Looking for the REAL answer on TulAmmo

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pturner67

New member
I have heard people say there's nothing wrong with TulAmmo and I have heard people say that it will misfire or grime up your gun

What's the real answer here? Logically, to me, it's either good or it's not. I could be wrong (and have been known to be wrong).

The reason I'm asking is because I have found a killer deal at a local supplier on TulAmmo .223 75 GR HP. My Spikes AR is a 1:7 twist so it should love the 75 GR. But.....some people have me scared to use TulAmmo in my AR. I'm not worried about it being dirty or about reloading. My only fear is what I hear about the coating (or whatever the hell it is) and FTE, etc.

Any help/experience/advice is highly appreciated.

Thanks

tula-.223rem-75gr-hp-2.jpg
 
It shoots fine out of both my Mini and my AR's. Just clean your chamber real good before switching back to brass cased ammo. The steel cased does not expand and seal the chamber as good as brass and the chamber will get more carbon fowled with the steel cased ammo.
 
The ammo is laquered which isnt an issue, but something to be made aware of and is pretty indisputable (unless its not anymore >.>).

Its pretty dirty.

Thats about it. Seems like it has a higher KB rate than other manf. but its still really small. Seen a few different guns in pieces on the m14 forums from it but not much else.
 
I have not had any negative experience with the 100-200 rounds I have put through my AR-15, but I did have trouble with their 9mm in my PX4. It was not a FTF, FTE, but it was related to loading the magazine. Craziest thing, but when I loaded the tenth round, they would bind and hold down the follower. I would lay the magazine down and the rounds would just fall out. So it is a big "Negative ghost rider, the pattern is full" on my Beretta, but it did fine in the AR.

Fly
 
If everybody cleaned his/her gun after every one or two sessions, they would not see much grime-no matter what type of ammo they have.

The easy solution for people who almost never clean is to buy a rifle with a Russian design.
 
It's polymer coated now.
Just started shooting Tula, been using monarch.

The reason steel is dirtier is because it doesn't expand like brass does therefore doesn't create a good seal in the chamber allowing the gasses to gunk up your AR. I bought my AR from a mfg that claims to be in the top ten mfgs that use mil spec parts ( who know if that's just marketing gimmick, but they do list what parts they use that are mil spec), I have run at least 1,500 rounds of monarch (I believe is lacquer) and close to 400 or so of the Tula steel. No issues at all.


+1 - Ignition
After each trip to the range I generally strip it down so I can clean the firing pin. It does gunk up pretty nasty after even 50 rounds of use. The most I've fired in a day was around 300.
 
It is not a copper jacketed round.
As we all know it has a steel/polymer case but less known is that it has a copper washed, steel jacket.
The HP (open tip) also has an open base.
So not more accurate for being HP, because actually it's not a true HP.
It is dirty, but if I remember is not a ball powder... it looked like H322 to me.

I will not put steel down the barrels of my rifles.
-SS-
 
My Mini-30 doesn't like it

Tula works fine in every gun I have except for the Ruger Mini-30. Mind you, it works fine in the Mini-14, but not in the Mini-30.

Other Russian ammo (such as Silver Bear) is fine in my Mini-30, but the primers in the Tula appear to be slightly recessed, and the Mini-30 is designed for the pin not to protrude so far as in an SKS, for example. This is probably in order to avoid bump fire. So you are likely to have many failures to fire with Tula in a Mini-30. I did. And that's even WITH the aftermarket XP hammer spring.

Also, Tula is polymer coated, no longer lacquered. The Tula will work in the Mini-14 and not the Mini-30 because it is BOXER PRIMED in .223 and BERDAN primed in 7.62.x39. Boxer primers are softer. Just my dos centavos.
 
As for steel cased ammo in general, boxotruth.com has a very good test/write up.

As for Tul specifically--it is the dirtiest ammo I've ever shot. I shot 50 rounds at an outdoor range out of my G21 and everyone on the line was looking to see who was responsible for the huge black cloud coming from my firing station... That said, it went bang every time. I wouldn't buy it again though. For the same price you can get brown/silver bear and it's a much higher quality product in my opinion.
 
