Tula ammo

PNWPrepper · Jun 10, 2018

Really havent been wanting to do this, but is it worth it to buy tula 223 ammo? At 5$ a box or less its hard to argue for plinking ammo. What is everyones experience with it? Has anyone ruined a barrel from it? I read the lucky gunner article from a few years ago saying that tula ruined a barrel pretty quickly so that has turned me away from it. Any help is appreciated!

notazombie · Jun 10, 2018

Runs fine for me.

Joe13 · Jun 10, 2018

Worst ammo available - I won't even run it in my SKS.

Kruel J · Jun 10, 2018

Your extractor will thank you later for NOT running it in your AR. It's non-corrosive so I don't see how the barrel was messed up. But it's dirty and the steel cases aren't made to tight tolerances.

JustSomeGuy · Jun 11, 2018

I've probably run 50k rounds of the stuff in various calibers through some of my weapons and haven't had any more reliability issues with it than I've had with brass cased ammo. That being said, it's not great ammo. Using it pretty much doubles the amount of time I'll spend cleaning any weapon I've fired it from. With all of the numerous weapons I've fired it through, I've not found one that fired it what I would consider accurately.

Certaindeaf · Jun 11, 2018

commies can't make no good ammo. lol

MrMillspecer · Jun 11, 2018

I have used Herters steel ammo and have shot 2k rounds or so. I haven't noticed any issues besides it being dirty and not as accurate as most. But its not as bad as many say for me anyways and has been reliable. I don't put it in my W.O. AR but do in my cheaper AR , I think it's great for practice. Don't leave them in a hot chamber or they can stick. No broken extractors yet but not a tough fix anyways. The extra cleaning is worth the cost savings for me. Try a box of twenty then get a case if you like it.

Joe13 · Jun 11, 2018

All of the steel stuff is dirty for sure.

I don't like the tulammo because it seems to be drastically different in the acccuracy department when I've shot side by side against wolf and golden tiger.

You can get the wolf or golden tiger for pretty much the same price and it's much more accurate IMO.

PNWPrepper · Jun 11, 2018

Joe13 said:
All of the steel stuff is dirty for sure.

I don't like the tulammo because it seems to be drastically different in the acccuracy department when I've shot side by side against wolf and golden tiger.

You can get the wolf or golden tiger for pretty much the same price and it's much more accurate IMO.

Where can i go to buy wolf and golden tiger? I cannot seem to find any local. Only tula:/

titsonritz · Jun 11, 2018

Tulu is underpowered, filthy garbage. The best "cheap" ammo for 223 is Wolf Gold IMO.

titsonritz · Jun 11, 2018

PNWPrepper said:
Where can i go to buy wolf and golden tiger? I cannot seem to find any local. Only tula:/

Get it online
gun-deals.com - User-Submitted Gun & Ammunition Deals

I'll run Russian zoo ammo in my AKs not my ARs

Joe13 · Jun 11, 2018

PNWPrepper said:
Where can i go to buy wolf and golden tiger? I cannot seem to find any local. Only tula:/

Online like was posted. 1k of wolf was $189 with free shipping last I looked.

11Charlie · Jun 11, 2018

Can a Mod fix the title of this thread and add IS JUNK to the end please.

Boboclown · Jun 11, 2018

Its dirty, and it doesn't expand which makes it even dirtier. Some ARs can run steel case ammo fine, but eventually the chamber will get dirty enough to cause some issues. Also, if someone tells you lacquer coating will melt, just walk away. They don't melt. I've shot my AK till it was too hot to hold and it didn't melt the lacquer, and the luckygunner test got it hot enough for cook offs and the lacquer didn't melt.

That being said, if you're deadset on steel ammo go with any other brand. I don't even run tula through the AK. As for barrel wear, you'd save enough by shooting steel ammo you could buy replacement barrels and ammo.

Kruejl said:
Your extractor will thank you later for NOT running it in your AR. It's non-corrosive so I don't see how the barrel was messed up. But it's dirty and the steel cases aren't made to tight tolerances.

Bimetal jacket+5.56=More wear on barrel. Interestingly enough, they do less gas port erosion wear than Federal did. That, or they just wore it out so much you couldn't see the port erosion.

MrMillspecer · Jun 11, 2018

Ive seen the lacquer melt in DizzyJs AR during a torture test. So your wrong clown.

Boboclown · Jun 11, 2018

MrMillspecer said:
Ive seen the lacquer melt in DizzyJs AR during a torture test. So your wrong clown.

I've never seen it melt. I've rapid fired the AK to the point you can't even hold the wood handguard (and couldn't even put the barrel itself on anything at the range during cool off), and it didn't melt. Luckygunner rapid fired their ARs till there were cook offs and it didn't melt. I have never seen it, nor has anyone showed any proof (no pics or videos) of the lacquer melting.

Its easy to mistake all the dirty fouling it leaves behind as lacquer I suppose, but there is more evidence of it not melting than melting. If lacquer melted so easily, any military using steel cased ammo would have stopped using it already (they didn't btw).

