looking for concrete scientific evidence here...

T

the rifleer

New member
So I just got a new mini 14. As you all know, its legendary rock solid and now I have a choice to make. Buy 200 rounds of brass ammo for $80, or 500 rounds of silver bear ammo for $119.

Obviously I am very inclined to buy the silver bear, but I've heard people say don't shoot it. My problem is I don't understand why not. It meets SAAMI standards and is not laqured ammo. Sure it probably isn't the cleanest stuff, but i don't see any other problem with it.

Some people say that the manual says not to use it. This is exactly what the Ruger Mini 14 manual says "The RUGER® MINI-14® RANCH RIFLES are chambered for the .223 Remington (5.56mm) cartridge. The Ranch Rifle is designed to use either standardiz U.S. military or factory loaded sporting .223 (5.56mm) cartridges manufactured in accordance with U.S. industry practice."

So like I said, I would like to know if there is any solid concrete evidence as to why I shouldn't shoot it.
 
Last edited:
Is it US industry practice to use steel cases? I don't know and I occasionally shoot steel case ammo from it. Seems that no harm has come from shooting steel case stuff.
 
For about $169 you can buy 500rd of American Eagle, shoots well and is brass case. You have to buy it in individual boxes.
 
Hopefully this will help, instead of confuse the issue.
Here are 2 loaded rounds, one is Silver Bear the other is some mil-spec NATO 7.62mm round, I honestly forget which, but possibly South African R1A1.

A friend of mine bought a lot of SB, just because it was amazingly economical. Unfortunately not one of them would extract in his rifle! Every single round stuck in the chamber & we had to clear the rifle & pop them out from the muzzle end with cleaning rods.:eek:
DSCF3889.jpg


Here is the kicker though, it had nothing to do with the case materiel, it had to do with manufacturing mistakes, SAAMI spec not withstanding. Look at the case OAL, the SB is over length, the NATO spec is not, now look at the the extractor grooves, the Silver Bear is missing the tapered front cut that the NATO spec calls for & his extractor couldn't grab the out of spec cases!:o

Based on that I won't buy or use the stuff, not because of the material, but because of other horrible quality problems.
 
Nothing wrog with steel.

The steel used is much softer than anything in guns but the issue is that it doesnt expand as well as brass so it lets more foulin into the chamber, thats fine if you only use steel, but if you shoot tons of steel and go to brass without cleaning, the proper expanding brass will get stuck.

Over on ar15.com theres tons of info about combloc ammo and my ar-15 eats the stuff up
 
My worthless .02 cents...

Steel is stronger

Brass is softer

I want to keep my guns

I want to consume the ammo

Do whatever you wish :D
 
I try to stay away from Russian stuff. Years back it had real quality control problems. Maybe it got better, I don't know. To be fair, Korean manufactured ammo started out so bad it ripped the the head off the brass extracting with a semi-auto. I can't think of the name right now (Old age), but it really became quality ammo now and they expanded to hunting ammo too. The issues I had with steel cased ammo were wear and gouging. A lot of old Mausers with high use have really worn chambers from the laquer on the steel cased ammo. I had problems with 7.62x54R steel cased ammo also. I bought copper washed steel soft point hunting ammo and it had burrs on the rims so bad it started to chew up the face of the barrel. (The part that you headspace on) Usually you buy cheap, you get cheap.
 
There is more friction with the steel than brass. Brass expands more than the steel though. Some rifles will be picky about a particular type of cartridge. You will see ten million internet rumours about this subject. Buy a box of each and try them out before you buy a case of either. Mini 14's are also not that picky when it comes to ammo to begin with.
 
Don't know if there's any merit to this or not but there are rumors of berdan primed brass being the cause of broken firing pins in the Mini 14/30s (steel anvil beneath the primer). There are threads devoted to the Mini firing pin issue over at perfect union. My advice is buy the brass stuff and start reloading the spent cases after you burn it all up. Going this route you'll be able to afford to shoot a whole lot more.

Stu
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top