Yesterday evening I was in Wal-Mart picking up a few items with my wife before she left for the airport. Given that we were near the sporting goods department (i.e., we were only on the other side of the building), I happened to walk by the ammo display case. In a moment of brilliance, I picked up two boxes of Tula 180 gr. 40 S&W ammo and one box of Tula 230 gr. .45 ACP. All of this ammo was FMJ w/ steel cases.

I fired the .45ACP this afternoon in my S&W 625-2 at 15 and 25 yds. Results were excellent. POI = POA as with any other FMJ ball ammo. Later shooting across a farm pond resulted in normal hits on a medium sized pine stump sticking up at the edge of the water. The .40 S&W ammo was fired in my G-22. Results were again excellent. Function, etc., were identical to that experienced with Fed. Champion and WWB ammo. I did notice that it seemed slightly more difficult to load all 15 rds. in the magazines. Feeding and ejection were fine. Shooting across the pond I was amazed at how the rounds seemed to shoot relatively flat all the way out to the stump (a distance of at least 100 yds.). I usually shoot at a harrow blade that I spray paint with white paint so that I can see my bullet hits at whatever distance I am firing. I noticed that the bullet mark of this Tula ammo was very "black" compared to what I am used to seeing when using WWB or Fed. ammo. I thought that was sort of odd.

Recovered .40 bullets fired against the harrow blade were little more than lead smears on what was left of the bottom of the copper bullet. Recovered .45 bullets were more substantial... about 1 inch across and fairly heavy. I have no chronograph. However, judging from recoil and comparing POI with POA, I suspect that the velocity of these two loads is typical of nominal loadings by Winchester and Federal. Since it is significantly less expensive and since I have many thousands of pieces of brass for reloading, I expect I will be firing more of this Tula ammo until I am able to set up and begin reloading ofr my handguns.

As an aside... I also had my 4" S&W 686-1 in the car with a box of Rem. 125gr. JHP. I had sent my 686 back to S&W to have the bolt spring replaced and while they had it in the shop I also had them do a action job. The results are stunning. The single-action is delightful. The double-action is smooth and perfectly timed. I had just about forgotten how nice it could be to shoot a well fitted S&W revolver. I decide to finish the day by doing some nice double-action shooting at some thick steel plates picked up along a abandoned railroad line. Shooting at 25 yds., it was not difficult to get hit after hit shooting single handed double-action. I think this if I could only have one revolver, it would be very difficult for me to not take the little 686. It is just about perfect.

Hope everyone had fun today. Me... I have to take opportunities for shooting when they come along. Today gave such an opportunity. No telling when another chance will come along. Cheers!

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Tula ammo is the same as the formerly called Wolf, I have been told. There's this stuff called WMA or something also made in Russia. Wolf was a brand name, getting their ammo from Tula and Ulyanovsk and maybe another place.

I have been shooting Wolf (both Tula and Ulyanovsk) since 2002 or so and have always had good results with the pistol ammo. I had a bad lot of .308 once that had case failures, but have fired thousands of rounds of Wolf 9x19, 9mm Para, .45 ACP and .380. I think the whole thing with steel case being harder on extractors is unfounded, the steel in these cases is very soft and the "extractor failure" thing may have more to do with the earlier lacquered steel cases which sometimes would stick in the chambers.

Been shooting Tula .223 in my Ruger mini 14 and my Ar and it does well in both...It is not the same as Wolf brand and am now going to try the .45 in Tula.

How was extraction of the steel cases in the 625? I shoot a lot of weird stuff through my 625s but I am always reluctant to use steel cases. I do, however, reload the boxer primed steel and shoot it out of my Glock 21s without any problems.

Dave Sinko

Thanks for the report. I've been buying the white box Tula 7.62X39 for my SKS but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. Thought it sort of neat that Tula is now in the ammo business since my SKS is from Tula armory in 1954.