Part of my job is dealing with different metals, and machining them. When you rub, scrape or drag two different metals together, the softer one "wears". If I use steel cased ammo, Now I am "rubbing" steel against steel. Hopefully the gun has been heat treated and hardened, and the steel case will wear and not the gun. But you never know WHAT kind of steel is being used in the casings. I'm not worried as much about the feed ramp/chamber as I am the extractor which has to hit the steel casing rim, pop over the edge of the steel rim, and close around the steel rim. Then the steel casing gets ripped out of the extractor by the ejector. I'd MUCH rather have all this happen with brass than steel. Call me overly cautious, but coming from a metallurgical background, there is no way the parts of the gun that come in contact with the casing do not wear faster to some degree, when those casings are steel instead of brass. I want to keep my guns in service for as long as I can, so it will be brass only for me. Except of course for something like an AK or SKS. :D
 
I would choose Silver Bear over the brown case stuff every time.
Be advised all of this bimetal bullet stuff is hard on steel targets and backstops and is more prone to ricochet than copper/gilding metal jacketed bullets.
The small sample of rifles I've used the bimetal bullets in seem to have the bores smoothed quite nicely by the hard jacket material combined with the gritty, abrasive fouling left in the bore by the previous shot.
Think about that comment a little while.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all the responses. I think the metal on metal argument is enough to keep me away from Tula. Such a shame. If Tula used brass and 75 grain for their bulk to compete with the standard 55 grain bulk on the market, I think they would sell a butt load of it.

Again, thanks for the advice!!
 
My personal experience with it was not good. My friend and I bought a couple boxes on the way out to the range and both are guns had problems with it. We both had cases get stuck in the chamber pretty bad also there was another guy shooting that was using it and he was having problems also. We both had M&P15s don't remember what the other guy had.
 
I've shot 500+ rounds of tula .223 and never had an issue. may be ever so slightly dirtier then wolf.... and usually a little more expensive then wolf. But if you're getting a good deal go for it
 
Didn't have a problem with it in my C93 or my 1911. Couldn't really tell how dirty it was in the C93 since it's a dirty firing gun anyway. But in the 1911 I didn't notice much difference between it and the UMC I usually shoot. :confused: For the price I love it, makes shooting more wallet friendly again.
 
@Mosinka - My mini-30 hates the stuff. Took 60 rounds to the range yesterday and had 20 failures... primer had a nice dent in all of them, but no bang. Was not happy. Picked up some Privi-Partisan at Cabelas last night... will hopefully have better luck. Any good or bad experiences with it here? How about Herters?
 
"But you never know WHAT kind of steel is being used in the casings"


I can guarantee you that it's softer than any steel in your rifle..... by definition it needs to be soft enough to conform to the chamber under expansion forces of firing. It's not going to damage your rifle.

All that the Russians have shot since sometime in the 1940's has been steel cased. There's nothing wrong with it. Personal experience in addition to pistol and rifle caliber stuff includes shooting 20 mm and 37 mm automatic cannons with Russian steel cased ammunition. Never a bobble. Fun too... :D

Think really that we ought to break down Russian Ammunition into it's four components:

Case
Bullet
Powder
Primer

Steel cases are steel cases... they work, they don't cause issues, and they are cheap.

Bullets... what you are going to get from any Russian manufacturer is one or the other version of the cheapest projectile that they can make, meaning it'll be more or less milspec according to the Russian ideal of milspec, which is copper wash over steel.

Powder..... My bet is that this is where the differences are, betting that this ammo uses surplus lots of something that might not have been designed for this case size to begin with. Dirty? Yup, likely.

Primers: The closer to milspec the harder the primer. This is not surprising, the primers are probably the same part number as those designed for automatic weapons of a variety of types, and for military pistols. None of these have any issues with light springs...



Bottom line is that if you use it with sensitivity to what it was designed to be used in, it'll be fine. If you use it in light primer hitting guns, tight chambers, etc., you may have issues. The more milspec your gun the better your chances.

Just a note, the Russians figured out how to use steel cases and clad steel bullets from the Germans, who more or less perfected it.



Willie

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I've shot Tula in 9mm, .45ACP, and .223. All shot great and I don't notice it being any dirtier than the other factory ammo I've shot. It's cheap as hell and shoots good. Works for me.
 
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