9mm Ammo Question

You could consider handloading your own ammo.
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This.

The initial cost of getting set up might run you a few hundred dollars but if you plan to shoot a lot it will payoff in a couple of years in savings.
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Not this..... for a couple of reasons......

1. A basic handloading set-up need not cost "hundreds of dollars". Maybe one hundred dollars. After you master that set-up.... maybe then think about getting a spendy progressive....

My brother loaded (and shot, out of his sR9c!) about 3,000 rounds of 9mm reloads in his first 2 years of handloading....... with a Lee Hand Press Kit!


He used Berry's 115 and 124 gr copper plated bullets, his own cases he saved from his first few range trips, and Power Pistol powder ..... his loads cost him about 15-18 cents each, IIRC. Savings vs. WWB at his local Wallyworld, if he had bought that much loaded ammo, would have bought him 2 more sR9c pistols...... but here's the catch:

If he had not been reloading, I doubt he would have shot that much.


Before he handloaded, he would buy a couple boxes of of Wallyworld WWB, and go to the range. After he started rolling his own, he'd bring 2-3 hundred rounds to the range.

Also, once he started reloading, he put some of those WallyWorld WWB cartridges to his calipers, and weighed some of the charges..... OAL, case dimensions and charge weights were all over the place ..... he found he made better ammo at home .......
 
Federal ammo can be had for a few pennies more per round. Then you have reloadable cases and far better ammo.

I do not prescribe to the "Russian ammo will damage your gun" theory, with some minor exceptions. I'm also not a fan of steel cased ammo. There is a possibility of steel cased ammo abrading the chamber of a firearm some, as opposed to brass which is soft enough that this is not an issue. I have a story about that. I have a rifle that sat unattended for too long while I was overseas one time. I gave it a thorough coating of CLP and left it in a closet. Apparently the thorough coating of CLP wasn't enough to keep it good for a year. When I got back the barrel was rusted pretty bad. The action was in decent shape. It was mostly surface rust but I did end up having to re-finish the gun to make it look decent. There was also rust inside the barrel and in the chamber. Removing the rust from the barrel consisted of shooting the gun. I had to remove the rust from the chamber by hand, but I noticed that the chamber was scored somewhat after the process. I definately did not want that, but in the end the rifle still shoots .5moa. A rough chamber doesn't help with extraction, but this is a bolt action rifle so it doesn't really affect cycling much. Had this rifle been a semi-auto, then the cycling definately could be affected. I will say that I probably ganked this chamber up worse than 10k rounds of steel cased ammo could, though, so it is not a true side by side comparison. Copper washed steel jacketed projectiles scare me more than the steel casing.

SOO... I'll leave with this. I don't think russian ammo will do any major harm 99% of the time. BUT, it will not be as accurate and the cases can't be reloaded. The ammo is dirtier so cleaning afterward is more difficult. Storing russian ammo for extended periods of time can be an issue as the case will rust. I could go on and on. The bottom line. Is paying 19 cents around as opposed to 23 cents a round worth the hassle? To me it's not, I would rather decent quality American reloadable brass ammo. You should look into reloading if you really enjoy shooting, BTW.
 
get the federal save the brass and if you dont want to reload sell it for around $40 per 1000 which would bring it to the same cost as the tulammo for much better ammo Randy
 
I shoot the Federal all the time, I like it. Worth the extra over the imported stuff IMO. I started reloading 9mm also so the brass cases are a plus. You don't save a lot reloading 9mm but I find it kind of fun to do.

Shop around other Walmarts in your area, Federal now sells the same ammo in 100ct boxes as well. The 100ct are going for under $20 in my area. Really makes the imported stuff just not worth it. Not all Walmarts by me have the 100ct boxes though, you have to find the 'good' stores.
 
Tulammo won't damage your gun. I should say, it won't damage your gun any more than any other ammo will if you happen to get a defective round. It's gotta be pretty defective to damage your gun. Life is full of accidents waiting to happen. It's part of the deal.

But, I've never encountered an indoor range that allows you to use Tulammo. I've even seen a few outdoor ranges that don't allow it. If you're shooting on your own land or in the great outdoors on open land you can do what you like.

