Any reason not to shoot the Monarch .223 FMJ steel? I have a AR with stainless .223 wylde Barrel. Spikes U & L. I picked up 4 boxes since they were so cheap ($5.50/box), figured they would be good for plinking. No? Yes?

If your gun will shoot them reliably, zero reason not to blast away with them.

Steel tends to stick in guns more often than brass. But if it works, it works. You will find out soon enough if your gun does not like steel cases.

I've been shooting it for a little while. Probably shot 200 or so through my rifle. I have a RRA NM trigger in mine and occasionally have light strikes with it. I'm sure the issues would go away if I had a heavier hammer spring.

Biggest downside to steel is it can't be reloaded. Probably going to be a little dirtier than some of the more expensive brands and might have some harder primers.

when I bought my first bushmaster years ago wolf ammo was one of their recommended ammunitions and it was only available in steel at the time.

I've run almost 2k rounds of steel case tula through my colt le6920. Never had any hang ups or misfires. The last 100 rounds I bought was like 240$

My only concern would be if the projectile is copper jacketed or bi-metal jacketed. Some of the foreign made steel cased ammo has a bi-metal jacket and is known to increase barrel wear. Typically though, you can afford to replace the worn barrel from the savings you have from buying steel cased ammo.

I had a problem with tulammo and light primer strikes. My AR didn't like them, specifically the firing pin. I ordered a "ar47 enhanced firing pin" from PSA. Slightly longer than a normal one and made for steel case 7.62\39 ammo. Installed and fired .223 steel case without a light strike after that. It works and the pin was like $10. My

Works fine for me. Others say it's the end of the world.

Good luck finding .223 in anything but FMJ at Academy right now....at least in the cheap ammo.

I've shot several thousand rounds of Tula and Monarch from a couple of my rifles without a single issue.


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Cool deal. Im gonna pump all 80 rounds through it this weekend.

I don't think it's a big deal. Just remember, everything's cheap for a reason.

YIKES!!! Hope that's a typo, If not, I'll sell you some more for a little cheaper.

My Double Eagle rifle will not cycle it. My Windham rifle shoots anything. However it's not worth what you are paying for it.

I wouldn't feed it a steady diet of steel. Steel is obviously harder than brass on extractors, feed ramps, magazine lips, etc.

This is the main issue, that too many people over look. Every brand of cheap imported steel cased ammo that I have seen is bi-metal.

This is worth a read if you plan to shoot much steel: Brass vs. Steel Cased Ammo – An Epic Torture Test

From my perspective, the economics fall in favor of steel, and just replace your barrel if you actually shoot that much.

Marc

All of which is easily replaced.

I switched to the Monarch stuff because my fmj reloads are costing about 20 cents each, and the monarch is 25 cents a round. It's a lot of work to save $5 over a hundred rounds, especially when most of my three gun shooting is done at less than 50 yards on a full size IPSC target.

I have 6000 reasons to never ever shoot one round of steel but then I'm an old crazy guy. Call me an old fashioned fart...I won't have an AR in 7.62x39 (though I have owned several .223 AK's so I guess I'm really messed up in my bias)..and I won't shoot steel in anything other than an AK.

Yup, typo. 1000 rounds for $240. Haven't priced it for over a year though. At the time, it was the cheapest around.

I shot steel once. I got a case got stuck in my AR and it ruined an extractor in my bolt gun. For $1 more a box you can shoot brass....I'll gladly pay the extra dollar.

That's certainly your call, but I suspect that your bias keeps you from using some really good quality stuff.

Outfits like Hornady produce some match grade steel cased ammo. From my perspective, the case material is less important than the bullet jacket alloy.

But, this is America - we get to decide - and that's a truly wonderful thing!

Marc

Exactly. There was a good article about this topic a while back. The authors ran thousands of rounds of steel case with bimetal projectiles and brass with fmj. Steel case did wear the barrel out faster, but the cost savings more than offset the cost of a new barrel.

Some places make you leave the brass after shooting. I leave them my steel, brass should always come home with me. There's one reason to use it....but then again one might need to find a better place to shoot.

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

Here is the article detailing the test between steel and brass. Pretty eye opening.