steel cased wolf?

Question

It seems that wolf ammo is either hit or miss with people feeding them through AR's. whats your experiance with them through your AR15? does any wear show? what parts would the steel case wear down? any other info is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

As a Long Range Rifle Team Competetor with 16+ years experience...I can tell you first hand that Wolf Steel cased "Lacquer" coated ammunition is not what you want to shoot in a quality AR-15 of any manufacture. The steel casings have improved slightly over the years but the laquer coatings are subject to picking up dirt and particles from static electricity, as well as the laquer starting to soften in hot chambers in Match grade AR's...This in turn causes chambering malfunctions and jambs as a result. This is the way it is. It's not a matter of price, as much as it is a matter of shooting a decent quality ammunition that will cause no additional problems because of cost cutting components.

As I have said before SKS rifles and AK-47's and clones don't have the same chamber tolerances that a match grade barrel and chamber have, therefore you can shoot anything you wish out of them. I have seen many cases of chamber wear and chamber scratches that resulted from steel cased laquer coated cartridges being used in AR-15 Match Grade rifles, and the dirt and debris they can pick up easily. Common sense along with facts tell me it's not worth the risk to shoot cheap ammunition out of an AR-15 rifle, match grade or otherwise.....

Answer 2

First off I have had my chanber gum up with Wolf. It does clean out and you do not need some special tool. Wolf causes serious jamming when you mix it with other cartridges. The steel does not expand like brass. This dirties the chamber and shrinks it. When you shoot brass it expands into a smaller chamber and causes a serious jam. Just don't mix ammo or shoot brass first and you will be fine.

I look at the wear like this. If you want to become a very good shooter you have to shoot often. If you shoot Wolf your barrel or whatever part may wear out ofter 10,000 rounds as opposed to 12,000 rounds. With the money you save by shooting wolf you can buy a new match barrel. You end up with more money in your pocket and after 12,000 rounds a more accurate rifle. Cool huh. Of course you could reload and do even better. If you get a bushy they won't charge you for the work if you don't want to do it yourself.

Once you do the math Wolf makes alot of sense. If you don't want to wear out your gun just shoot the most expensive ammo you can find. You will shoot so rarely that your gun's parts will last forever.

Answer 3

Wolf is just an import company based here in the US. In their early days they were just "branding" any Commie military surplus they could find, and some of it was old, corrosive and shot dirty. In recent years they are actually contracting factories in the former Soviet block countries to manufacture new ammos for them, so they have a lot better quality as it's new stuff.

The problem I have had with the Russian and Eastern European steel cased ammo (where at Wolf buys their ammo) is not the steel case but the lacquer coating.

This stuff can really start to gun things up, particularly if you are like me and like to pop off hundreds of rounds in one sitting and get the barrel and chamber really hot. Just be prepared with a little bottle of lacquer thinner on a mop to swab it out of the chamber.

I use it a lot in my AK, SKSs and some vintage bolt actions. It particularly gums up the chambers on Mosin Nagants and can actually stop you from chambering a round.

For an AR, firing hundreds or thousands of rounds, I'd be concerned about the wear on your extractor before the chamber.

Answer 4

I've used Wolf ammo in the past and have had no problems with it. It was surprisingly accurate as well (62 gr in .223). I have a buddy that has put thousands of rounds through his AR and has had only 2 episodes of split cases that jammed up the action. Other than that, it seems to be pretty good ammo for the price. I have heard horror stories about Wolf but that seems to have been with some of the older lots.

Answer 5

for the weekend plinker, you won't have a bit of trouble with wolf brand steel cased ammo. But, if you shoot a lot, you will find problems caused by the lacquer coating on the ammo. Usually requiring a very thorough cleaning to resolve the issue. As far as wear, if you shoot a match grade rifle, yes, the steel in the case can cause appreciable wear and I would not do it. But in a standard AR, mini 14 etc, you'd have to shoot one heck of a lot of ammo to cause a noticeable difference.
Hope this helps

Answer 6

I've never had a problem with Wolf ammo, and neither have my friends. I suppose the steel case might eventually cause wear in the chamber, but I imagine you'd have to shoot tens of thousands of rounds before the wear would even be measurable, and even more before it would adversly effect function. The Wolf cases are made of MILD steel. Your barrel is of much harder material. In other words, the barrel will cause more wear to the cases than the cases will to the barrel.