.223 brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo - research article

[NACHO]

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

[The Lance]

very interesting indeed. my upper chews through Wolf ammo like nothing, Good to know that saving money on the ammo leads to a new barrel and still being cheaper.

it's too bad they didn't do a test with different barrel types and see which one is the best

[FJ540]

I'd love to see that repeated with a hard chromed 4150 barrel and a 416 stainless.

[oneunder]

That site does some awesome research on ammo.

Their article on .223 vs 5.56 is really good too:
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/5-56-vs-223/

[JohnGageMN]

Both excellent articles. Nice to be able to read about all of the methodology in the research and not just a few lines about results.

[Scoobyvroom]

I'd love to see that repeated with a hard chromed 4150 barrel and a 416 stainless.

Is hard chrome something different than regular chrome? They say in the article, that the barrels are chrome lined.


Great article btw...

[Mn01r6]

Great article and a great place to buy ammo back before the hoarding. Guaranteed in stock and shipped the same/next day.

NOT run on customer's money like some other places around the net. But unfortunately to keep ammo in stock they are charging crazy post-apocalyptic prices.

[yuppiejr]

Both excellent articles. Nice to be able to read about all of the methodology in the research and not just a few lines about results.

+1, found them both well worth the read.. the impact on barrel life of the bimetal jacketed projectiles in most steel cased ammo was particularly illuminating.... the fact that the projectiles and not the steel cases typically cause the most expensive wear and tear on the gun are a key bit of information.

It's particularly timely given how many people are likely starting to consider or already have moved to steel cased ammo in their AR with the current supply situation.

[MNGunGuy]

Both excellent articles. Nice to be able to read about all of the methodology in the research and not just a few lines about results.

+1, found them both well worth the read.. the impact on barrel life of the bimetal jacketed projectiles in most steel cased ammo was particularly illuminating.... the fact that the projectiles and not the steel cases typically cause the most expensive wear and tear on the gun are a key bit of information.

That made me feel particularly good about the 2 cases of Hornady Steel Match I ordered.

[FJ540]

I'd love to see that repeated with a hard chromed 4150 barrel and a 416 stainless.

Is hard chrome something different than regular chrome? They say in the article, that the barrels are chrome lined.


Great article btw...

Hard chrome would require lapping the barrel to get the edges knocked down. It's not as consistent of surface covering (builds up on shoulders), and so I'm pretty sure they're using one of the other deposition methods - but I haven't ever looked up the spec.

I'd also love to see some of the other industrial coatings applied to a barrel bore taken to this extreme. The salt bath nitride coating on my new DD barrel is amazing in how easy it is to clean.

[photogpat]

So...halfway through the test, the steel case barrels are shot out...did I get that right? As in, accuracy is worse than throwing a basketball down a hallway?

[Collector1337420]

So, bottom line, it's more the steel core bullet, not the steel case, that causes more wear and tear, apparently.

So, if you shoot a lot, as in 1000s of rounds, shoot brass, unless you want to buy a lot of uppers. If you don't shoot a lot, and will never shoot more than 6000 rounds, then steel case won't make much of a difference.

Not going to happen, but I'd like to see this done with my CMMG 1/9 twist, WASP piston upper, which depending on who you ask, is "lower budget" than chrome lined barrels. I wonder how much better/worse it wears.

[FJ540]

$250-300 will buy you a decent new barrel. How much are you spending on ammo after 3K rds?

[photogpat]

'Cept the accuracy starts to diverge at 2k -- and goes substantially wacky after that.

[FJ540]

Anyone here have a bore scope? I'm curious what my stainless barrel looks like after about 2000rds of mostly crap ammo.