steel n brass

[Sigmar]

Talking about commercial stuff. Differences, pros n cons ?

[Griff]

Remember, whole books have been written for advanced college degrees on this subject, so forgive me I fall short in my level of detail and complete coverage of the subject: Good for making guns, not so good for cartridge cases.

Brass: Good for cartridge cases, not so good for guns.

Yes, you can do either with either material... but, one is better suited for one role over the other due to its inherent properties. Steel; resilience, strength, rigidity, and ability for complex machining. Brass, for it's flexibility, resistence to corrosion and easily shaped.

Steel cartridge cases are strong, they're able to withstand pressures that'll rupture brass, but... they don't have quite the resilience that brass does, even at the relatively low pressures exerted by a cartridge firing.

The ease of extraction you probably don't recognize with brass cases comes from the brass's ability to "spring" back to very near its original size after be expanded in the chamber. Steel doesn't have quite tha amount of spring, with can make for sticky extraction or broken extractors in guns with VERY tight chambers, it's also why most say they're not reloadable. It takes far greater force to resize a steel casing that it does a brass one.

There's lots of other info available on the subject, but in a nutshell... there's why.

[Terry Murbach]

WELL LET ME SEE, SIGMAR...I GOT IT ALL FIGURED OUT,.. HERE IT IS IN SPADES....STEEL IS AN IRON ALLOY....BRASS IS A COPPER ALLOY....HOW 'BOUT THEM PUNKINS....?? AND YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONNA BE PULLING YOUR LEG.....

[Chuck 100 yd]

Here we go, another 5-6 pages !!!