What is polymer ammo? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Let’s discuss.

I'd think the biggest disadvantage would be and it the first thing you said was a positive. They don't carry any heat away from the barrel. So the barrel will overheat quickly at which time they will melt. Tried and failed. This is nothing new

When you do shooting comparisons? Isn't that all that matters? Do they run?

Advantage one: Looks cooler when ejected. Alrighty great start 😂

Doesn’t degrade. We don’t need any more plastic littering the world

Ounces = pounds. Pounds = pain.

Imagine the weight reduction on your person, if walking or pedal bike was your only mode of transportation.

That price disparity is…. Large

Not cost effective. I can pick up 1000 rounds of 5.56 or .223 is $300

Considering how much the US military spends on equipment... I bet doubling the cost of ammo won't effect their spending much. Obviously heat issues would limit its usefulness in high volume of fire applications (lmg). It's not like they're reloading brass right?

Plastic pollution

I think polymer casings are a useless evolution in firearms technology.

We are already moving on to direct energy weapons and lasers, why waste time with a polymer casing for a regular ass projectile.

Just buy another trailer screw the true valosicty

Nope... brass is perfect

And it can't be reloaded

There more disadvantages (at least in current day 4/22/24) in addition to be more expensive they are gonna be overall less reliable if you mag get to hot itll literally weld/fuse itself to the inside of the mag as well just over time the plastic can become brittle and brake it also is not gonna be as sturdy the bullet is not secure to parallel the performance of brass, and it doesnt really even look cool in my opinion it is a lot brighter which makes it more visible, bringing down its practicality and it looks like your shooting a nerf gun or something.

If the casing isn’t hot is your gun heating up more?

Unless this case is some new, improved, super polymer :rolleyes: ,it'll fail just when you need it most.
I've tried several iterations of plastic ammo in the past. All failed at some point for many reasons. Blown cases, torn rims, split necks. FtoF, case separations...on and on.
Sorry. I'll ruck the extra 2+ pounds or more to satisfy that my weapon will function as designed without the fear of a malfunction at an inopportune time. 😮

I remember when that much cash would get out a wheelbarrow full of ammo

I wonder if the polymer casings are more likely to jam up the rifle from the heat after firing multiple rounds.

No real advantage for the average Joe it costs more and it’s not reloadable so you can’t really recoup some of that cost.

Thats wild I might've expected the polymer to be cheaper than brass, but i suppose its not a standard plastic and they dont manufacture it at the same scale as brass. I think ill stick with brass for the time being

It's probably been already been said but you can't reload palamer casses, and there is the chance that they will deform the same as shot shells when koaded into a stack magazine.

Then why are they more expensive than brass rounds?

As the ole saying goes; ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain!

I know im echoing what everyone has said but the price per round is why no one buys it. If it was 30% cheaper or more compared to brass case, then no one could keep it stocked, especially if they managed to put in match bullets, primers and powder consistency while being cheaper than range ammo. But 2x+ the ppr is insane.

They come out cooler cause they aren’t taking the heat from your chamber out not a good thing

I'll stay with brass as long as possible..

1.25 for plastic 😂 but .60 for brass lol

i would be worried about them melting in a hot chamber and getting stuck in the chamber or increasing chances of a rupture

Not worth the price difference I’d rather just carry a 308or30-06 with less ammo but more power to put something down

Its 55 grain... not interested

Who only carries 7 mags? 10 minimum

No we need bras ammo still no if ands or butts

Made for guys who like to also get charged for littering when they do drive bys 💀

So in other words, theyre a waste of money that doesnt make much difference

You forgot can’t be reloaded

I carried 8 mags plus one in my M4 along with 4 extra mags in my buddy pack mounted on the back of my vest. I understand the concept of weight savings, but in combat, that little bit of weight doesn't matter with your adrenaline pumping. And dare i say, it doesn't matter to most troops at all either way! The price of that polymer cased ammo is ridiculously expensive to boot.

Are polymer casings able to be reloaded?

Wow one pound dang thats a lot less weight and man the price is awesome where do I buy

So much for getting rid of plastic bag😂😂😂 in grocery stores . Just another way of getting money selling bags greedy mfs

Im super interested in polymer cae ammo. I think its foing to be increasingly popular going forward

For the cost we probably just gotta give it time for mass production to eventually cut back costs

However a problem is it may remain more expensive because polymer is single use.

“My buddy told me”….. so it has to be true.. LOL….

Agreement on the advantage, disagreement on the disadvantage. The biggest disadvantages are that ceramic does not conduct or retain heat that can be ejected from the chamber. meaning that sustained fire to failure has many less rounds than brass ammo. Also, storage longevity, failure severity and rate of failure, cook offs, case durability, QC at scale are major issues. Finally, brass casings can expand to the dimensions of the chamber during firing to create more efficient and tighter breach seals-whether by design or a tertiary effect-ceramic simply does not have that ability as a material. This means that not only do the tolerances of the ammo need to be really strict, but so too do the rifles.

A very positive weight per volume upside that isn’t addressed is that the taper of the brass 5.56 cartridge is for extraction. A ceramic case is slippery enough that the ammo can be straight walled, so magazines can be more simply manufactured as well could magazine wells and capacity could likely be increased as the shape allows for a more complete fill of magazine volume. This could offset the cost element correctly identified as a downside.

Wonder how they would hold up in storage and temp changes with the weather

I don’t think the cases being cooler when ejected is a benefit. All of that heat that would have otherwise been in the case is instead transferred to the gun.

Civilians back home might not see the value in it, but as someone who served in Iraq, I can tell you—it’s solid. Lightweight, solves the brass shortage issue, and most importantly, insurgents can't repurpose the spent casings like they used to. That alone makes it a tactical win.

Why so much? They're plastic

Except when you go click, it does not reliably go bang. Not worth the weight savings then.

its only expensive because it not being mass produced