Brass or steel cased ammo?

[Crusader89]

Hello there,

I had a question. I have my old 1943 m91/30 Mosin Nagant. I wanted to know your thoughts of whether to run steel or brass cased ammo? I know that steel is considered lower quality than brass but I'd rather get your guy's thoughts. Thanks!

 

[biffj]

Steel cased ammo is cheaper to manufacture and is generally less accurate than match grade stuff made from brass. Most of the east bloc countries made steel cased ammo because of cost so don't expect great accuracy from it. On the other hand most of the military brass cased ammo isn't a lot better as far as accuracy goes. The biggest difference you'll normally find is that some of the brass cased ammo has actual lead core bullets which may be more accurate. The steel cased ammo normally uses steel cored bullets. The core is there for lead displacement and cost savings once again....it is not armor piercing. The steel cores do contribute to lower accuracy however.

So if you're worried about wearing out your chamber, don't. Steel won't hurt your rifle. If you're looking for accuracy you should handload or look for match grade ammo. Not sure who is making match grade 54R but maybe Lapua does?

Frank

 

[Crusader89]

Gotcha. Yes I heard steel cased ammo was harder to extract so I was weary. I'm not going to shoot targets more than 100 yards anyway. So for shooting at 100 yards it's ok to buy steel cased? I saw it was cheaper but I was worried is all.

 

[Crusader89]

Looks like PPU makes match grade 7.62x54r rounds...

 

[biffj]

Military ammo varies by manufacturer and date of production as well as how it was stored. Most of it is surplus for a reason whether steel or brass. The material its manufactured from is less of a worry than whether its bad ammo. There were various lots imported over the years that were especially bad or good. You can find ammo of the same type that will be great or really bad depending on storage too. Powder and primers don't like wide variation in temp so while one batch may be wonderful another batch of the same lot may be crap.

There are a lot of Mosin boards out there where you can find what is best for the rifles and what is dangerous. Gunboards.com has a mosin board, militaryfirearms.com is another place. Google search Mosin-Nagant bulletin board and you'll surely find something helpful. Most of the guys here are looking for more accuracy than what these rifles provide so the interest level is lower here.

Hope that helps.

Frank

 

[BadAccountant]

Brass/boxer primed means reloading.

Hornady had some steel cased match ammo (actually shot surprisingly well) for a little while, but later discontinued the line.

 

[wade2big]

Mosins were built to be used with steel cased ammunition. Of course brass can be used as well. These are battle rifles not sniper rifles. They were built to punch holes in people not to punch holes close together on paper.