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.