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Tul Ammo

17K views 43 replies 25 participants last post by  randkl 
#1 ·
I was wondering what everyones opinion was stocking up on Tul Ammo of any caliber was a good idea. My theory behind this is that its cheaper there i can stock up on it easier. This ammo would be a last resort Shtf stock of ammo, either for bartering or for protection. Just a FYI i don't hoard up all the ammo i can get I'm just trying to be prepared.
 
#4 ·
I've tried some in .223 through my Rock River Arms 5.56 worked well with no issues. Ran dirty but I clean my weapons quickly (old Army habit). I have heard some have had problems in AR's but a lot of those were .223 chamberings not 5.56. I would at least run a couple hundred rounds with it through the weapon it is intended for before I made a decision to stock up in any real numbers.
 
#5 ·
My friends, family and myself have had so many problems with Tul Ammo that I would never use it unless it was literally a last resort. Even then, I'd carry all the negative things in thwe back of my head and I'd probably be constantly distracted. It's like, they just forget to schedule the quality control people to come into work and all the crap ammo goes in with the good.

I'm sorry, but even for stockpiling I'd get less of reliable ammo rather than more crap.
 
#6 ·
I want some, but i wouldnt be able to use it. All the ranges near where i live are indoors, and the steel core could damage their facilities so its not allowed. I have an xdm and it chews anything.
 
#7 ·
Tula Ammo, along with the newly resurrected Herter's brand, is simply more steel cased, cheaply produced Russian ammunition that has been flooding the market in this country. A lot of this is due to the rising cost of non ferrous metals, (Copper, Brass, Lead), that is used in ammunition production. Companies are simply looking for a cheaper way. Even Hornady is now following suit and producing a line of steel cased, non reloadable ammunition in both .223 and 7.62 X 39 MM. At totally ridiculous prices I might add.

Guns like the AK-47 have been designed and built from the get go to digest steel cased, corrosive ammunition. They all run well with it. Other American made weapons seem to have issues with it. For one thing it is all filthy. In a close tolerance weapon like an AR-15 that can, and ofter does cause a multitude of issues. Yet many seem to use it without too many major problems.

For people like myself who reload heavily, steel cased ammo is useless. The most valuable component in reloading is the boxer primed brass cartridge case. These can still be had very inexpensively from many sources. In time that may change, which is why I'm currently acquiring as much as possible. I'm looking at brass cases today like Silver change in the late 60's. It's only going to get more scarce, and more valuable as time passes. The only thing holding me back is storage space. If I had more I'd buy more as it has an unlimited shelf life.

If I didn't reload I would still shoot brass cased ammo and save the brass. You can always sell it if you accumulate enough of it to someone who does reload, or else use it yourself if you choose to reload at a later date. If you shop for ammo carefully you can still purchase brass cased ammunition in bulk in the more popular calibers like .223 and 9 MM for not much more than the big ticket stores like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops sell the Tula and Herter's crap for.

For example Wal-Mart still sells Federal Champion 9 MM 115 Gr. FMJ ammo for just $10.47 a box. This is for brass cased, Boxer primed, fully reloadable ammunition. I just recently purchased 2, 1,200 round cases of M-855 IMI 5.56 MM ammo from Wideners for just $360.00 per 1,200 round case. That was including delivery USPS Priority Mail in just 2 days with zero sales tax. There may come a time in the future that all of this Russian steel cased stuff will offer more of a savings than it currently does, but for now using it in expensive firearms is akin to running cut rate regular in a new Corvette. False economy, nothing more. Bill T.
 
#8 ·
Fired a couple of hundred rounds through my M1 Carbine and the bro-in-law's, too, a couple of weeks back. No duds and no jams. It worked and it worked well. I have another order in for 1,000 more rounds along with some other calibers.

Going to try their .308 through a couple of FR-8's in a week or so. Looking forward to that.

rich
 
#13 ·
That's 15,000 rounds fired through that gun without cleaning. I think it's an important point to include that tid-bit of info.

The carbon build-up seen in this image is due in large part to the fact steel doesn't seal against the chamber walls thereby allowing carbon to blow past the case into the chamber. Clean your rifle every 500-1000 rounds and you'll be fine and you won't see anything nearly like that in terms of accumulation of carbon.