I've never found Tulammo to be inconsistent or to have poor quality. It works as well as Winchester white box and Federal Champion in my guns. I usually have some Tulammo around, but my main range rounds are Federal Champion because I can use them at my indoor range and I can buy them cheap at WalMart.

Tulammo is cheap and it works. Shoot it if you can and want to. Enjoy.
 
Can you use steel jacketed ammo like TULAMMO at outdoor ranges? If not, can you tell me why they wouldn't allow it? What does it do differently at an outdoor range than for example Federal champion ammo? Thanks for helping me understand this?
 
Cetanner,
People are getting bogged down in irrelevant details and side issues. You have a simple choice:

1. Change ammo to something like Wwb of Federal.
2. Change range to one that allows you to use Tulammo.
3. Change ammo and change range.

Problem solved.
 
My Sig P6 likes the Tula just fine but for a buck more per box I can buy the Federal and get a brass case that I can reload. At my Walmart two fifty round boxes of Federal is a few cents less than one 100 round box of WWB and I like the box and brass better for reloads.
 
Copper plated steel jackets don't bother me a bit. Some of the best ammo I put through the barrel of my Garand was Danish M2 ball.

The last Russian 9mm I bought was maybe a dozen years ago. It came in green and white 20rnd pasteboard boxes and shot very well as I remember. It was steel cased and I have no idea if a magnet would have stuck to the jacket as I never tried. That stuff was loaded hotter than the generic US made ammo at the time but my KP94DC didn't mind....

I can't remember the manuafacturer's name.

The Wolf I've run through my AR isn't terribly accurate but it hasn't caused problems, neither has the Tula I've put through the M1 carbine.
 
Because tulammo is not up to the SAAMI standards you are not going to have very consistent results. If you do your research in ammo you do get what you pay for.
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While Tula does not use SAAMI standards, it does conform to CIP standards per their website.

http://en.tulammo.ru/

CIP is, basically, the European counterpart of SAAMI. While some of their pressure limits and testing procedures are slightly different than SAAMI, they are generally considered to be close enough that ammunition loaded to either standard can be safely used interchangeably. Several ammo companies whose products are well-thought of including S&B, Fiocchi, Prvi Partizan, Geco, and RWS load their ammunition to CIP standards.
 
Thanks to everyone for their input. Being new to shooting I didn't understand what I was buying. I went to Walmart looking for the least cost 9mm ammo so that I could shoot more at a lower cost. I bought a box of the Tulu and 2 boxes of the Federal Champion. Guess I will try the Tulu since I already purchased it and then stick to Federal Champion since that is the next cheapest at my Walmart.
 
the RWS ammo in the orange and black box
swiss made and very clean
for around the same price as the tulamo stuff

a quality pistol will shoot anything you feed it if you keep it serviced(cleaned) often. I avoid dirty ammo for the simple reason I dont want to spend days cleaning it out of my guns. The tulammo is no dirtier than winchester white box ammo in my opinion. In fact the winchester may be actually dirtier depending on the batch you happen to get.

I love the RWS stuff, I put 300 rounds through my sig one day and it barely dirtied the cleaning cloth I ran down the barrel later.
 
I've had good luck with the brass-cased Wally-world ammo varieties (WWB, Federal, etc.) and the prices are decent, but the availability is so wonky at any given location that I sucked it up and ordered bulk from Freedom Munitions. Their reman 9mm looks like it could be sold as new.
 
I use the Walmart Federal in my SR9c and have been very happy. I also find availability to be spotty. Sometimes they have none; others they may have 6-8 100 round boxes. If I see it in stock, I'll usually buy a few.

At my store, 100 rounds sells for $19.97. While there are probably on-line retailers that have quality 9mm ammo cheaper, by the time I add shipping, it's pretty comparable.
 
The spark problem, real, or imagined, as to whether it even occurs on indoor ranges used to be a real thing. In the days of mostly revolver shooting, the magnums especially would leave un-burned powder trails down the range (or so I was instructed). I always wondered if that powder was floating around like that, why the flash from firing didn't ignite it, but it didn't seem a concern to the owners.
 
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