Looking for the REAL answer on TulAmmo

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.
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You very well may be right. But.......for a few extra cents a round, I'm keeping steel ammo out of my steel guns. Then I don't have to wonder if you are right or not. All you guys that say you use it and have never had a problem....well the problem will not appear instantaneously. It's possible that 10 or 15 years down the road you might get a broken extractor or something. Who knows? My person decision is to not take the chance. YMMV.
 
If you check out the TFL sister sites, ar15.com and ak47.net you’ll get two totally different opinions on steel cased ammo. Ak47.net it seems to be just fine for general plinking. The guys at ar15.com seem to hate it. Different rifles, different results.

I bought 500 of 62 grain .223 Tulammo for my Saiga. I’ve only shot 20 rounds so it’s too early to tell. I’ve shot 1000 rounds of 62 grain Wolf and had zero problems. I imagine the Tulammo will be the same.
 
It's possible that 10 or 15 years down the road you might get a broken extractor or something. Who knows? My person decision is to not take the chance. YMMV.
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Well an extractor is a wear part anyways and they are cheap and easy to replace. I even have an extra one on hand for my Mini 14 along with the plunger and spring. Probably have had it for the last 7 or 8 years and have not needed it yet but its here if I someday do need it.
 
" It's possible that 10 or 15 years down the road you might get a broken extractor or something. Who knows? My person decision is to not take the chance"


Uhh.... <sigh>... No.

The extractor bends to a certain dimension to snap over a rim and that dimension is the same *no matter what the cartridge is made of*. The extractor has no clue what it is snapping over. The coefficient of friction between the hardened extractor and a case of either steel or brass will be pretty close, no extra stress there. An extractor is working well within it's elastic limits (IE: it bends and then returns to it's original dimensions and form) and if it's properly designed and hardened it will have essentially an infinite life. Try cutting an old extractor from anything with a file, and then use that same file on any steel case that you find. The file will *barely* scratch an extractor, but will cut that case like butter. The hardness of the extractor is likely 10X the hardness of the (annealed) case.


Do as you please, but... don't make up reasons that just aren't so. I'd trust the opinions of the Soviet Army before I'd trust the opinions of guys who have shot a box or two... several billions of cartridges shot over the last 60 years and I bet they have the metals figured out pretty well... :rolleyes:


Willie


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I have fired some of the Tula .308 with my 1916 Spanish Mauser the recoil was mild and the accuracy was very good. The pressure is almost as mild as my handloads its published at 42.700 PSI which is safe for this Rifle.
 
I've shot many boxes of their ammo through my Draco, no problems of any sort. But in my Baby Eagle, I've had 3 fail to fire in one box. For the AK, I'll continue to use it, but not for my 9mm.
 
I shot thousands upon thousands of Tulammo and Wolf through my AK rifles when I still had them. No failures aside from maybe a half dozen duds. Really in over 30k rounds I think I only remember of 6 or so duds. All the others went bang when I squeezed the trigger.

I've run several hundred rounds through my ARs some time ago and there were no failures there either. However I don't shoot steel cased ammo now because I reload.

One big thing I can say is you have to be diligent about cleaning your guns when shooting Tulammo, Wolf, Bear and any other Russian ammo. The lacquer they use flakes off when shooting and fills the gun's small crevices quickly. The AKs didn't mind it at all and I could go thousands of rounds without a cleaning but the lacquer along with the fact that there's a lot of fouling from the very dirty firing ammo really made my ARs unhappy after only a few hundred rounds. If your AR starts to feel odd or sluggish its a good idea to field strip and clean the gun otherwise you might have a failure.

I've run Tulammo through many of my handguns too and haven't had problems but again its dirty ammo and you need to be diligent in cleaning.
 
As far as I can tell, there are only three contributors to this thread that "get it".

The worst part of Tulammo is indefatigably this issue of the bullet itself. Not the case. If you are worried about steel cases on your extractors then you are missing the point.

Extractors are cheap.

Please read this post again:
@Mobuck
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.
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I think it is funny about how horrible the idea is that steel case ammo could break or wear the AR extractor.

