Ok, I wasn't going to bring the Wolf ammo thread back up and figured I would start something a little fresher for the Tula.
In case you don't know of it, Tula ammo is sold through Cablea's as a generic 'Hunters Cartridge' in the .223 caliber. I have a Cabela's very local to me (2 miles) and a few months ago I was wandering through there and spotted it so I figured I would do a little research on it and pick up a few hundred rounds to give it a whirl.
The research was nothing more then general Google questions about it and looking through Wiki. I won't bore anyone with a lot of stuff so I will just say that i learned a few key points:
-Ammo is steel cased and made at the Tula ammo facility in Russia
-Steel cased FMJ rounds. Available in .55 and .62- I only have experience with the .55
-No known case seizure issues like the old Wolf that I could find
-Tendency to run dirt in the gun
-I found a few that complained of bad, missing or incorrect primers and bad bullet seating/crimps
For reason #4 I always inspect my ammo at the store. I have no problem opening up a box and looking at what I am getting. I found a total of 3 rounds (all from different 20 round boxes) that were bad thus far.
My initial buy was 260 rounds which @ $3.99/box cost me about $52. I took all this to a range and loaded it up in P-mags and ran it through my LMT gun which is chambered for 5.56 with a 1:7 twist, H buffer, PWS FSC 556 and about 7k rounds through the gun. Up until now I had been running Lawman xm193 through it for about 800 without cleaning. I took notes on how dirty the gun was for comparison then cleaned it and re-oiled using Slip 2000 making it a fresh start.
I took the first magazine which I loaded 10 rounds in just to get a first impression. I fired the first shots and noticed no issues and inspected the casings for abnormalities and found none.
I then loaded up mags for two serials of shooting. The first one was a 90 round session over 20 minutes. Several fast shots but most at a slow methodical pace. During that session I had no issues and I checked casings again during a 10 minute break and found no abnormalities.
After the break I took the rest of the mags and shot the remaining 149 rounds in roughly 5 minutes. This was done as quick 10 shot drills and transitions from target to target. At the end I left one round in the chamber and let the gun cool down as it was quite warm. What I was trying to do was see if I could get the round to seize in the chamber like the old Wolf would do. After the gun had cooled I shotgunned the lower so as not to have pressure on the bolt so I could gauge how much force was used to extract. The round extracted very easily with no indications of seizure due to coating.
Once I got home I pulled the gun apart to inspect and didn't really notice any difference as far as the ammo running dirtier. Though my comparative round count was much lower then what I was running.
I decided to start buying more of the Tula ammo and actually use it for flat range training days. Over the next 3 months I put just over 2,000 rounds of Tula through my gun with only one failure. That round failed to fire when the hammer fell. I just ejected it and kept rocking. Later I picked up the round and noticed what appeared to be a light strike. I dropped it in the gun, closed the bolt and it still did not fire. I chalk it up a bad primer.
This brings me up to 19 June where I attended an LMS Defense 1 day Carbine Course. I had still not cleaned the gun and ran nearly 700 rounds of Tula ammo through it. Total round count for me was 740 that day and I had zero issues with the ammo. Now at nearly 3,000 rounds I pulled the gun apart for a good inspection. I would say the gun is a little dirtier but nothing that concerns me. My idea of a cleaning is done in 15 minutes and it is basically pulling it all apart, wiping it down, a quick run through the bore then reassemble and oil..and thats not often.
What I did find was that I blew up one of my gas rings on the bolt. It never had a hiccup and I must have done it sometime within the last 2 months.
For me, it's good cheap training ammo. I am going through roughly 10k rounds a year and that can get pretty spendy so I will keep shooting this as long as I can.
If you are a percision shooter or one who doesn't like a dirty gun then I don't think this is for you. I have gotten consistent results with it's accuracy including this past weekend in hitting 7 out of 10 shots to the face on a terrorist target (paper, not people) from 200 meters in the prone unsupported with a Primary Arms micro 4MOA dot site. However if you are someone who is looking for a pretty good and cheap training round then this might just work out well for you. At only about $200 per/ 1k case The Tula Hunter's Cartridge in .223 .55 grain is a pretty good bargain if you shoot a lot.
