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  #1  
Old 12-10-2013, 08:23 PM
vito vito is offline
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Default cheap ammo at Wal-Mart

Went into the local Wal-Mart today and bought 3 boxes of 50 of 40S&W at less than $15 a box! Of course it is Russian made Tulammo, steel cased FMJ.
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Old 12-10-2013, 08:59 PM
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Guys here in the Atlanta area are using Tula in 9mm and .45 with absolutely no problems. Sure makes range time more affordable.
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Old 12-10-2013, 11:05 PM
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My range won't let me use it. As a matter of fact the went through my gear bag a took out the 3 boxes I had. ( given back yo me when I was done ). Got to find a new range.
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Old 12-10-2013, 11:28 PM
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Why wouldn't they allow it?
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Old 12-10-2013, 11:30 PM
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My wife tried a box of Tula in her BG380 and 2 out of 50 would not fire on the first trigger pull. They fired the second pull. All other brands run with no problems. One way of looking at it is it gave her some her practice with malfunctions. Larry
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Old 12-10-2013, 11:57 PM
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Not saying the following is representative of the experience with Tulammo, but since folks are saying how they've never had problems, I thought my .380 experience might be of interest.

In the course of shooting a number of different rounds through the new-to-me Browning/Beretta/FN BDA this past July, I shot some some Tulammo 91-gr FMJ and expected blah performance. Similar ammos had been running from 950 to 1050 fps from this gun on that trip; I anticipated the Tula would be on the lower edge of that range. The range was 90°F and at 5950'>sea level, about 10% humidity. The chrono had been working perfectly with previous rounds and with the .22 LR round I use as a standard.

My first shot with the Tula read 1422 fps.

This struck me as crazy; certainly an error. No way that happened.

I erased the shot and took another.

1229 fps. Then 1186.

Then 1412.



Here are a couple of the cases - blurry, alas


I took the ammo out of the mag, and proceeded to a WWB load, which chrono'd perfectly reasonably. Just for kicks, I ran some known-performance .22s thru the SR22 - the chrono was working fine.

Soooooo . . . I sealed up that box of .380 Tulammo and thought maybe I'd try it later in my locked-breech LCP. Never have. It's sitting in my garage still.

Gun was none the worse for the wear - I fired another 50 or so rounds through it after that, with fine results, and many rounds since then. I don't know whether the Tulammo just didn't like the heat or whether it's insanely overpressure. The velocity spread of those four rounds was pretty amazing, all things considering, but then so were the velocities. Folks have speculated that this box received the charge intended for a 9x19 - guess it's possible.

I've not heard of this before, and most Tulammo I've used has been pretty much on the ****** end of performance - not the psychotic side. Maybe this was just a bad lot. I mentioned this over on INGO forum and heard some similar stories, though.

I'd be shocked if Vito's ammo did anything weird - but this was a good reminder to me to keep an eye on the chrono and other performance indicators when shooting less expensive stuff that's not coming from makers we know to operate in legal jurisdictions that take liability seriously.
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:07 PM
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Default Tulammo Ammo

I have a S&W M&P .40 C that began having ejection issues, sent back for repair(excellent service) and returned...The customer service rep advised me NOT to use Tulammo or any other "cheap" ammo in this weapon as it would damage the loading and ejection mechanism. So, I have several boxes of this stuff now sitting in the closet, since I can't return it. Haven't fired it more than 50 times since repaired and seems to be repaired.
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Old 10-28-2016, 08:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mailman43 View Post
I have a S&W M&P .40 C that began having ejection issues, sent back for repair(excellent service) and returned...The customer service rep advised me NOT to use Tulammo or any other "cheap" ammo in this weapon as it would damage the loading and ejection mechanism. So, I have several boxes of this stuff now sitting in the closet, since I can't return it. Haven't fired it more than 50 times since repaired and seems to be repaired.
Any decent firearm should handle steel case without issue or excessive wear. I would shoot steel case all day through that M&P and send it back as many times as it needed it until S&W got the point
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Old 10-28-2016, 09:31 PM
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Quote:
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Why wouldn't they allow it?
Probably, like many ranges, they sell in bulk the brass shooters leave. They don't want to bother sorting out the steel.
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Old 10-28-2016, 09:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mailman43 View Post
I have a S&W M&P .40 C that began having ejection issues, sent back for repair(excellent service) and returned...The customer service rep advised me NOT to use Tulammo or any other "cheap" ammo in this weapon as it would damage the loading and ejection mechanism. So, I have several boxes of this stuff now sitting in the closet, since I can't return it. Haven't fired it more than 50 times since repaired and seems to be repaired.
That wouldn't be the first time I have heard complete bull from a S&W CSR.
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Old 10-28-2016, 10:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brasky View Post
Any decent firearm should handle steel case without issue or excessive wear. I would shoot steel case all day through that M&P and send it back as many times as it needed it until S&W got the point
Considering that brass is expanding and shrinking every firing cycle, to seal the chamber & stop the flow back of gasses..........
what does steel do? I don't actually know, but it's something I'd wonder about.
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Old 10-29-2016, 12:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LAA View Post
Considering that brass is expanding and shrinking every firing cycle, to seal the chamber & stop the flow back of gasses..........
what does steel do? I don't actually know, but it's something I'd wonder about.
The US has used steel-cased ammo before, and Winchester is selling some now.

