Steel Case vs. Brass: A 5,000-Round AK Reliability Ledger

Key points: Steel Case vs Brass

• Full 5,000-round log published as a downloadable spreadsheet
• Steel ran 99.3% — the failures clustered in one hot-and-dirty session
• Extractor wear was measurable but functionally irrelevant at this count
• Cost delta paid for a second case of ammo over the year
• The real trade-off is availability and consistency, not reliability

About this Gun Review video

Every forum thread on steel-cased ammo ends the same way: two camps, zero data. Two Pines Tactical spent a year and 5,000 logged rounds settling it — half steel, half brass, two identical rifles, every malfunction and every extractor inspection written down. The ledger gets published in full, and the conclusion doesn't fully vindicate either camp.

Transcript: Steel Case vs