Looking for the REAL answer on TulAmmo

Some AR-15 rifles function 100% with steel case ammo. Some do not. If yours does well with it then shoot all of it you can afford and don't worry about the BS.
 
"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."


Nonsense.

The difference in hardness between the extractor and the hardest of steel cases is still on about an order of magnitude. Perhaps a basic engineering class in the properties of materials would be useful. You're not going to wear out a hardened steel extractor pulling out steel cases. This is just basic physics and engineering.

Once again, do as you please... but you are reciting old wives tales as fact when it just isn't so.


Willie

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In all of these "Steel case" threads, which usually appear multiple times per week in most any rifle forum.....half the contributors talk about wearing out the extractor, etc.

In none of those threads have I ever seen one person state their extractor wore out.

Lots of folks saying it is going to happen.....but yet can't find anyone that has had it happen to them.

Makes no real mind....just leaves more inexpensive ammo for those that can tell fact from fiction. ;)

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I dont know about wearing out an extractor or barrel. I just choose not to shoot steel cased ammo. 1. I think its filthy ammo. 2. It doesnt cycle my mini-14 when I have both 1911 style recoil buffers installed. Never had that problem with any other ammo including my handloads. 3. Im a reloader so the extra dollar I have to spend to get brass cased ammo gives me 20 pieces of brass I can reload 3-4 times. You guys that like it and shoot it. Awesome, Im glad you like it. I dont. Thats the beauty of America, I can do whatever and shoot whatever I want.
 
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.
Click to expand...

To satisfy my own curiosity, I just did some measuring. Four different brands. Measured at the rim diameter. .223 caliber.

Winchester white box brass 0.373
Lake City 5.56 M855 brass 0.375
Wolf steel 0.375
Tulammo steel 0.375

So the steel cased stuff I have here is the same as the LC brass and larger, not smaller, then the Winchester. Maybe it varies by lots?
 
Nonsense.

The difference in hardness between the extractor and the hardest of steel cases is still on about an order of magnitude. Perhaps a basic engineering class in the properties of materials would be useful. You're not going to wear out a hardened steel extractor pulling out steel cases. This is just basic physics and engineering.

Once again, do as you please... but you are reciting old wives tales as fact when it just isn't so.


Willie
Click to expand...

This is getting somewhat pointless, and really not helping the OP anymore, so this will be my last post in this thread. I understand that the extractors and other parts of the gun are significantly harder than MOST steel cases. Just because something is harder than something else does not mean that the harder substance will not wear when the two are rubber together. For instance waves wearing the surface of ledges smooth on a shoreline. My issue with using steel cases is that you do not know how hard a particular batch of steel cases is. There could have been a problem in the alloy. There could be a problem with the annealing process. You just don't know. the potential is there for you to buy a crate of steel cased ammo that is mutch closer to the hardness of your gun than it should be. When I use brass cases, I KNOW that no matter what might be wrong with the manufacturing process of the brass, they are not anywhere near as hard as the steel in my guns. As far as a "basic engineering class in the properties of materials" goes, I think my master's degree in structural engineering just about has that covered. Let's agree to disagree, and let everyone choose "steel or no steel" for themselves. :)
 
you guys made good points...and I'm not 100% sold one way or the other...but I did buy 2 boxes (40 rounds) and I'm going to fire them this weekend to see if there's an issue with my Spikes AR

thank you everyone for your input...definitely some really smart people on here with some extensive experience...and also I appreciate the passion you guys have for guns and ammunition...that's why I come to you first for advice

something I did notice from a video on youtube is a guy lubing his magazine loaded with Tula 223...he showed failures from the unlubed and then no failures from the lubed

here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWSGDBhHEHY
 
All the Russian made, steel cased 5.56 ammo is pretty underpowered compared to mil-spec type ammo the AR was designed to run. This leads to the action short-stroking and causing failures. What buffer do you have in that Spikes; their ST-2? If so you may need to run a lighter carbine buffer to get the gun to cycle properly.
 
tula ammo

I agree with sweetwater. The folks at Ruger do not want it used in new rifles as it voids the warranty.I tried to shoot my first couple of rounds of this stuff primers would not go off, found out later there was also no powder in the case
. I shoot only rounds made in the USA.:)Cliff
 
TacticalDefense1911, yes I am running the ST-T2 Tungsten Buffer

my Spikes has never had a single failure while firing (around 5k rounds to date) 556 and 223 brass casing ammo...so you may have a point

I may just abort firing the Tula
 
I have it in my "oh crap" stock. About a thousand rounds in 3 different calibers. I've shot a lot of it in AK, works as well as anything else and is cheap so thumbs up there. I've shot less of it in .223 but had no issues. Except the dirty part. It does seem that I pull a little more black stuff out after shooting it. Nothing a blast of gunscrubber won't take care of.

Seems fine to me for blasting away. Or plinking, to the more refined.
 
S&W M&P 15R

Any thoughts on this rifle it's 5.45 cal. It's obviously designed to shoot Russian surplus ammo. Just saying kind of makes you think.
 
ammo doesn't misfire, crappy guns misfire.

tulammo is steel cased ammo, meaning that the cases do not expand as much as brass leaving more space between the chamber and casing after a shot is fired. this small gap on a direct impingement or blowback gun like an AR or many pistol round carbines means that more unburnt powder will be introduced into the chamber and will cause more grime buildup over time. some guns have cheesier extractors than others that can be damaged from prolonged shooting of the harder steel cased ammo.

if your gun is well made the only thing you have to worry about is having to clean more often, if it's cheap...well most extractors are easy to come by and easy to replace, as long as the repair costs do not outway the amount you save on cheap ammo I would say go for it. I sometimes shoot wolf out of my AR, not often but sometimes, I have never had to replace an extractor and I clean often enough that I've never had a jam, my brother on the other hand snapped the extractor on his AR shooting tula ammo, he replaced the extractor... roll of the dice.
 
ok...so I just got back from the range

Tula 223 75 grain fired just fine from my Spikes AR...no failures at all but I think maybe a little less accurate than the Federal XM193F 5.56mm 55gr FMJ I usually fire...but Tula is frickin filthy dirty to shoot...I felt like Pig Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoon...a cloud of crud was everywhere around me

I'm gonna clean my AR very well tonight...and then stick with the brass

thanks again for all the input
 
It is as dirty as RIO shotgun rounds. Fired fifty rounds at a class where we went over proper cleaning and everyone was aghast at how dirty my Glock was after a few hundred rounds. It was easy to clean up though, just took a few extra passes through the barrel and q-tips.
Probably buy it if other cheap ammo was not available. I think I saved 25 cents/hundred against federal or WWB.
 
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