Just some info I thought I would share![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
-Op4
In case you don't know of it, Tula ammo is sold through Cablea's as a generic 'Hunters Cartridge' in the .223 caliber. I have a Cabela's very local to me (2 miles) and a few months ago I was wandering through there and spotted it so I figured I would do a little research on it and pick up a few hundred rounds to give it a whirl.
The research was nothing more then general Google questions about it and looking through Wiki. I won't bore anyone with a lot of stuff so I will just say that i learned a few key points:
-Ammo is steel cased and made at the Tula ammo facility in Russia
-Steel cased FMJ rounds. Available in .55 and .62- I only have experience with the .55
-No known case seizure issues like the old Wolf that I could find
-Tendency to run dirt in the gun
-I found a few that complained of bad, missing or incorrect primers and bad bullet seating/crimps
For reason #4 I always inspect my ammo at the store. I have no problem opening up a box and looking at what I am getting. I found a total of 3 rounds (all from different 20 round boxes) that were bad thus far.
My initial buy was 260 rounds which @ $3.99/box cost me about $52. I took all this to a range and loaded it up in P-mags and ran it through my LMT gun which is chambered for 5.56 with a 1:7 twist, H buffer, PWS FSC 556 and about 7k rounds through the gun. Up until now I had been running Lawman xm193 through it for about 800 without cleaning. I took notes on how dirty the gun was for comparison then cleaned it and re-oiled using Slip 2000 making it a fresh start.
I took the first magazine which I loaded 10 rounds in just to get a first impression. I fired the first shots and noticed no issues and inspected the casings for abnormalities and found none.
I then loaded up mags for two serials of shooting. The first one was a 90 round session over 20 minutes. Several fast shots but most at a slow methodical pace. During that session I had no issues and I checked casings again during a 10 minute break and found no abnormalities.
After the break I took the rest of the mags and shot the remaining 149 rounds in roughly 5 minutes. This was done as quick 10 shot drills and transitions from target to target. At the end I left one round in the chamber and let the gun cool down as it was quite warm. What I was trying to do was see if I could get the round to seize in the chamber like the old Wolf would do. After the gun had cooled I shotgunned the lower so as not to have pressure on the bolt so I could gauge how much force was used to extract. The round extracted very easily with no indications of seizure due to coating.
Once I got home I pulled the gun apart to inspect and didn't really notice any difference as far as the ammo running dirtier. Though my comparative round count was much lower then what I was running.
I decided to start buying more of the Tula ammo and actually use it for flat range training days. Over the next 3 months I put just over 2,000 rounds of Tula through my gun with only one failure. That round failed to fire when the hammer fell. I just ejected it and kept rocking. Later I picked up the round and noticed what appeared to be a light strike. I dropped it in the gun, closed the bolt and it still did not fire. I chalk it up a bad primer.
This brings me up to 19 June where I attended an LMS Defense 1 day Carbine Course. I had still not cleaned the gun and ran nearly 700 rounds of Tula ammo through it. Total round count for me was 740 that day and I had zero issues with the ammo. Now at nearly 3,000 rounds I pulled the gun apart for a good inspection. I would say the gun is a little dirtier but nothing that concerns me. My idea of a cleaning is done in 15 minutes and it is basically pulling it all apart, wiping it down, a quick run through the bore then reassemble and oil..and thats not often.
What I did find was that I blew up one of my gas rings on the bolt. It never had a hiccup and I must have done it sometime within the last 2 months.
For me, it's good cheap training ammo. I am going through roughly 10k rounds a year and that can get pretty spendy so I will keep shooting this as long as I can.
If you are a percision shooter or one who doesn't like a dirty gun then I don't think this is for you. I have gotten consistent results with it's accuracy including this past weekend in hitting 7 out of 10 shots to the face on a terrorist target (paper, not people) from 200 meters in the prone unsupported with a Primary Arms micro 4MOA dot site. However if you are someone who is looking for a pretty good and cheap training round then this might just work out well for you. At only about $200 per/ 1k case The Tula Hunter's Cartridge in .223 .55 grain is a pretty good bargain if you shoot a lot.
Just some info I thought I would share
-Op4
