Steel cased ammo in my Mini-14?

[dario541]

I have read a lot about Ruger's Mini-14. Quite a few people say that you should not use steel-cased ammo in the Mini. Well, I just happen to have several cases of steel cased Russian .223/5.56. It is 62 grain and has steel cases. Does anybody here know of any problems using this ammo can cause? Does it break firing pins? Is there some other problem? I just checked Ruger's owner manual for the Mini and all it says is to use ammo manufactured to American standards. Opinions, please.

[j427x]

no--shoot the hell out if it.

the DOD and the US ARMY fired upwards of 80,000 rounds of steel cased ammo through m16s an concluded the steel case was a non issue.

i have shot plenty of it through the mini and the ar --the only problems i encountered was some of the ammo was poorly loaded. like they used the wrong powder or it was a little weak or very old--

some of the steel jacketed bullets arn't all that accurate some do OK-- in a mini your probably not going to be able to tell one way or the other--LOL--

i have got some very good russian loads of 223 from wolf the 75gr wolf has proved very good shooting and very reliable and accurate from an ar-15.

the only russian ammo i have run across that was real spotty was TULA i got one batch that was way under pressured. most tula is under pressured and slightly under powered, though not enough to fail to cycle.

the mini will probably run some real low pressure rounds the ar series won't.

i recall firing some 40gr loads in a mini and it ran them --in my ar they short stroked-

the steel cased stuff should be fine in the mini--

[dario541]

I can't get my hands on the Russian ammo that I have, but my son, who is very knowlegable about such things, tells me that this is some of the better Russian ammo. So, I plan to keep and use it.

[j427x]

Originally Posted by dario541

I can't get my hands on the Russian ammo that I have, but my son, who is very knowlegable about such things, tells me that this is some of the better Russian ammo. So, I plan to keep and use it.

today ammo is ammo--hang on to good or not--LOL!

[dario541]

I have a pretty fair quantity of .223. When I go to the various gun stores around here, they have zero! So, I guess I'll hang onto what I have. Anything beats nothing, I guess.