by Fogdude » Aug Mon 28, 2017 8:43 am
For those of you who are inclined to have firearms, a little advice...
If you have an AK style weapon & a supply of ammunition, you almost surely have some steel cased 7.62x39 ammo. It's relatively plentiful & less expensive than brass cases. I know I do. After all, ANY ammo is better than none at all & I've used steel cased ammo in several handguns, of the 9mm variety & as long as you THOROUGHLY clean the chambers afterward, there's no problem with them at all. I did, however, learn, the hard way, that such is not the case when using a combination of steel & brass, especially in the same shooting session, without cleaning between.
There are rumors in abundance that this problem of steel cases sticking in chambers is due to the lacquer coating virtually ALL steel cased ammo employs. The theory was that the lacquer burns & sticks to the chamber walls, making ejection unreliable & ensuing rounds even more likely to stick, even to eventually causing jams that could result in damage to the weapon (& the shooter).
I have read extensively on this & several very reputable outfits have put this to the test & proven that the lacquer is NOT the issue. It turns out that the problem is almost entirely due to the fact that steel cases simply do not expand on ignition, allowing hot gases & powder residue to be forced back ward between the case & chamber wall. This residue builds up & eventually causes a malfunction. HOWEVER, this malfunctioning ONLY happens if you switch to brass cased ammo without cleaning the weapon's chamber FIRST.
AK style weapons are designed for steel cased ammo. The tolerances allow for this phenomenon & as long as you use only steel cased ammo, such malfunctions do not appear. HOWEVER, it is possible to use both brass & steel cased ammo in the same weapon WITHOUT cleaning between changes AS LONG AS you use the BRASS ammo FIRST & do not resume with brass after switching to steel.
The whole problem lies in the fact that brass cases EXPAND when fired, sealing the chamber & keeping the hot gases & powder residue from fouling the chamber. As long as you use only brass cases, the fouling won't occur & you'll have no problems. You can shoot all the brass you want & then switch to steel & continue, without ill effect. The reverse is NOT true.
So, when TSHTF, have your brass loaded up first, use it all up, then switch to steel & you won't have any problems. For this reason, I have all magazines color coded so I know, from arms reach, which is which, without needing to look closely at the ammo in them.
Thanks for your patience with my lengthy missive. I hope it is of benefit to someone.