How much does an extractor cost? How difficult it is to replace an extractor what tools are needed and how long does it take?
About ten bucks or less, any idiot can do it with no tools in about two minutes.

So basically how much money can you save plinking or practicing with steel case ammo over a long period of time? Enough to buy how many extractors?

I have news for you. If you shoot an AR a lot no matter what ammo you use you WILL break or wear out an extractor.

I don't see the problem even if you have change extractors every 1,000 rounds. Or if you use one extractor just to shoot steel case and another extractor when you leave the range to use with your duty or self defense ammo.
 
The US military did a test on barrel wear on the .30 caliber service rifle using copper jackets and steel jackets.

They determined that there was no real difference.

And those were the days before chrome bores.

My USGI barrel on my M1a went through about 10,000 rounds of Port steel jacket ammo and it was still a 2 MOA barrel.
 
If you have to ask in the first place..... shouldn't that answer your question already?

I have shot it.. I am not opposed to shooting it... but knowing the differences and what to expect from it is key.
 
Data Point:

100% of every military issue cartridge shot in any SKS or AK-47 or AKM or RPD *anywhere in the world* since about 1950 has been with a steel bullet jacket.

100%

As in EVERY cartridge fired in anger anywhere in the world with a Russian military rifle since before most of us were born. Don't you think that just maybe the Russians have figured out how to do this safely and without damaging anything?

Nobody has ever seen a barrel "wear out" due to shooting it.

You would think that guns were made of sugar candy to listen to some folks.



Willie


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Thousands upon thousands of rounds through my AK rifles and I hadn't come close to wearing them out.

I'm not too concerned about barrel wear and/or extractors. At this point I only shoot brass though because I reload.

If I didn't reload I'd be shooting Tulammo.
 
Uhh.... <sigh>... No.

The extractor bends to a certain dimension to snap over a rim and that dimension is the same *no matter what the cartridge is made of*. The extractor has no clue what it is snapping over. The coefficient of friction between the hardened extractor and a case of either steel or brass will be pretty close, no extra stress there. An extractor is working well within it's elastic limits (IE: it bends and then returns to it's original dimensions and form) and if it's properly designed and hardened it will have essentially an infinite life. Try cutting an old extractor from anything with a file, and then use that same file on any steel case that you find. The file will *barely* scratch an extractor, but will cut that case like butter. The hardness of the extractor is likely 10X the hardness of the (annealed) case.


Do as you please, but... don't make up reasons that just aren't so. I'd trust the opinions of the Soviet Army before I'd trust the opinions of guys who have shot a box or two... several billions of cartridges shot over the last 60 years and I bet they have the metals figured out pretty well...


Willie
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Uhh... < sigh> ...Yes.

I'm not refering to how far the extractor "distorts" to snap over the case rim. I realize that it is the same no matter the case material. I'm stating that the surfaces of the extractor that come in contact with the case will wear FASTER if the case is steel instead of brass. As others have pointed out extractors are cheap and easy to replace. I'm not trying to tell people that steel cased ammo is EVIL and that no one should ever shoot it. I'm just chiming in by saying that I personally do not like the idea of "rubbing" steel against my steel guns...annealed or not. So MY choice is not to use steel ammo. others will do as they see fit. :)
 
<--- is the OP...and yes, I was asking about .223 Tula (75 grain HP)

I got 2 boxes (40 rounds) today...cost me $8 total

will use it this weekend and report back
 
i think the simple answer is to buy a couple boxes of 20 and go see if your ar likes it or not. all my handguns and my bolt actions like it so when i picked up my delton ar last week i bought 3 boxes along with some brass cased ammo to put through it. from what i hear its really a matter of if your particular gun likes it. so far all mine have but that doesnt mean my new ar or your ar will. it does give us an excuse to go shoot though :D
 
Compare a brass case with a steel case in 5.56. Look at the rim where the extractor grabs on. The rim on a steel case is smaller than a brass case. There is less material to grab onto by the extractor. It is quite noticable.
 
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