Recently I experienced some ammo issues with steel case Tula 38 special ammunition - failure to extract from several of my revolvers (brief summary). I contacted the supplier, SG Ammo and explained the situation. It in turn referred me to the importer for additional information. This is the response from Conor Pastore
Grasso Holdings, Inc.:

Please see the below details regarding TULAMMO purchased before April of 2018. I will add you to a list of outstanding payments/refunds that can be made after the sanctions are lifted. Unfortunately, our hands are current tied any ammo imported from the factory in Russia before 4/30/18. To provide a little context, when Russian sanctions were made by the US last spring, there was an individual on the sanction list who had part ownership of the Russian factory. The sanctioned individual divested his ownership in the factory on 4/30/18. Therefore the US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has frozen all subsequent funds related to TULAMMO shipped before April 2018. If we try to pay our rep groups or refund customers like yourself on ammo shipped before that date, we will automatically be fined $250,000 by OFAC. We have vigorously been pushing for a release of these funds by the government in order to pay back our employees and take care of issues like this, but they do not see how these actions are hurting law abiding citizens of this country. I will add you to our list of contacts to reach back with once these funds are hopefully unfrozen, but in the meantime I wish I had better news to deliver.

Never heard of this news. I did some investigating. I found this info on the Treasury website: Announcement of Expanded Treasury Sanctions within the Russian Financial Services, Energy and Defense or Related Materiel Sectors.

So, no recourse for now. Does not really matter how much ammunition I have left. Just thought I would share. BTW - if this is incorrect forum, please forgive me and Mods, please move.

Regards,

Thanks for posting. I had contemplated buying a case of Tula or Wolf 9mm for a low price a while back, but I'm not sold on the steel case concept. So I passed. I'll continue to spend a couple extra bucks and buy American made brass ammo for the stuff I don't handload, 9mm ball and SD handgun ammo.

I'll shoot steel cased in an auto but never in any of my wheelguns. More likely to stick and can't reload the cases.

I'll shoot steel cased ammo in firearms from former Eastern Block nations that were designed for steel cased ammo. All other firearms get fed brass cased ammo. Just my personal preference.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

The steel used in such cases isn't much harder than the brass used as the standard. Concern over the material is unfounded. The concern should be, the ammo is low bid/low QC ****. Steel v. brass isn't the issue.

Lucky gunner did a test in ar15s with wolf vs tula vs federal to show the increased barrel wear from their bi metal jackets vs actual copper jackets. Obviously less of a concern with 38s instead of .223 but interesting nonetheless.

My 9mm x 18 PM loves steelies.

It was designed for them, after all.

But, my SIG gets brassers.

I bought one 50 round box of it until I saw where it was made.........

Now just south of the border or USA ammo.

The Tula 38 FMJ is some pretty spicy stuff, although it doesn't
claim +P. Seems to recoil harder than the Remington 125 JHP +P,
and prints tighter than the Remington, or any of my reloads.

It can get pretty tough to extract, after several dozen rounds. Never
had any problem with 9mm or .223 versions.

Off topic, but Lucky Gunner is involved (or will be) in yet another lawsuit for selling ammo to the Santa Fee shooter.


But that is a whole other topic



Santa Fe School Shooter Bought Ammo Illegally: Lawsuit | PEOPLE.com | PEOPLE.com

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Still Running Against the Wind

That is going to be a tough one to defend.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

Firearms aren't "designed" to shoot steel, brass or aluminum cased ammo. The case material has absolutely NOTHING to do with the design specifications. Shoot whatever you want, but please don't promote false logic.

We don't allow Tula ammunition in the .38/.357 revolvers students use in our NRA Basic Pistol class. We had the same experience as the OP; difficult extraction. The stuff runs fine in my Makarovs, AK47, SKS.

Steel cases stick in chambers because steel does not have the elasticity properties that brass cases have. Once the steel case expands upon firing it stays expanded resulting in difficult extraction or stuck cases. When brass cases are fired they expand and then constrict back slightly allowing for what we think of as normal extraction.

I’ve seen many broken extractors and stuck cases in AR’s due to firing steel cases ammunition. Stick to brass cases if you want reliable service in non eastern bloc weapons

I have no problem with Tula Steel in my Ruger SR1911, CZ 75 D PCR. My sisters Walther would not eject Wolf Steel case.
I have only used brass in my Model 19.

...in my SKS. After all, it was designed with steel case in mind. I can't wait to feel the effects of another blipping shortage brought about courtesy of the US Government.

I tried reloading brass cases for the SKS, but it shoots them all over the range. I'll have to devise a brass catcher. I Swannee the SKS is as deadly from the ejecting cases as the bullets from the muzzle.


PS. Another embargo 'incident' happened when Bobby Fischer was to play a match with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia, which was part of the 'UN Sports Sanctions' at the time because of the countries break up. The US warned Fischer that he would be in violation if he played. He said, "Bump you." and played anyway. He lived the rest of his life in exile and had no love lost for the US. In that time he went from an eccentric to a criminal and lost the few marbles he still had, leading him to say the 9/11 attacks were a good thing.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

"Can't reload the cases".....Not if they are Berdan primed.........But otherwise....Back in the early 70's I was a lot poorer. I had a Colt LW Commander in 45 ACP. Had access to buy lots of the old steel cased Remington-UMC steel cased military ball ammo......I reloaded those steel cases over and over till they were lost or gone.

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S&W Accumulator

Ive been reloading Wolf Steel cases for my 45 ACP's that are boxer primed. The reloads run fine. ANy input on what "issues" I should be looking out for?

+1 for me. And while I’ve done it, I don’t even like to use it in my Glocks.

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Some Might Say.

So, what/where is the "ban" information?

I use fired Tula .38 cases for carpenter bee loads. Seem to size
and crimp fine, in carbide dies.

The rest of the article pointed out that the money saved on the steel cased ammo EASILY paid for the replacement barrels caused by the roughly 3x barrel wear. However, I bet a Melonited or chrome-lined barrel would last a lot longer. I think they tested a run of the mill 4150 phosphated barrel.

My only surprise here is that this is happening in Texas.