I just bought a dpms ar15 and it says if I shoot steel cases (laquer coated) or foreign ammo it voids the warranty. But before I knew this I bought 200 rounds of Russian steel cased anmo. Think I should just shoot there two hundred and not buy anymore? Some people say all they shoot is steel cased ammo and have no problemAny advice is appreciated
I would probably buy a box of 20 brass cased ones and shoot them first to see that the gun works if you really believe that steel cased/foreign ammo voids the warranty. That way you will know that the rifle is functional from the factory. My son has a Rem 700 SPS Varmint that has only fired handloads and there are a couple of other rifles that have never had a factory round in them and the manufacturers claim that hand loads void warranties too.
I am not aware of any catastrophic failures being attributed to Russian Steel cased ammo use. I would recommend checking out the several AR15 message boards and see what everyone who uses it has to say and if anyone has had serious problems. I have personally used Wolf steel case in all of my ARs with no serious issues. I have also fired it in several full auto rifles. What I noticed is that it is dirtier ammo than Winchester or Federal ammunition and I will get an occasional failure to eject. Right now, American production brass cased .223 is $.50-$1.00 or more per round when you can find it.. The Russian Wolf can be found for $.40 or less. Most people shoot whatever they can find and afford and do not worry about the warranty.
steel case does not cause additional wear to the gun's chamber when compared to brass case. many tests has been done and precise measurements taken, this myth has been proven false. lacquer coating can cause issues because it can melt and cool, and cause jams. this is easily remedied with a chamber brush and some solvent.. However, steel jacket causes problems. Steel is harder than copper, it does not deform as easily so it causes more wear to the barrel as compared to copper or brass. The rate is around 10-25%, inreasing if you hoot rapidly instead of slowly. more shooting = hotter barrel = faster wear. It's the same with copper/brass jackets, but steel jacketed always wears more than softer metals. TulAmmo (or tula) is particular is so cheaply made they don't have enough copper/brass wash on the bullet to survive firing, after a few inches of travel it's steel on steel contact in the bore and it can ruin a gun barrel very quickly. But... there is one exception. if your gun comes with a chrome-lined bore that is standard for most AR's , shoot all the cheap junk you can buy. chrome-lined steel is 2X as hard as plain steel. crappy tula .223 will not cause more harm to a chrome-lined bore more than brass or copper jacketed bullets.
