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Offline Thunderpaw

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Steel cases?
« on: November 04, 2006, 04:24:00 AM »
The other day I was at the range and found three 30-06 cases that have a radius groove about 3/8" from the base. They also felt heavier than brass, are a gray color, and are magnetic. This leaves me to conclude they are steel, but why? What are they used for? What is the groove for? Where is the origin of this type of case?
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Offline The Sodbuster

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Re: Steel cases?
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2006, 05:05:06 AM »
I haven't seen steel .30-06 cases yet, but I see a lot of it in .223 Rem/5.56 Nato and 7.62X39 as well as some handgun calibers.  I don't look too closely at it so I couldn't tell you the headstamp, but from the catalogs I get I see a lot of it comes from eastern European manufacturers such as Wolf.  It's considerably cheaper than brass loaded ammo but it's not reloadable.

I don't know about the origin or what the groove is for.  My guess is it's primarily made for the military and is done to save a few bucks.  In an armed conflict, you don't pick up your spent cases, and minute of angle precision isn't usually critical.
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Offline John Traveler

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Re: Steel cases?
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2006, 05:28:43 AM »
Many military ammunition procurement specifications include alternate specs for steel cartridge cases.  This includes the US Military which primarily uses brass cases, but during WWII and the Korean Conflict, steel was used for .45 ACP, .30 US M1 Carbine, .30-06, .50 BMG, and 20mm cannon, as well as artillery shells.

The former Soviet Union has used steel small arms ammunition cases almost exclusively for generations.  This also applies to their former client states (China, north africa, the middle east, etc.)

Cartridge brass, copper, tin, and zinc are "strategic metals", and during wartime shortages, steel is used instead.  It is actually more expensive to manufacture steel cases, because more annealing operations are needed, as well as protective coatings to prevent them from rusting.

HTH
John
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John Traveler

Offline nasem

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Re: Steel cases?
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2006, 08:36:08 AM »
I know silver bear (imported from russia) makes steel cases of 30-06 ammo.  There is also brown bear and..... I think gold or some other color..... they are all the same with different names and all use steel casings...

Wolf on the other hand does use steel cases + berden primers on thier .223 and 7.62X39s
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Offline Anti-NWO

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Re: Steel cases?
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2009, 06:50:35 PM »
heres some info on steel cases i been stocking up on .223 and everyone here needs to buy brass and leave steel ammo alone so it never gets sold out.


http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu18.htm

http://www.ar15.com/content/page.html?id=268

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