Steel cases ammo in lever action rifle?

[ACC]

I am looking to stock up on some .357 ammo for my lever action rifle. In trying to be frugal, I found steel cased ammo to be 3-5 cents per round cheaper than brass. Just wondering if it will work well in my Rossi M92 .357 or if I should stick with brass cased ammo.

 

[OutdoorDad]

I won't speak to functionality.

But you can sell your once fired brass for more than 3 cents.

Personally, I'd use the brass and save it for reloading.

 

[ckcollins2003]

The only way you'll know if it functions well and accuracy is up to your taste, is to buy some and shoot it.

With it being a lever action I don't see why it wouldn't properly cycle... some auto's have problems because most of your cheap steel cased ammo is loaded on the light side causing stovepipes, but since you are manually ejecting the spent casing, I would think you will be fine.

 

[Leadeye]

Lever guns, particularly Rossi's have generous chambers so I don't think that will be an issue. Bullet shape and cartridge length are usually the main issues with feeding in levers.

 

[Drail]

Steel cases are more trouble than they're worth. When a brass case is fired it expands tightly to the chamber dia. and then shrinks back down for easy extraction. Steel cases will expand and stay expanded and not want to release - then your extractor gets overworked trying to pull the steel case out. Brass was chosen for cartridge cases for a good reason. It works better than almost anything else. It's also much easier to reload and causes much less wear on your dies. The only time I could see using steel cases would be in time of war (like WWII) where we had serious shortages of metals. No choice in that case.

 

[ckcollins2003]

Steel cases are more trouble than they're worth. When a brass case is fired it expands tightly to the chamber dia. and then shrinks back down for easy extraction. Steel cases will expand and stay expanded and not want to release - then your extractor gets overworked trying to pull the steel case out. Brass was chosen for cartridge cases for a good reason. It works better than almost anything else. It's also much easier to reload and causes much less wear on your dies. The only time I could see using steel cases would be in time of war (like WWII) where we had serious shortages of metals. No choice in that case.

While I agree on the reloading part of your sentence, the rest is internet myth created by people who hate change and think that what has been used for years is the only thing worth using.

The steel used in steel cased ammo is much, much, much softer than the steel that your extractor is, which means that it causes zero more wear on your extractor. The steel cases still expand to your chamber, just not as much, which simply makes it dirtier for your chamber and surrounding areas. There's actually been a lot of tests since these myth's have surfaced which have proven them wrong. Other than they are dirty as all heck, they are completely safe to use in your firearm. You may not have the best accuracy (because it's cheap, not because of the steel case) it will not ruin your barrel, extractor, or any other part of steel on your firearm.

I've shot thousands of steel cased rounds with no extractor issues and I prefer steel if I'm buying plinking ammo that I don't reload. IMO, there's no reason to spend $1 a round unless you are testing accuracy or unless your firearm just won't cycle the cheap stuff.

ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrbSEUZCkcs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZB3UfG960

 

[dieselrealtor]

Personally I would stay away from steel cases,

economically speaking as mentioned before the brass is worth more than 3 to $0.05 around if you buy a decent round

 

[obijohn]

Steel cased ammo gets a bad rap. Sometimes deservedly so, but I have little interest in a firearm that won't function with any available ammo, including steel cased. As has been said, get some and try it.

 

[Drail]

I never said steel cases would break your extractor - you did. I said it would stress it. I never said steel cases would ruin your barrel or that they were unsafe to use. You did. You claim that a steel case will be hard on your dies but harmless to your extractor. I give up - you win. Granted, there are a lot of "myths" regarding this subject but brass will always be a superior material for cartridge cases. Steel is not used just to be "progressive" or "modern". It's used because brass is not available - or the manufacturer is building as cheaply as possible. The U. S. used steel for cartridges during WW II - but as soon as brass was readily available again we stopped making cases from steel.

 

[ckcollins2003]

Deleted...

Not going to argue on the internet.

OP, steel cased ammo will not hurt your rifle. I posted a couple of videos in my first post from people who train with it and there are many many more out there to debunk the myths.

If it runs, run it.

 

[Woobie]

I never said steel cases would break your extractor - you did. I said it would stress it. I never said steel cases would ruin your barrel or that they were unsafe to use. You did. You claim that a steel case will be hard on your dies but harmless to your extractor. I give up - you win. Granted, there are a lot of "myths" regarding this subject but brass will always be a superior material for cartridge cases. Steel is not used just to be "progressive" or "modern". It's used because brass is not available - or the manufacturer is building as cheaply as possible. The U. S. used steel for cartridges during WW II - but as soon as brass was readily available again we stopped making cases from steel.

Who cares if your extractor is stressed out?

But seriously, if it is stressing it, that means it will over time break it. So when you say that you never implied it would break it, well...

The bottom line is, you're much more likely having extractor issues in a gas gun that is not properly timed. And that applies to brass and steel. While steel is less elastic, it still springs back some, otherwise we would have abandoned it long ago as a material in metallic cartridges. By the time you can cycle a lever gun, it will have fully completed this springing back. Yeah, brass is better. But I wouldn't make my decision on whether to stockpile a thousand rounds of straight wall pistol cartridges for a lever gun on extractor life, or any of your reasons, for that matter. All that matters is this: does it perform to your expectations in that particular gun, and do you plan on reloading? Brass offers more in answer to those questions, but if the plan is to stockpile, who cares?

 

[Drail]

I feel like my head want to bust open.........

 

[Broom_jm]

I don't use steel cased ammo in any firearm I care about, or any firearm where I can find/load my own brass cased ammo. One of the reasons a person learns to reload is so they can have HIGH QUALITY ammo at a bargain price. That precludes steel cases and mandates brass. For me, that's the end of the discussion. I'm not going to go cheap and compromise quality in any way.

One of the really cool things about a 357 lever-action is you can use cast bullets in 357 Magnum cases, but still load them down to 38 Special recoil levels, all while keeping them clean and getting incredible case life out of them. None of the previous posters mentioned this little fact. Sure, you might save money with steel the first time you shoot them, but you can load brass cases with mild loads 30, 40, 50 times! Add that to casting your own and all of a sudden, you're shooting for less than ten cents a round.

Steel is good for receivers and barrels...brass is good for cartridge cases.

 

[87iroc]

I will give you 5 cents a round for your used uncleaned brass plus shipping