I doubt many folks here will fire 15,000 rounds of ammo through their guns without cleaning it. At least I hope not.

Here's what an M16 bolt/carrier looks like after 200 rounds of Wolf:



Hardly anything excessive in terms of carbon build-up. It has a lot more life in it before it needs cleaning.
 
#19 ·
While I would not rely on TulAmmo for "social" ammunition, it makes an economical training and plinking choice. I have shot a good deal of Tula and other Russian steel cased ammo through my AR with no ill effect.

My Mossberg ATR, on the other hand, now has a brand new extractor because of steel cased ammo. I would stay away from it for use in sporting guns like this one.
 
#20 ·
I bought a spam can of Tula 9mm. The ammo fires fine, but for some reason I can't get more than 20 rounds of it in a 33 round Glock magazine. The rounds are either just slightly out of spec or the polymer coating is "sticky" causing them to bunch up in the magazine when the spring is depressed past the 20th round.

The casings on the Tula 9mm are nearly identical in material to the casings on the Wolf and Brown Bear 7.62 x 39, so all the Russian ammo is probably coming out of the same factories with different brand names on the boxes.
 
#21 ·
That is a good point worth mentioning.
That's a good point worth mentioning? That's a good point worth mentioning????

ROFLMAO!!!!

I think a "good point worth mentioning" is the ***15,000 rounds*** part that you don't even seem to be acknowledging. You post a post with a "this is typical of what steel cased Russian ammo produces in AR-15 rifles" and when called on it, you ignore it totally and go on about how it smells bad?

"This is typical" fits Gladius' post, not yours, and you totally ignore it?

You got owned, boy.

rich
 
#22 ·
I think a "good point worth mentioning" is the 15,000 rounds part that you don't even seem to be acknowledging.
500....5,000....15,000..... The stuff is dirtier than then the crotch of a homeless guy's underwear, and smells about the same! ROTFLMAO! (You love typing that in so I though I would too.) Why can't you absorb this little bit of fact much the same as everyone else can? Dirty is dirty. You know, the same way you guys are always claiming "better" is always "better". I love the way you guys carry on about buying the best in regards to "Top Tier", then try to save a few bucks on ammo by shooting the cheapest $h!t on the market. Bill T.
 
#23 ·
I have used tula 9mm, 45, 380 in my pistols with no problems. I have used some tula 223 in my home built AR's with out problem. I use only Tula and wolf in my 7.62x39 AR I built and have had zero problems with it. You do need to change out the firing pin and hammer spring for enhanced ones for the 7.62x39 to function flawlessly becuase of the deep set primers.
 
#24 ·
given a choice, id much rather use silver bear then anything else. the zinc plated steel case is at least more corrosion resistant, and feeds much better. tula is just uncoated wolf. its bare steel.

i recently bought a few boxes of tula just to try, and found this: IT DOES NOT FEED WITH PMAGS AT ALL. the bare steel creates too much grab on the plastic lips, and i could not get a single round to chamber. i had to smack the butt on the table to force it to close....fired, ejected, then would not feed a new round. ive had similar results with gold bear and pmags. but, they would feed fine with USGI aluminum mags.

i loaded up all 6 or so of my pmags, then had to unload them all again, as the ammo was useless with them. i just happened to not bring any metal mags with me that day. i then shot some old lacquer coated wolf -not new polymer- and they feed/shot fine with pmags.

i typically buy cheap russian ammo just for plinking, and if i dont feel like saving brass for someone. if i had to choose, id buy silver bear exclusively, were i forced to stick to russian.

if you want cheaper ammo, look into reloads. BVAC sells once fired 223 for typically 10 cents more per round then any russian, and are mostly lake city brass.

my personal scale on quality would be:

new US made
BVAC/other quality reloads
silver bear
wolf
gold/brown/tula
 
#25 ·
500....5,000....15,000.....
Like I said, my brother in law and I put a hundred rounds each through two M1 Carbines a couple of weeks back. He was the one who told me about it since I hadn't been to the CTD website in a year or so. We have some .45APC, some 7.62x39, some .308, and more .30 Carbine on order as we speak. Should be here tomorrow, I hope. I'm hoping they eventually put out some .38 spec, some .357, and some 7.62x54, too.

