Epic Torture Test: 40,000 Rounds and Four AR-15s

Steve Johnson
by Steve Johnson

Shooters have been debating the cost/benefit of shooting steel-cased/bimetal-jacked ammunition verses traditional (and more expensive) brass cased and copper jacketed ammunition. My good friend Andrew Tuohy has conducted an epic torture test to see how the more expensive brass-cased ammunition compares with cheaper steel-cased ammunition. It turns out that brass cased ammunition is a lot better, more than I thought it was, but over 10,000 even with two barrel changes the steel still works out to be ~15% cheaper. His summery is in the video below, but you should read his entire exhaustive writeup, including barrel cut-away photos.

Image © LuckyGunner.com

Read the complete text here.

Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson

I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!

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  • ManOverboard ManOverboard on Dec 11, 2013

    Not to pig out, but it'd be nice to see malfunctions included in these graphics too.

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    • ManOverboard ManOverboard on Dec 12, 2013

      @Derrick Culligan I checked the original article, and wow - great detail on the malfunctions. Thanks Derrick.

  • F F on Feb 28, 2014

    the firing with so many mag dumps exacerbates the otherwise slight extra barrel wear from the bimetal.

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