The paper is dedicated to experiments on near-threshold fatigue cracks under mixed-mode II+III in the ARMCO iron. The mixed mode crack growth was described using an equivalent factor ΔJeff,eq=(1-α)ΔJeff,eqII+αΔJeff,eqIII. The most appropriate description was found for α = 0.67 indicating that the mode III component should be more efficient than that of the mode II which is in contradiction of a ΔKeq–based analysis. This result shows that, unlike in the austenitic steel, the difference in the efficiency of modes II and III in the ARMCO iron is very small.