.

 

[dantheman]

I just got back from the Bass Pro in Denham . You should have heard all of the bitching on the ammo aisle . Retail prices there are crazy . I gave a couple of guys the name of the place where I order from . It's amazing how many people just pay the going rate over the counter .

 

[nhra278]

There is a guy in Gonzales that has thousands of rounds for sale 50 bucks per 1000 most of it is Lake city military brass.

 

[Request Dust Off]

I know you can buy the empty reloading cases at Bass Pro in Denham, and I assume pretty much any brass .223 is reloadable.

You may encounter some Berdan primed.

Some Boxer primed brass is not great.

You will also encounter crimped primers. They can be dealt with. Adding labor to the process.