Occasionally the guys over at Bear Creek Arsenal will come out with beautifully designed infographics that they will then post to their website. As they have done in the past, Bear Creek has graciously allowed us to share their infographics here at The Firearm Blog. This time the subject of focus is brass vs steel cased ammunition and the pros and cons of each when it comes to the AR-15 platform.

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Bear Creek Arsenal Breaks Down the Pros and Cons of Brass vs Steel Case

So what is the gist of the infographic? Most long-time shooters will know that there are some very distinct differences between brass-cased and steel-cased ammunition and neither is exempt from drawbacks. One of the major benefits that the infographic points out is that brass cased ammunition is reloadable and also creates a better chamber seal. These two factors can be attributed to the fact that brass is far more malleable than steel is and thus it is far less likely to crack (making it reloadable) and cause damage to you or your firearm.

Photo: NRA

However, given that we are in some pretty interesting times right now, I think there still might be a case for purchasing steel-cased ammunition provided it shoots well out of your rifle in the bullet weights you can find it in. Steel-cased ammunition is often pumped out to be purely bulk ammunition. However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t find guns that are extremely accurate with it. James and Ryan over on TFBTV did a head-to-head test with a cheap AR vs an expensive AR with various types of ammunition and the results may stun you if you haven’t seen the video already. I’ll link it below so you can check it out.

Photo: LuckyGunner

At the end of the infographic, Bear Creek lists a few sensible and relatively inexpensive suggestions for making your gun run better with steel-cased ammunition. As the infographic states, steel-cased ammunition are far less reliable than brass-cased ammunition and if you don’t believe us, the guys over at Lucky Gunner also did a 10,000 round test with 3 different types of steel cased ammunition – all of them had several malfunctions while the brass-cased ammunition had zero.

So what are your thoughts on brass vs steel cased ammunition? Is it still worth it to you to spend the extra couple cents to have reloading capabilities and generally higher quality ammunition or is it more sensible right now to just buy and use cheaper steel-cased ammo for the fun of it? Comments welcome down below.

Thanks to Bear Creek Arsenal, an AR-15 and AR-10 rifle manufacturer, for providing this infographic.