Wolf Luger 9mm gray jacketed

[Michael Anderson]

Somewhere in this thread, I'm sure someone has covered this, but I couldn't find it.

I decided to purchase some inexpensive ammo for my Beretta 92FS online, for use at the range. I ordered 300 9mm rds (six boxes) made by Wolf. The first thing I noticed, was that the shell casings were not brass colored, but grey instead, and seemed to be made of an altogether different metal/material.

Is this type ammo safe for my Beretta, or should I stick with brass?

[vulcrider]

This is steel cased ammo. Berdan primed, not usually relaodable. Good for practice, should work well with your gun. Iv'e shot alot of Wolf ammo and had gernaerally good results. May not be as high quality as some others, but a good value. Every gun is different and yours may or may not shoot as well with the Wolf. Try it and see.

[Hammerslagger]

The "street wisdom" of steel case ammo in West European and US firearms is: "The money you save on ammo, you are likely to pay out in repairs".

Former "Eastern Bloc" countries perfected or at least extensively used steel cartridge cases.

They engineered the extractors and ejectors of there arms to handle the extra stress that steel cases impart to these parts. In other words there firearms were designed to use steel cartridge cases.

The so called "West" stuck with brass (and aluminum in a few cases) and usually designed their arms to work with brass, not steel.

The US made Pennies and 45 ACP with steel cases in 1943 and quickly went back to cartridge case brass alloy for both for the rest of the war. {The penny was originally bronze.} We gave the Russians a lot of the 1943 steel 45 ACP.

No doubt, there are those who will disagree, but I avoid shooting steel cased ammo in a good autoloading gun, if practical.

[Hammerslagger]

My experience has been that both Ruger and Glock customer service representatives, have advised against the use of steel cartridge case Russian ammo in their products. You might want to check with your guns maker.

[Alpo]

I gots to agree. I bought a thousand rounds of steel 223. Sold off 840 (or however much fits in a 50 caliber can). Would have sold the rest if I could have found it. Feller said his AR loved it. Great. I wasn't gonna put it in my Mini.

Bought a couple of thousand rounds of Russian 9 mil. Half Wolf and half something else. I've shot about half of each of them. I was running it in my German WW2 guns. Figgered they were probably used to steel cases. But I quit. It's just sitting in an ammo can. If push absolutely comes to shove, I'll use it, but as long as I have brass cases, I won't.

Got a few thousand rounds of steel 7.62x39. That's for the AK. Also got a Mini 30 and a CZ bolt gun. They get brass.

[Michael Anderson]

Thank you gentlemen, for your responses. I'm leaning towards using the 300 rounds at the range, that I have already purchased, and cease purchasing anymore. I believe I will take your advice and stick with brass!

[gdmoody]

In the past, I fired quite a bit of Wolf 9mm through my Beretta 92FS without any problems. You should not have any problems with it. I no longer buy the steel cased ammo, not because it would hurt my pistol, but because I love to reload the 9mm and you can't do it with the Wolf steel case stuff!!

[johnlives4christ]

i would go ahead and use it, but not buy any more. you should take a look at your extractor and your breech face and ejector before you start firing them, and during and after completing firing of the steel cased ammunition. look for any signs of wear from begining to end. you'll be fine and shouldnt see any signs of wear on a beretta 92 but you want to be careful with that steel cased stuff as everyone has said, it's harder on guns than brass cased. the steel used in a beretta is quite hard compaired to some other makes of pistols so im told. i know from experiance that the steel in a glock is harder than most. file wouldnt touch it, dremel was the only way to take that burr off. anyway check walmart and ask them when they get their shipments in and they should be able to tell you the best time to check for ammo and you'll be able to get some if'n ya look

[312shooter]

Well when you buy inexpensive ammo the saying "nothing is for free" comes into play. The quality of wolf .223 is absolutely terrible. A shoulder fired level shot of the 55gr fmj's hits the ground at 300 yards thats where your saving comes into play - cheap powder and minimum charges. Steel Case what an efficient way to jam up or destroy your ar15 chamber! I left 500 rounds at the range and will never fire the stuff again. Buy an american spec gun... then shoot american spec ammo, that's what I practice.