so why shouldn't one use a steel cased 223 in an ar15?
Steel cased ammo doesn't obturate (expand against the chamber walls) when fired as well as brass cased ammo does. This allows carbon to build on the chamber walls. Leading to failure to extract. But if you can get steel cased ammo for cheap, shoot it up! Just have a cleaning rod with when you shoot. If tapping the butt on the ground doesn't dislodge the spent case, push it out with the rod. Be sure to use a chamber brush when you clean your rifle after shooting steel cased ammo. I would never use steel cased ammo for defensive purposes in an AR however. The occasional failures to extract make it a bad idea. It's plinking ammo only.
Some have said that steel cases (Russian?) will wear out the extractor prematurely, others have said they have shot thousands of rounds of these with no problems.
Because some people ***** and moan about how the lacquer or polymer gums up the chamber causing torn case rims. But they don't clean there guns anyway so there point is irrelevant. Some say it wears out your extractor faster which is also bullshit. The steel casings are a milder bi-metal. Really its people complaining for the sake of complaining.
You can. A steel case is cheaper to make than a brass case, resulting in cheaper ammo, in wich they normaly use cheap, corrosive loadings. So steel cased stuff will normally be very dirty to shoot. Clean your gun after shooting and you will be fine. The story of them wearing the extractor is crap, however: the extractor is made of a steel way harder than the cheapo-steel the case is made of. It wonn? scrach it. Even if it would, considering the amount of money you save with the cheap ammo like bear and wolf, changing the extractor once in a while would still be saving you a ton of money.
