mini-14 ammo question
was wondering if anyone would know if its ok to shoot steel laquer coated rounds in my mini-14? I know people have a problem shooting them in the ar-15 mostly cause of the tight tolerences. just wondering if anyone had good or bad experiences doing so? thanks
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I am not sure of what you are talking about, but...
quote:I know people have a problem shooting them in the ar-15 mostly cause of the tight tolerences.
...is just, untrue, pure speculation. I know AR-15's, and M-16's, that have roun thousands of those rounds, without a hitch.
Now there are folks, who are opinionated, that do not like anything other than good old brass cased ammunition, who will tell you otherwise. Myself, I do prefer the brass also, but will not hesitate to use a decent steel cased round, if brass is not available.
They should work fine in the Mini-14, as being a piston gun, many hail them as being superrior in reliability to an AR-15...which, again is a fallacy.
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A couple mini's I had, had very tight chambers. All you can do is try some. 0 -
mainly referring to the laquer building up in the chamber which im told causes the ar's to jamm up. 0 -
Doesn't happen 0 -
If you are talking about Tula & Wolf ammo there is no problem. Fire away 0 -
cool, I stop worrying then, thanks 0 -
The laquer on steel cases does not build up in the chamber.
Steel cases are fine to use.0 -
The topic of steel case .223 ammo comes up again and again and again.
To repeat, there is nothing intrinsically unsafe about steel case ammo. The most popular Russian rounds, 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R were both designed specifically with steel cases in mind. During WWII when there were material shortages the US gov't issued steel case 45ACP ammo. These cases are made of mild (soft) steel that won't damage hardened steel chambers.
The quick answer to the question is that empirically speaking most mini-14 guns will run steel case .223 ammo just fine, and lots of people shoot that ammo through these guns all the time. You just may need to do a bit more work to clean the guns chamber afterwards to ensure reliability later, that's all.
The most important issue with mini-14s and the Wolf/Russian steel case ammo isn't lacquer build-up. The current manufacture Wolf ammo uses polymer coated cases, not lacquer, and its questionable whether lacquer melting/buildup even occurs at all (ie its probably just ordinary chamber powder fouling that causes the cartridge sticking issues in AR-15s, not lacquer) .
What happens is that brass is more elastic than steel. Not only don't steel cases expand as much on firing as brass ones, they also don't contract back to pre-fired size as easily for extraction. the result is poor sealing around the case neck during firing, leading to more fouling buildup in the chamber, and then, with expanded cases tighter fitting spent cases.
This isn't really an issue with the military guns DESIGNED to be fired with steel case ammo, because the chambers are designed to accomodate the steel case rounds, and the rounds themselves were designed with cone-shaped sloping sides specifically to easy extraction.
But in guns primarily designed to run "conventional" brass cartridges, in some cases the combination of dirtier chambers and tighter fit expanded steel cases can lead to sticking of spent cartridges, or even faster breakage of extractors due to increased wear and tear on them over time.0 -
The only issue I have had with minis, Ar's, etc over thousands upon thousands of steel cased Wolf, Tula, etc. rounds fired; occasional misfires in Mini-14 and Mini-30 rifles because of hard primers. (Mini-30 especially, Russian 7.62x39 ammo has brick-hard primers due to some Russian military guns having a tendency to slam-fire when semi-auto cycling causes firing pins to contact softer primers)
I remedied this problem with Wolff high-power hammer springs in both mini-14 and mini-30 guns.
Now would I shoot el cheapo steel or foreign steel-cased ammo in my match-chambered-purpose-built AR target guns? No. That's fed match stuff, and shoots groups to brag about. (Then again, I also won't run el cheapo gas in a Ferrari either.)0 -
It will be fine. Shoot all you want to. 0 -
A bigger problem is barrel wear from those rounds.
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/0 -
quote:Originally posted by beantownshootah
What happens is that brass is more elastic than steel. Not only don't steel cases expand as much on firing as brass ones, they also don't contract back to pre-fired size as easily for extraction. the result is poor sealing around the case neck during firing, leading to more fouling buildup in the chamber, and then, with expanded cases tighter fitting spent cases.There it is. [^]
Upon ignition brass cases expand tightly against the chamber walls and form a seal against gases blowing back into the chamber area, then just as quickly spring back down in size as the pressure falls. This is precisely the reason brass has always been the most common case material used with cartridge ammunition.
Steel cases expand but nowhere near as much as brass, which allows fouling to pass back toward the breech and and up deposited along the chamber walls. This can be an acceptable situation, but all of this heavier fouling that ends up back in there must be accomodated for by use of a case that's more greatly tapered to eliminate drag along the chamber walls during extraction.
Consider what's the most common comparison in most people's minds - 7.62x39 vs. 5.56/.223.
The AK's reputation for staying up and running despite being filthy is due to several design factors, but many fail to take into account that one of these is cartridge case design.
The 7.62x39 case is much more cone shaped than the very slightly tapered 5.56/.223. This round was designed to run reliably with much less 'elastic' steel cases where the 5.56/.223 (and the AR in particular) was designed around it's case being made from brass.
Steel cased 5.56/.223 will run okay for most shooter's needs, where chamber cleaning can take place on a regular basis. However, it'll never achieve the ability to run problem free with little to no chamber cleaning that you see with 7.62x39 rifles.0
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