MrMillspecer · Jun 11, 2018

Boboclown said:
I've never seen it melt. I've rapid fired the AK to the point you can't even hold the wood handguard (and couldn't even put the barrel itself on anything at the range during cool off), and it didn't melt. Luckygunner rapid fired their ARs till there were cook offs and it didn't melt. I have never seen it, nor has anyone showed any proof (no pics or videos) of the lacquer melting.

Its easy to mistake all the dirty fouling it leaves behind as lacquer I suppose, but there is more evidence of it not melting than melting. If lacquer melted so easily, any military using steel cased ammo would have stopped using it already (they didn't btw).

I almost think he was shooting Tula. He was seeing how many rounds without cleaning it would take. He left one in a very hot chamber and let it set a few minutes and it was froze solid. i watched him do the mortar move to clear it. I think it was around 600 rounds in a cheaper AR, and it really had problems with a gunked up chamber after that and he stopped shortly after. I think if he wouldnt have left it in he would have gotten a few hunded more rounds without choking. I highly doubt many will do mag dumps ever like he does to test his equipment. And I wouldnt mention it if i didnt see it first hand. Maybe he will chime in, but he usually avoids the silly crap.

Hes done over 1000 rounds of crap ammo without stoppages in other ARs. And not letting it set in the chamber.

Did you or luckey gunner let one set in the chamber after several mag dumps ? Did you shoot over 600 rounds in the same AR ?

Boboclown · Jun 11, 2018

MrMillspecer said:
I almost think he was shooting Tula. He was seeing how many rounds without cleaning it would take. He left one in a very hot chamber and let it set a few minutes and it was froze solid. i watched him do the mortar move to clear it. I think it was around 600 rounds in a cheaper AR, and it really had problems with a gunked up chamber after that and he stopped shortly after. I think if he wouldnt have left it in he would have gotten a few hunded more rounds without choking. I highly doubt many will do mag dumps ever like he does to test his equipment. And I wouldnt mention it if i didnt see it first hand. Maybe he will chime in, but he usually avoids the silly crap.

Hes done over 1000 rounds of crap ammo without stoppages in other ARs. And not letting it set in the chamber.

Did you or luckey gunner let one set in the chamber after several mag dumps ? Did you shoot over 600 rounds in the same AR ?

He LEFT it in the chamber? That isn't the result of lacquer melting (and if it was grey it wasn't lacquer), its because while steel doesn't expand like brass it will eventually expand if left in that hot chamber.

Due to it not expanding as brass does, gas does get into the chamber and receiver causing more fouling. As you let the steel case sit there it will eventually expand and cause an issue for extraction. This happened with polymer coated cases as well in my experience.

MrMillspecer · Jun 11, 2018

Boboclown said:
He LEFT it in the chamber? That isn't the result of lacquer melting (and if it was grey it wasn't lacquer), its because while steel doesn't expand like brass it will eventually expand if left in that hot chamber.

Due to it not expanding as brass does, gas does get into the chamber and receiver causing more fouling. As you let the steel case sit there it will eventually expand and cause an issue for extraction. This happened with polymer cases as well in my experience.

You know some use Polymer and some use Laquer ? You really dont think that crap builds up in your chamber ? This is cheap foreign ammo. Sure you also get more fouling as well because of lack of expansion. The outside case looked like smeared plastic crap that stuck on his.Could a round with extra coating possibly slip pass qc or the formula was off ? It just couldnt happen with Russian ammo. lol Glad you shot the exact same stuff and it went well.

How many rounds did it take for your conclusion ?

How about this , I wont let it set in my hot chambers and you can let it set in yours .

Boboclown · Jun 11, 2018

MrMillspecer said:
You know some use Polymer and some use Laquer ? You really dont think that crap builds up in your chamber ? This is cheap foreign ammo. Sure you also get more fouling as well because of lack of expansion. The outside case looked like smeared plastic crap that stuck on his.Could a round with extra coating possibly slip pass qc or the formula was off ? It just couldnt happen with Russian ammo. lol Glad you shot the exact same stuff and it went well. How many rounds did it take for your conclusion ?

How about this , I wont let it set in my hot chambers and you can let it set in yours .

Tula stopped offering lacquer after people complained, so they went to polymer coating, wolf did for a time and now offers both (for 7.62x39 at least). Tula is just polymer coated now, and you can tell by looking at the case. Grey=Polymer, green=lacquer. If it was tula, it would have to be old ammo.

Steel, while not expanding as fast as brass does, DOES in fact expand. It WILL expand if it is left in the hot chamber again. This isn't an issue of polymer vs lacquer, this is an issue of a really dirty chamber and the case being left in long enough to expand. You might rip the coating off trying to get the stuck case out, but its a result of the case expanding in a chamber that is fouled up. If he didn't stop, the case wouldn't expand and that fouling wouldn't have hardened up enough to keep it in there.