My much loved 625-2 has been fired exclusively with WWB 230gr. FMJ. In every respect, results have been simply excellent. Results with the Tula .45ACP were fully equal. My subjective impression was that the Tula ammo might have been a little bit more "snappy." But POI was identical at various ranges as experienced with WWB. I shot the ammo w/o full-moon clips as I do not have any clips. I used my finger nail to flick the empty cases out of the cylinder. For instances where my fingernail was not sufficiently strong enough, I just used the tip of my pocket knife. If I tapped the ejector rod to move the extractor star, my finger nail was almost always sufficient.

I have fired a wheelbarrow load of Wolf 5.56mm ammo in my COLT Hbar and in a little single-shot break action rifle owned by a church member. I've never had a single problem with Wolf ammo. This is the first time I've fired steel cased pistol ammo in a revolver or pistol. I am very pleased with the results. In my G-22, the case support of the chamber is such that I've never seen a .40 smiley on fired brass cases so I can't say these steel cases are stronger than brass cases. But it only stands to reason that steel would be stronger than brass. And in every respect, this Tula ammo was all anyone could ask of plain Jane ball ammo. I will continue to buy/shoot standard brass cased ammo. But I will most assuredly use the Tula ammo especially when I want to walk around in the woods/fields and do some plinking without having to try to recover my brass from the weeds, etc.

Oddly... the Tula ammo is boxer primed. Now... since we all know how nice boxer primed cases are for reloading... does anyone suppose that a little bit of experimentation is not in the future? Why if one can hot up some brass cased .45 ACP loads, just imagine what can be done with nice strong steel cases? Or, maybe I just need to sip some coffee, study my Bible and forget the experimentation. Who knows?

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Yes, study....there will be a test later on.

Bruce, your style of shooting is very similar to mine. Stumps, disk blades, rocks, you-name-it...punching paper pales in comparison. I've used those discarded railroad plates for years. They make very good 100 yard 'gongs' and pistol ammo hardly phases them.

Tula makes most of the military ammo for Russia. Then we would have to assume it is good quality. However, I would like to point out two things. First, the ranges I go to do not want or allow their patrons to use anything but brass casings. Most of the Tula stuff I have seen is not brass. Second, and more important.... and I am assuming most of you reading this are Americans.... there are many American companies who make good ammo, while Wal-Mart does everything possible to put American money in foreign businesses! Yes, they employ a lot of people (many of whom don't have much good to say about them), but they are selling YOUR country down the river! How much are you really saving by shopping there? Think about it!
Help SAVE YOUR COUNTRY!

I help out at an indoor range. We do not allow tula ammo not because of the steel cases, but because the jackets on the bullets are copper coated steel instead of solid copper. the steel jackets create sparks when they hit the steel backstop. This is a fire hazard when paired with unfired powder and shreaded paper targets that accumulates on the range.

I'm guessing the steel jacket is the reason that "Brucev" noticed a blacker mark when they hit his metal target.

Tula is not the only brand that uses steel jackets. When in doubt we check the customers ammo with a magnet. If the bullet itself sticks to it, then it is not allowed.

Kevin

Don't you have to pull the bullet first before testing it w/a magnet?

No. The rounds with just steel cases only won't stick if you touch the tip of the bullet to the magnet.

Kevin

Thanks for your explanation, Kevin.... Makes perfect sense.
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Still, the bigger issue should be whose economy we are supporting! Frankly, I am too old to start learning Chinese!

Thanks. I am just trying to figure how I can test it before I buy something because my local range started to disallow steel case handgun ammo.

But they will allow steel case ammo if the bullet doesn't have any steel in it. They can test it for you if you are not sure.
They said that the steel case will make bullet stick to the magnet. So they actually pull the bullet and cut it to verify.
(It is a bit too late if I had already bought the ammo.)

They actually have Tula ammo on the shelf but I didn't ask what caliber.
And it is ok to shoot steel case rifle ammo there.

I've shot Wolf, Tula, Baikal ammo for years without incident until......



My 1960 Model 25 with a Tula .45 round that didn't quite make it out.

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Pat Henson

That photo made my heart skip a beat. Just thinking what would've happened to that beauty if you'd pulled the trigger again...

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Andy

Patrick, your barrel is just too long for that load.

I agree with you 100%

Actually the steel case has nothing to do with it, as we have also come across some foreign military surplus ammo that has brass cases and steel bullet jackets, or steel bullet cores.

