Steel casing for 9mm: yes or no

[JDBerg]

Many indoor ranges do not allow steel or aluminum casings because of the brittle nature of the casing. Brass is best.

I know for a fact that two of the ranges that I go to that do not allow steel or aluminum cased ammo, do so because they deprime, clean, and resell the once-fired brass that hasn't been picked up, and it is labor intensive for range personnel to manually sort out the steel & aluminum cases from the brass cases. I'll agree that brass is best, but I have used and will continue to use steel and aluminum cased ammo at the ranges that allow it, and I have not experienced a problem with brittle steel or aluminum cased ammo.

 

[hemiram]

I don't use steel cased ammo at all anymore after a friend of mine broke 2 extractors on his S&W 5906 shooting Tula and some other steel cased ammo. He stopped shooting it in anything but one of his 9mm revolvers and has since put a couple of thousand brass cased rounds through the gun without any problems. I just think it's not worth the hassle for the small savings.

 

[jdc1244]

If “all things being equal” means a steel-cased cartridge with an actual FMJ bullet – lead core, copper jacket that doesn’t attract a magnet – then yes.