Tulammo 357 Magnum problem

I never use steel-case ammo in my semi-autos. When I saw the price on this Tulammo revolver ammo, I figured there could be very little risk.

My revolver is a S&W 386NG, .357 Magnum, aluminum/scandium frame, titanium cylinder, steel barrel in a shroud, key lock. I don’t keep track of how many rounds I’ve fired from it, but the number is about 500, commercial and my own handloads. The rounds were probably a near-even mix of .38+P and .357 Magnum of various power levels.

I loaded seven rounds of Tulammo 158-gr FMJ (see photo) and fired one, no problem. I fired the second one and felt no problem but then found I could not pull the trigger, thumb-cock the hammer, nor turn the cylinder by hand. Not even by simultaneously turning the cylinder while pulling the trigger and hammer could I get anything to move. Not even a wiggle. It was as though the cylinder was jammed hard against the blast shield or barrel.

The hammer was down and the trigger was in the correct place for the revolver at rest. The cylinder latch seemed to move a little less than normal, but it moved, but the cylinder would not move when the latch was forward. There was not the slightest wiggle in it.

No bullet had moved forward to jam against the barrel or frame. The remaining five were well back in the chambers. Looking at the back of the cylinder we did not see any shell case touching the blast shield. Similarly, we saw nothing at the front of the cylinder, as if something was going into the chamber throat. That bullet HAD been fired because we had two holes in the target. A hand mirror and small flashlight confirmed there was nothing in the barrel or the chamber behind it.

From previous experience with ammo jams I knew that the gun could not be shipped to a gunsmith that way, and it would be very hard to find ANY gunsmith who would even touch it. With that in mind one of us put all 10 fingers of both hands on the cylinder and attempted to turn it, while the second person simultaneously pulled back on the hammer and trigger.

At first, nothing. After wiggling the cylinder back and forth we felt it loosen a tiny bit. We kept that up until the hammer came back and we were able to lower it and finally open the cylinder.

All shells, fired and unfired, came out using the ejector rod, though considerable force was required. We closed the cylinder and the lockwork seemed to work fine, and the gun appears to be in time.

I wondered if the key lock had somehow moved into lock, but that wouldn’t explain the inability to open the cylinder. Neither of us recall seeing the indicator flag in view. When operating correctly with the lock engaged, the cylinder can still be opened, and wiggled when closed.

I have not fired it since and don’t intend to until I have a clear understanding of what happened, and know that there is no problem. Otherwise, it goes back to S&W for a checkup.

Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Extra note: Neither fired shell will go back into the chambers. They jam about 2/3rd's of the way in.

Don't want to diagnose a problem without seeing the gun, but my guess is the ammo. Prior to using the steel cased rounds, you had fired about 500 rounds of various brands without issue. Load it with the steel case stuff, and wham, problems on the second round, so.......

(OK, I'll take a guess - a round was binding against the breach face / recoil shield. Have had the same exact thing happen with brass that had overly thick rims, or "proud" primers)

Larry

Harkrader said:

When I saw the price on this Tulammo revolver ammo, I figured there could be very little risk.
Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Click to expand...

Well, you know what they say right, ya get what you pay for. Not worth the risk shooting that junk foreign ammo. Don't want to sound negative, I hope it doesn't cost you a lot to get it fixed.

Undoubtedly the ammo is out of spec and jamming up the gun. Tulammo is ****. Take it to a gunsmith and never fire this Russian garbage again.

I don't mean to preach -- I did something similar with my new 617 -- used some cheap off-brand Mexican ammo in it. It was slightly large, and caused operation problems. (Some Mexican ammo, like Centurion, is great.) Lesson learned.

Bad ammo, good gun.

Definitely sounds like something was jammed against the recoil shield. Maybe even both fired cases and the combination is why it jammed so hard?

High pressure, thin primer or both

After first ruling out a loose ejector rod. my guess is that some primer material extruded into the hammer nose hole of the recoil shield. This will surely lock up a revolver. The fix is easy provided you correctly identify the problem: Holding the cylinder release in the release position, give the cylinder a smart whack against a fixed wooden object like the edge of your workbench.