The trick is to use a weak magnet. Just touch the bullet tip to it and see if it sticks. If it is a powerful magnet it may attract the case from that distamce, but a weak one won't.

as if this is not confusing enough, we have also found ammo with steel cases that have a brass coating on them. they look just like brass, but will stick to a magnet.

Thanks Kevin
Will have to find a weak magnet and give that a try.

I have shoot close to a 1k rounds of Tula in my G17 no issues and at 9.95 a box its cheap. There really is only 2 diffrences between Tula and UMC, Federal and WWB and thats the steel case and steel core (its magnetic).

I fired 1000 rds of Tula .45 230gr FMJ through my S&W945 and 2000 rds of Wolf .223 62gr HP through my S&W AR. Here is my observations for both:

The good...
It is THE cheapest ammo on the market.
It is surprisingly accurate.
I can simply throw the cases away because it is not reloadable.
Both loads ran without a single failure through my S&W's after thousands of rounds. Not one hitch.

The bad...
The smoke and powder residue is excessive.
The polymer coating is a bear to clean from the bore! Soak in Hoppe's #9 for 30 minutes, then spin a nylon bore brush on a power drill in the bore until it's clean. Inspect with light and magnifying glass. DO NOT let polymer build up in the bore folks!
It is a weak load, not up to SAAMI pressures, I guarantee it. (That does mean low recoil though!)

NOTE: While my S&W's never had a failure, my Bushy and POF AR's will NOT run Tula or Wolf ammo. I had many FTE's and blown primers...MANY! If I leave a polymer coated round in a hot chamber too long, the coating bakes to the bore and the case will fail to eject. I had to soak the bore with the stuck case overnight in WD40, then tap out the case with a rod the next day. You have been warned!

Will I buy it again? No.

I shoot that stuff all the time. Our Glocks and M&P's love the stuff. I also shoot it in my Springer 1911's without any hicups.

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NRA Certified Instructor

Much of Winchesters white box ammo is actually made by Prvi Partizan , Sellier & Bellot and some rifle ammo is made by IMI.

Too many years patrolling the inter-German border. I might shoot a Russian, but not Russian ammo.

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CSM, U S Army(Ret) 1963-1990

The only Wolf, Bear and Barnaul ammo I will shoot is their 7.62X39 ammo in my cheap AK-47 and in my SKS. I have never tried Tula.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

I find these comments amusing.

Have you never heard of Ulyanovsk, Barnaul, Novoisbrisk Low Voltage Equipment etc...? Tula Cartridge Works isn't the only mfg in Russia you know.

You know what they say about "assuming". I've found Ulyanovsk's quality better than Tula.

Not a valid argument for everyone. My indoor range can care less about steel or alum cases and they are literally attached to one of the nation's largest ammo remanufacturer. The main reason ranges ban steel cased ammo is because they're too lazy to sort out their brass before they reuse or sell off their "booty" of brass cases left behind by shooters who don't keep their brass.

That's because 99.9% of all Russian small arms ammo is steel cased. I don't recall any Russians or Eastern Bloc countries complaining about steel cased ammo that's used in their pistols, sub-guns, Assault Rifles and machine guns. It seems to function just fine for them.

When you refuse to buy Russian made ammo (or Serbian, Czech, Italian, Hungarian, Indoneasian etc.) from a US retailer, who do you think you're hurting? It's the US RETAILER who you are screwing over because it is them that has purchased said ammo from a US wholesaler. If no body buys that foreign made ammo from your local gun shop then that gun store owner doesn't make any money to help pay his bills to keep his lease on the shop or on his house or pay his employee(s).

please buy all that russian **** ..comrade putin needs all of our american dollars....................

Since Wally World started carrying Tula I've shooting .223, .45, 9mm & .380 in my full auto guns. Buzzguns just love this stuff and so does my wallet!

I had 9 years (Continuous!) on and around Hof Border area supporting 2cnd ACR with 8 inch artillery! 1978 - 1987

Who needs earplugs or muffs when your deaf?!!

Ernie

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