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  1. #1
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    Steel cases vs brass cases

    I recently purchased a new 9mm Canik tp9 sf handgun, and at the time I new ammo was in short supply, it turns out there is more of it out there than I had thought on the internet for sale thru various vendors, but a big majority of it is steel case. Having years of experience with brass cases mostly rifles, but zero experience with steel case ammo leads me here to see what other peoples opinions are for steel vs brass cases. Please explain you response pros and cons.
    Last edited by muddywaters; 03-04-2021 at 03:27 PM.
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  2. Moderator Fishysam's Avatar
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    #2
    Steel is stronger, but steel will corrode easier, so I think they wax them, this can lead to jams. Shoot it up
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  3. Member
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    #3
    My neighbor gifted me 1800 rounds of Wolf 9mm last year. While I prefer brass I wasn't about to turn it down so I fed it through my Glock 48 and Shield. It ran just fine. Had a few rounds that sounded and felt lighter than others but still put holes in the target.
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    #4
    The steel cases are not reloadable but go bang when I shoot them. Bottom line for me is they are better than nothing. I only shoot them in my AR15 and then just for casual shooting.
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    #5
    If you had to, you can reload steel case. Some people do it on a regular basis but that is silly considering 9mm brass is practically free. Now on some of the Oddball sizes, people get custom dies and convert from Berdan to boxer primers and get 2-3 uses out of steel.

    As far as shooting in your gun, if you have a modern gun that won't run steel case you need to revaluate if you need that gun in your life. People put together and buy craptastic AR's that can't run steel case and blame it on the Ammo, friends, it is not the ammo, it is lowest bidder crappy tolerance guns!!!

    There is a bad batch of ammo from time to time, Red Army standard which is usually solid had a few lots that didn't feed well in the past year on a couple of calibers, not 9mm though.

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    #6
    Thanks, I had read that steel was just a little more dirty due to it not sealing of the chamber as well as brass does, that's just what I had heard.
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  7. Member Bsktball55's Avatar
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    #7
    In my experience, and this may not be true of all steel, but the steel that I have bought in the past was lower end ammo at a cheaper price. It always went bang for me, but I do feel like it is almost always dirtier than the brass. I don't think it has anything to do with sealing the chamber, just lower quality product. I have heard some stuff about some of that lower end stuff being more corrosive to the gun so I would just make sure to clean the gun after shooting. I've never had an issue and if that was my only choice, I would buy it especially just for plinking around.

  8. Member berudd's Avatar
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    #8
    We have at least one indoor range here that will not let you shoot it but that has to do with them picking it up and reselling it back to customers. Not how it shoots. So you might want to check on that if you shot at a range.
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  9. Member Big Al's Avatar
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    #9
    Never an issue with steel cased ammo. I've fired a couple of K's through my firearms. One review I read some time ago was that it wears on the extractor but it took 20K rounds + to wear it out. The savings on buying steel case opposed to brass would buy a new gun easily or a dozen extractors or so.
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  10. Member
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    #10
    Quote Originally Posted by kcinnick View Post
    If you had to, you can reload steel case. Some people do it on a regular basis but that is silly considering 9mm brass is practically free. Now on some of the Oddball sizes, people get custom dies and convert from Berdan to boxer primers and get 2-3 uses out of steel.

    As far as shooting in your gun, if you have a modern gun that won't run steel case you need to revaluate if you need that gun in your life. People put together and buy craptastic AR's that can't run steel case and blame it on the Ammo, friends, it is not the ammo, it is lowest bidder crappy tolerance guns!!!

    There is a bad batch of ammo from time to time, Red Army standard which is usually solid had a few lots that didn't feed well in the past year on a couple of calibers, not 9mm though.
    It is my understanding that steel cases do not maintain correct neck tension when reloaded. If I am wrong it will not be the first time. No one I know reloads them.
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  11. Member
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    #11
    You can very much reload steel casings. Now you will probably only get between 3 or 5 reloads. The main difference is that some steel cases will use a different primer. It takes some work but you can find berdan primers. You can also use the boxer primer with some alterations. It takes s little more force to resize and getting the old primers out is a little time consuming. Steel cases that use boxer primers reload just like regular brass.
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