Which Type Of Ammo Casing Is Best For Me?

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

We’ve all been there. We hear others talk about the pros and cons concerning the different types of ammo casings; whether it’s at the range or online, there is never a shortage of opinions. Some are logical while others are old wives’ tales handed down with no influence from real personal experience. Some shooters talk about how they would never put steel casing through their gun; while others say that’s all they want to shoot. One person may love using aluminum cased ammo while another can’t seem to get their gun to function with it. In order to consider what is the best value for you we need to evaluate the different cases that are available.

The four types of casings in common use are:

Brass 

Nickel 

Steel 

Aluminum 

Since there are four types of casings we decided to rank each type with a value from 1-4; 1 being the lowest performer and 4 being the highest. At the end we will tally the total and see which proves to be the best.

The points we will compare each casing on are:

Cost

Reliability / Function 

Accuracy 

Operates clean or dirty

Reload-ability 

Storage  

Cost

Cost is one of the most important factors there is when it comes to the shooting sports and is often one of the biggest roadblocks for many shooters. We researched the price of 9mm ammo on several different search engines and found the average low price for each type of casing.

We found the average to be:

 .67 cents per case for nickel and was only available in hollow point / self-defense ammo.

.19 cents per case for brass available in both self-defense and target ammo

.18 cents per case for aluminum and was only available in practice/target ammo

.15 cents per case for steel case only available in target / practice ammo

Because of these prices, we are giving each casing the following values:

Steel              4 points  

Aluminum    3 points

Brass             2 points

Nickel            1 point 

Reliability / Function

While some firearms seem to eat any type of ammo, we wanted to ensure that each type of casing would work well with a variety of firearms. After extensive research we concluded that people that were shooting AK’s, SKS’s, and AR-15’s shot steel cased ammo fine but failures occurred more frequently while shooting steel casing more than all of the other types combined. Due to the hard nature of steel casings some firearms fail to get a proper chamber seal. Sometimes the casing can even become stuck in the chamber when the case fails to contract after the pressure drops, causing a failure to extract.

Lucky gunner did a fantastic side by side comparison with brass and steel case .223 ammo. They used two brand new identical AR-15’s and fired 10,000 rounds through each gun. At the end, the brass had zero failures and the steel case had 15 failures. If the rifle they had used was an AK or something similar we agree the failure rate for steel casing would likely have been close to zero as well; but as mentioned, we didn’t want to limit its use to a handful of firearms.

We found only small amounts evidence and complaints against aluminum case and opted to give it the second to last position as the vast majority of self-defense ammo is brass or nickel and there are no rifle calibers manufactured with aluminum case; as it is too soft to handle the expansion most rifle calibers go through. Finally, both brass and nickel perform very similar, but considering most self-defense ammo is nickel and reliability is of the utmost importance with self-defense ammo we decided to follow the philosophy most ammunition manufacturers share and give it the top position.

Nickel          4 points

Brass            3 points

Aluminum   2 points

Steel             1 point

Accuracy

When it comes to long range rifle shooting, brass cased ammo reigns supreme. In a recent Precision Rifle Shooters competition, 100% of shooters used brass cased ammo. Since Brass and nickel have similar characteristics and performance we opted to rank nickel the second best and gave steel the third spot as it has at least been used in military conflicts. Aluminum is only suited for use with pistol calibers and for this reason we gave it the last spot.

Brass            4 points

Nickel           3 points

Steel             2 points  

Aluminum   1 point

Operation

After a lot of research and personal experience, a common trend was recognized that showed that steel cased ammo was the worst and was often very dirty. Due to the poor chamber seal carbon can make its way back into the chamber, coupled with the lacquer finish on many brands of steel casings (which is used to prevent rust) it can get hot and create a gummy residue after cooling.

Aluminum case ammo runs very similarly to both brass and nickel but because of its softer nature it can potentially cause a premature decrease in chamber seal and allow carbon to come back into the chamber.  Because of this albeit small, but present issue, it landed at our second to last spot.

As mentioned earlier ­- both brass and nickel will perform similarly; but we opted to give nickel the top spot because nickel provides a slight amount of lubricity to its performance and could potentially chamber easier than brass.

Nickel          4 points

Brass            3 points

Aluminum   2 points

Steel             1 point

 Reloadable

While brass and nickel perform similarly, the more ductile nature of brass allows it to be reloaded more times and for that reason it takes our number one spot with nickel following up as number two. Despite a lot of old wives’ tales saying that aluminum can’t be reloaded we have seen this misnomer proven wrong multiple times. Steel case is best just swept into the recycling bin.

 Brass            4 points

Nickel           3 points

Aluminum   2 points  

Steel             1 point

 Storage

The likelihood of a metal corroding can be measured by a scale called cathodic and anodic. The more cathodic a metal is the less likely it will be subject to electrons traveling to surrounding materials and thereby contributing to the metals’ breakdown.

Nickel is the same component that makes stainless steel so resistant to corrosion and for this we gave nickel the number one spot for storage. Brass was a close second and is much more cathodic than steel or aluminum. Aluminum is technically more cathodic than steel but as steel is more susceptible to oxidization and not just chemical breakdown we gave aluminum our third and steel case our fourth spots.

 Nickel            4 points

Brass             3 points

Aluminum    2 points  

Steel              1 point

Now let’s tally out totals and see where our best value is:

  Interestingly enough we had a tie between brass and nickel with aluminum and steel falling pretty far behind. As we mentioned earlier, certain ammo may work great for a particular firearm or if you’re out plinking, steel or aluminum case may be the choice that keeps you shooting more. Knowing some of the qualities about Nickel may encourage you to carry that in your EDC or put it away for long term storage. Knowing that the pros are all using brass for long range shooting may have opened your eyes. All in all, there is no one size fits all to the variety of casing. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. As a whole though, if I had to pick one type of case and had to stick with it, the clear choice would be Nickel or Brass.

 We hope this broadens your understanding and helps make you a better and more knowledgeable advocate of the second amendment. Now get out there and teach your friends, neighbors, and loved ones how to enjoy the shooting sports as much as all of us do. Stay safe my friends and keep shooting!   

Written by HSL Ammo