If a primer has extruded, the primer will show the damage as a portion of it will be sheared of by the forcible opening.

The included pictures are of the rounds I extracted from the gun. I seem to have deleted pix of the fired primers, but I can take more if someone wants to see them. The primers do not seem to have extruded, etc. I do wonder if, somehow, the firing pin stuck in the primer. The primers are not pierced.

Just curious, did the OP install the titanium cylinder? I was under the impression that NG series revolvers used stainless cylinders. The PD series used titanium. The rear sight on the pictured gun is consistent with a NG series. What's the scoop?

Adios,

Pizza Bob

Pizza Bob, I sent the PD revolver to S&W to have the titanium cylinder installed. I had a 386NG with that cylinder and did not see why they hadn't offered it in the PD. They seemed puzzled that I'd ask, but they did it for me.

Looks like a ti cylinder to me & both front & rear sights are what came on the nightguard series. It going to be interesting to find out the answer to this mystery.

Harkrader, I also concur that your most likely problem is that junk steel ammo. You didn't have a bit of problem until you tried running that junk in your NG. Stay away from all that cheap junk.

If you want to shoot some (relatively) inexpensive ammo, look to someone like Freedom Munitions, who sells both new and re-manufactured ammo. And they use brass, boxer primed cases and even if you don't reload they have some kind of brass credit program to save you a little more money on ammo costs. In 357 Mag, they have some plated 125 grain ammo for less than 30 cents a round and you can catch them with free or reduced flat rate shipping at times too. BTW, I'm not affiliated with them in any way; just trying to help you save some money and stay away from steel and aluminum cased junk in your expensive revolvers.

Muddocktor:
I had traveled to another state to shoot with some relatives and forgot to take my own ammo with me. Upon arrival we found 357 Mag ammo hard to find except for premium stuff. Soooo, I made the mistake of thinking the Tulammo for revolvers would not be a problem. I'd never use steel-case ammo in my auto-loaders, but - - -

If I'd had any more time I'd have ordered or driven further to get some better brand-name ammo.

I'll take the rest if you don't want them

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

PD or NG?
The gun that had the problem is the 386NG, the one in the photo of my original post, not the PD. I have both.
Just to repeat and clarify:
The NG was purchased with a stainless steel cylinder, which was standard. I wanted to put the titanium cylinder in it to save the weight on what is ALMOST a pocket gun for me. Sooo, to S&W, who did the swap for me.

So what you see in the first picture (original post) is my NG with the titanium cylinder in place. You'll also see the XS Sight System tritium front sight, Cylinder & Slide Extreme Duty rear sight with tritium tubes, and the rubber grips that were on it from S&W.

In the attached pic, the NG is on top, the PD, with Pachmayr grips, is on the bottom.

Can`t help with your problem , but I do know that the .357 Tula gets a LOT of Bad Reviews online.
Most of the complaints are due to cases expanding and sticking in Cylinders.
Regards , Pete

Hope everything is OK with the gun.

Re Tula ammo. I'm not going to put up any significant defense for it but I have shot a few rounds, maybe 40 or so of 7.62x39 and maybe 100 of 9mm w/o issue.

Having said that, I won't shoot anymore, not worth the worries. Don

I order a lot of ammo for my son and I from an online vendor. They have the Tulammo stuff in a variety of sizes. It just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper because I think no one is buying it. The reviews are terrible and caution about the cases splitting or expanding in revolver cylinders.

I will admit to being a sucker for discount bulk when I plan to shoot a lot. Sometimes to my own detriment. I recently ordered a bulk pack of 1000 rounds of 158 gr. FMJ remanufactured .38 Special made by a company called Military Ballistics Industries which seems to have pretty good reviews (far far better than Tulammo). Haven't had a chance to shoot any of it yet, but now I'm a little worried. I'll let you know....

Harkrader said:

Extra note: Neither fired shell will go back into the chambers. They jam about 2/3rd's of the way in.

Click to expand...

The case expands when it fires. Brass springs back a lot, steel expands and stays out which can jam on the cylinder. The fired cases may be bucking back against the breech face and "locking there". Hard to guess but steel case ammo has a bunch of different ways to jam guns.