Russia built the Makarov over 60 yrs ago, it's built around steel-cased ammo, and it's generally regarded as one of the most reliable pistols around.

Instead of saying "don't use cheap ammo", S&W should be designing guns that can handle the available ammo without problem.
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Old 10-29-2016, 06:18 AM
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Where do you find this "cheap ammo" ? I'm always looking for a bargain.
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Old 10-29-2016, 07:02 AM
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Steel case ammo has a long history. A great deal of WWII U. S. .30 Carbine and .45 ACP ammo was steel cased, and it worked just fine. Steel case .45 ammo was in use by the U. S. military into the 1950s. The Germans also used steel case 8mm Mauser and 9mm ammunition. The only problem with the WWII steel case .45 ammo (and I have fired many thousands of rounds of it) is that fired cases tend to stick in the chambers of my M1917. So I use only brass cases in the M1917. It's quite a bit stronger than brass, but corrosion can be a problem under some circumstances. Earlier in WWII, there was a case corrosion problem with it during the Pacific campaign, mainly because of the shipping containers. There was a crash program to recall it and re-package it in sealed shipping containers more immune to dampness and salt air.
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Old 10-29-2016, 08:41 AM
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Back in WW Nam, the guns were sloppy. If you want to shoot cheap steal ammo through your gun, go right ahead. I see way too many things happen to good guns from people who try to save a buck. BTW, sorting the steel is not the problem at a range. It's the sparks. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.
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Old 10-29-2016, 08:49 AM
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This for the what it's worth department. I get to see 1,000s of rounds fired. We have now about a 10% failure to fire with this ammo. Here's where it gets good. ALL failures to fire were with striker fired guns. NO failures to fire with guns with hammers. Big hammer WHOPS firing pin, gun goes bang. Now for some reason this is not the case with frame mounted firing pin revolvers. Hammer falls, gun goes bang. This problem is solely with striker fired guns and of all manufacture. This is what I have seen here, not heard of or read about. We have a Folgers coffee can with the unfired rounds. We don't try to shoot them again because it doesn't matter if they go the second time. These are range only rounds and YES great malfunction drills.
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Old 10-29-2016, 09:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scoobysnacker View Post
The US has used steel-cased ammo before, and Winchester is selling some now.

Russia built the Makarov over 60 yrs ago, it's built around steel-cased ammo, and it's generally regarded as one of the most reliable pistols around.

Instead of saying "don't use cheap ammo", S&W should be designing guns that can handle the available ammo without problem.
I did some more research here. Brass has an expansion rate over steel, approx. by 1 1/2. That means better expansion to seal the chamber, and the fact that it quickly shrinks to allow the casing to eject.

As noted a few replies down, many guns were built with more slop in tolerances to allow for dirt, etc..............as with military. They keep working, but don't expect consistently tight groups on the target.

Slop means lower accuracy. 35+ years ago, I worked in a large machine shop. Computer operated machines were in their infancy, and used punch tape on the CNC mills. Today's computer operated machinery can easily turn out parts that consistently fit tight.

For S&W, I suppose its a matter of producing guns that maintain accuracy, versus slop, to allow for cheap ammo.
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Old 10-29-2016, 09:50 AM
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I don't know. It's kinda like buying a set of golf clubs, then looking for the cheapest golf balls available. Your game is going to suffer.

Save a couple of pennys per round, not really worth it. Unless you shoot thousands of rounds a year, then you should probably get into reloading anyway.
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Old 10-31-2016, 08:55 AM
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I've shot Tulammo in my 40's, 9mm, and and my BG 380. The BG is the only one that's had a problem with it...occasionally. And like the poster above said, I use that as training for immediate action drills.

I've done a lot of research on it and I think it's ok to use. A little more dirty than brass because brass is more flexible and seals the chamber better, but other than that most firearms will not have a problem with it.

Fox
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Old 11-01-2016, 05:59 AM
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This is just me, but I've never tried/shot steel cased ammo in any of my guns. I buy factory brass cased ammo when on sale and I reload my own also. Again, that's just me-I'm frugal, but not cheap LOL :-)
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Old 11-01-2016, 08:34 PM
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I scored some of the $38 Federal ammo in WalMart couple weeks ago. Also had a $15 giftcard from work, so I got 100 rounds of brass cased 45 ammo for $23. Cheap ammo to shoot then have the brass for reloading.
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Old 11-11-2016, 12:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Engineer1911 View Post
Where do you find this "cheap ammo" ? I'm always looking for a bargain.
Which one? Tula is available in my local Walmarts and also online. Personally I don't buy it but nothing wrong with Russian ammo in general. I keep a supply of steel case x39 for my SKS.

Strictly anecdotal but I seem to see a lot of "trouble" threads that involve Tula ammo... but I could say the same about WWB.
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