New Colt 6920 and a buddy of mine said do not shoot steel case ammo??

I seen many post against using steel casings in AR's/M4's others have said no problem...... To each their own......

Personally I won't use steel casings in my Colt M4..........

I've shot steel case ammo in mine without issue. Now having said that I don't feed it a steady diet. But in these hard times a few hundred rounds won't kill a Colt.

Read this, and decide for yourself.

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

Got yourself a good rifle from all accounts! That is the AR on my list of things to get. Enjoy! I do not own one so I have no opinion worth mentioning. That said, enjoy it! LEt us know how she does with the steel cased ammo, if you go that route.

As someone mentioned earlier, with the price and scarcity of ammo for your EBR I would say an intermittant diet steel case/bi-metal projectile ammo is not going to break a Colt. It may accelerate the wear a little but you have to weigh pro's and con's and make a decision.

I have to say I've never shot any steel ammo though my Colt Govt. Carbine, but that's because I've always been able to get brass (mostly Lake City bought in bulk).

For defensive loads I'm shooting Hornady TAP FPD in the Colt, but only have 3 mags of that thanks to ammo shortage. After 90 rounds of that, any remaining mauraders/zombies get Lake City FMJ's.

I have shot a lot of steel cased 7.62 x 39 & 7.62 x 51 through my SKS, Ruger Mini-Thirty and FN FAL. I no longer have the Mini-Thirty, but my others are still running strong and reliable.

BTW... great study posted by gasmitty. :hand10:

I have run some steel cased ammo through my ARs. Not a lot, maybe 400-500 rounds. I haven't seen any performance issues but certainly noticed that the rifles were dirtier than when running Federal or Remington. I mostly shoot my own home rolled pills but I do buy factory ammo when I get a good deal.

After reading that analysis that gasmitty linked to, I'll not be using any more steel cased ammo.

Disclaimer; I'm an AR novice.

FWIW, I've been running Tula and Wolf through my PSA for the last two years and haven't had a failure yet, nor seen any unusual wear. Then again, I'm not running torture tests on it. Dirty and stinky? Yes.

But for 25 cents a round, I can handle that.

I have ran maybe a couple of hundred rounds,give or take thru my AR.I had no problems with tul or wolf.If i can find some more for 8.00,will use it again.I just make sure,to give it a good cleaning..

I haven't shot steel case ammo in my DDM4, but I did discuss this (and several other things) with the people at Daniel Defense before making my purchase decision. They said there are two main issues. The first is that some barrels (like theirs, which are cold hammer forged) have tighter tolerances - generally a good thing, but could be more susceptible to something out of tolerance. They mentioned "a poorly reloaded round" as an example. The second thing they mentioned is that the steel cases have some type of shellac on them, and the problems occur when you load a round into a hot chamber and then let it sit. Apparently it melts the shellac and then allows it to cool. Since the tolerances are so tight this can allow the round to get stuck.

Their advice was to either avoid steel cased ammo, or make sure that you don't let rounds stay in the chamber long (especially after shooting). Seemed reasonable enough, and consistent with other things I had read on the topic.

Hope that helps.

Military Arms Channel did a great video on steel cases ammo in the AR.

Just from the standpoint of steel-on-steel wear (versus brass-on-steel), I'd stay away from a steady diet of steel-cased ammo. Many report no real problems. But I'd bet that if a study were done on dozens of aged 6920's that were fed heavy diets of "traditional" brass-cased rounds versus steel-cased rounds, we'd probably see obvious differences in the wear patterns. (I know of no such studies out there.)

If it would void your warranty, it would state so in your owner's manual. I don't shoot steel cases simply because I reload.

The AR platform should fire the steel case with little or no problem, BUT....ArmaLite did not design this weapon to fire steel case cartridges and the steel case will undoubtedly accellerate the wear of your operating parts, esp the exractor. I would closely inspect the steel case ammo you are shooting; many of these are coated with a thin layer of varnish or shellac to act as a sealant and help reduce effects of moisture---esp rust forming on the cartridge. The coating, when fired, vaporizes and permeates the inner workings; this will over time cause havoc with the gas system and potentially the bolt operation if the weapon is not meticulously cleaned. It is also a bi*ch to clean off once it has redeposited on metal parts.
Personally, the extra trouble and increased wear and gunk on an expensive rifle is not worth the cost savings on the steel case ammo, but that's just MHO.

You can buy a bucket of extractors from the savings of steel cases ammo.

I'm not sure why the myth about the shellac melting keeps getting brought up. 5 minutes of search on the interwebz will give lie to that one. I've seen Wolf and Tula ammo cases heated cherry red with a torch and the shellac/lacquer/what ever did not melt. They are dirty and the steel does not expand to seal the chamber allowing more gas and residue to build up in the chamber. This is the primary cause the cases jamming in the chamber. The study linked to in this thread also pointed out the lower pressure caused by several factors causing FTE issues with the Tula ammo.

luvmy40 said:

I'm not sure why the myth about the shellac melting keeps getting brought up. 5 minutes of search on the interwebz will give lie to that one. I've seen Wolf and Tula ammo cases heated cherry red with a torch and the shellac/lacquer/what ever did not melt. They are dirty and the steel does not expand to seal the chamber allowing more gas and residue to build up in the chamber. This is the primary cause the cases jamming in the chamber. The study linked to in this thread also pointed out the lower pressure caused by several factors causing FTE issues with the Tula ammo.

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True.

I have a case of old Brown Bear 9mm that really does have the shellac on it. I figured since it's already coated, I'll save it for the end-of days. However, just because it's steel-cased, does not mean it's all goobered up.

gasmitty said:

Read this, and decide for yourself.

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

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That was a great read. Thanks for sharing!

IMHO i say no steel. AK-47 yes, AR no.

WHEC724 said:

Disclaimer; I'm an AR novice.

FWIW, I've been running Tula and Wolf through my PSA for the last two years and haven't had a failure yet, nor seen any unusual wear. Then again, I'm not running torture tests on it. Dirty and stinky? Yes.

But for 25 cents a round, I can handle that.

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Tula, Wolf, WPA, etc. use a polymer coating. No worries

Brown Bear I believe still uses a lacquer.

burttrans said:

Also years ago I used some in a Bushmaster AR and it would not cycle steel at all. If I use some it the Colt will it function OK?

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It was probably unlocking/trying to extract too soon (if it had a large gas port like most other BMs). That shorter dwell time+steel case usually creates issues. The Colt should function fine.