As to "dirty", I don't go 200 rounds without cleaning, let alone 15,000. I think I'd hate to be cleaning yours for you. My M1 Carbine, after 100 rounds, was no more dirty than with S&B ammo....and the TulAmmo is half the price. I think I'll stick with it. You don't? More power to you, then. More for me.

rich
 
#28 ·
I can't imagine why, I don't shoot that crap? Bill T.
Nope, but you said 15,000 rounds was "typical" between cleanings. So which is it? 200 rounds, perfectly fine.....15,000 rounds dirty. What's the cutoff point where TulAmmo goes from ok to "don't use this crap".

I guess I don't have much reason to put much stock in your opinion on this ammo since you admit you've never used it. You're simply parroting some other guy's opinion you found on the web. I'm beginning to wonder why I'm wasting my time.

rich
 
#30 ·
IM, Cheaper Than Dirt has .30 Carbine in that new TulAmmo line they've had for a few weeks. It's polymer coated, full power FMJ stuff. Cycled fine in our two guns here. No duds and no jams. It has a faint grey/white smoke when fired. It's $12 per box of fifty....half the price of the second least expensive S&B. I picked up four boxes a couple of weeks back just to pad our .30 Carbine ammo supply that's woefully lacking, but the bro-in-law and I ended up popping it all off a couple of Saturdays back. We ordered more. It's the only low priced .30 Carbine I've ever seen. Turned the .30 Carbine from a limited ammo fun at the range gun to a full fledged survival arsenal gun.

rich
 
#33 ·
Why is that? I love my M1 I'm stocked to the hilt on 9mm, .223, 7.62x39/54, and 22. When I take my M1 to the range I go buy enough ammo for the day. I dont get why we neglect our .30 carbines!
The cost of decent bulk ammo was the prob here. S&B was $25 per fifty round box and that was for FMJ. Buy soft point hunting ammo and you were popping off $1+ rounds every time you pulled the trigger. 7.62x39 was/is $5 per twenty so those are easy to stockpile. It just makes more sense to stock more of the stuff you can get cheaply than a few boxes of really expensive stuff that has no real niche. The TulAmmo brand puts that M1 Carbine round in the 7.62x39 price bracket now. Buying a thousand rounds of FMJ for common use and a few boxes of soft point for hunting makes sense now.

BTW thanks for letting me know about the ammo on CTD!!!
I was tickled, too. This last ammo order was $38 shipping, though. They have low shipping sales once or twice a year, though. Going to have fun then! Also, when you shop with them, only use one type of stock numbers in your cart....numeric or alpha numeric. The numeric numbered stock comes from one of their warehouses and the alpha numeric the other warehouse. If you put both in the same order, you pay jacked up shipping rates. Better to make your order into two orders.

Be safe, sir!

rich
 
#34 ·
Please show me where I ever said anything about 15,000 rounds between cleanings??? Read before you quote. Bill T.
I do read....got a sixth grade edumacation and all....and *you* were the one that posted the 15,000 rounds dirt pics and declared them to be typical dirt. You declared 15,000 rounds dirt to be "typical", in your opinion, not I nor anyone else. I also noticed, yet again, that you still have yet to admit to being in error. When pointed out that you made a simple mistake, the first time, you ignored it and went off on how it smelled like crap. When pointed out *again*, you went off on how dirty dirt might be. When asked again, you stated that you don't use the ammo in question anyway. Simply put, nothing you've said so far in this thread has any impact on the topic in any way other than to say it smells diff from US ammo.

While I admit that a lot of folks here would say that *my* opinion is worthless, too, hell, even I think so, too, sometimes, at least I *do* use the ammo in question and I laughed my ass off when I saw your pics and your replies. It's laying over in the corner right now. See it? I put 100 rounds of TulAmmo through my Inland carbine and it took all of what, five mins to clean it? Stripping it and reassembling it took longer than cleaning it. The trigger group pin and trigger group are always stiff to get out.

I've wasted enough time on the topic, though. I'm not going to argue a topic with someone who doesn't even use the product.

Be safe and take care, sir!

rich
 
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