Quote Originally Posted by Gunowner99 View Post
It is the bi metal that I am most concerned with however if there is no sustained fire I should be fine as you said.

Now, with that bi-metal or all steel round, that is where ranges have an issue as far as ricochet and do not want you shooting it (specifically indoors) but what about at steel targets?

I have shot thousands of rounds of 7.62x39 and .223 Russian steel cased ammunition of all brands out of SKS's, AK's and AR's and probably double what I have shot out of rifles in 9mm hand guns. I have never run into any issues with extreme erosion to the point where I noticed a difference in practical accuracy. If you watch channels like AK Operators union who runs 5000 rounds of through every new AK or AR he is testing and 99% of it is always steel cased ammunition. He does 100 yard moa testing before and after each test as well as bore scoping and I cannot remember ever seeing any kind of erosion in quality firearms or a significant change in moa after all testing was done. If you have a precision rifle then yeah I would stick with Federal Gold or Match but for everything else outside of shooting tiny groups then go for it. For the amount of ammunition I used to shoot replacing an AR barrel if need be would have still been cheaper then the amount I would have spent going with brass cased ammunition.

I have really good AR500 targets and have shot it as close as 15 yards with .223 which was loaded to 5.56 specs and 7.62x39 steel cased ammo with no damage at all. From 10 yards in then the .223 will leave a tiny dimple in the steel. Most ranges have garbage mild steel targets which will get destroyed from things like bi metal bullets and even worse by green tip. I don't recommend using any mild steel regardless of the ammunition from 30 yards and in. I have been hit and cut enough to bleed for up to a half hour with back splash from jackets and bullet fragments at steel changeling competitions and that's when using 9mm brass cased FMJ.

Indoor ranges have bullet traps to worry about which are very expensive as well as an excessive build up of unburnt powder and in rare cases a bi metal bullet could cause a spark and ignite the unburnt powder. A lot of it also has to do with how they recycle their brass many sell it and the companies do not want steel cases mixed in which causes seperating issues.