The Tulammo .380 slugs i recovered showed that the rifling did not penetrate the copper plating down to the steel. That said, the high ratio of non-fires per box, in an LCP, will prevent me from buying anything from them under any of the other names used by that maker.

 

I do not know this for fact...but it's my understanding that steel case ammo is extremely hard on extractors. I stay away from it.
Maybe someone with more knowledge than me, can shed more light on this. :dunno:

 

My understanding is that the steal in Tula and other steal cased ammo is softer than the extractor of the gun. The only way that steal case ammo could wear out the extractor is that if it is harder than the steal used for the extractor.

 

opinions about it vary and sometimes depend in whether it's shot from a semi auto firearm or bolt. probably a dozen threads about it if you want to search. careful though, the only opinion less reliable than "a guy at my lgs" is that of an "expert" in an Internet forum.

my advice is to contact your manufacturer. and if you decide to use it, understand that many indoor ranges don't allow you to use it on their line. it sucks to find that out after get there because buying ammo at a shooting range is like buying food at an airport. (expensive)

 

I believe the "Steel casings being rough on extractors" is a myth. The steel used for the casings is softer than the metal of your extractors. It takes a metal of equal or greater hardness to damage another metal.

If that isn't the case, and it really is bad for your extractor, then just used part of the savings to buy a new extractor...

 

I am no expert on ammo by any means but I would agree with the quote above. I have fired thousands of steel cased ammo through my Ruger P90, SR9c and LC9 and Hi Point carbine. The only issues I have ever had with it were a few hard primers and worst was one squib in my P90.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the steel casings and damaging your extractor. I would be more concerned about cheaper ammo having poorer quality control which can lead to undercharged or overcharged cartridges.

 

NO; it don't hurt anything; it is just cheaper for the MFG and is non reloadable plus it doesn't handle long term storage in wet climates

 

The only steel case ammo I fire is the 7.62x54R for my Mosin/Nagant.

 

Agree with BlueNinjaGo on that being a myth. Shot about 1000rds from my .40 Sigma and 500rds. from my G17. No problems other than seperating the steel from brass to reload. Magnet works great. Just wish they made a brass magnet. Oh forgot 2000+ 7.69x39 from a MAK 90.

 

The range where I shoot has a big sign as you enter saying "Shooting of Steel Cased Ammunition is Prohibited at this Facility"...... You can shoot aluminum and brass only..

 

The reason for that is they make cash on the brass but steel is worthless. Mix the steel and brass the price goes way down.
Problem with most steel case ammo is the manufacturer is most often is cheap stuff

 

Bought one box of Tula .40 S&W from WW and tried it in my M&P. I will NEVER do that again. In fact, I've got 30 more rounds if anyone would be willing to pay for the shipping cost, it's yours...I'm serious. PM me if you're interested.

 

Ditto on that. bought a few boxes of this and that to break in my M&P 40c including a box of tula. Loaded two mags of tula, first mag every other one failed to feed, they shot fine but just got stuck on the feed ramp. Second mag all of em fed and shot fine but I was done with that trash for then. Everything else (brass) has went flawless since. I'll prob finish the box off sometime but not really one to shoot steel anyways.

 

Frequently steel cased ammo will be coated with lacquer to keep it from rusting. The only problem I am aware of is that the lacquer will coat the wall of your chamber. If you don't give it a good cleaning, when you switch to brass cased ammo the lacquer will stick to the brass and may cause extraction issues.
Also older surplus steel case stuff may have corrosive primers.
Just give it a good cleaning when you are done and all should be fine.

 

Wolf stopped using lacquer for a while now. They use a polymer based coat or something along those lines.

 

Caleb Giddings, who writes the 'gun nuts blog' is testing it out and has run hundreds of wrounds thru his Glock with no problems so far. Check out his blog at Steel Cased Ammo Test: Another off week update | Gun Nuts Media

Looks OK so far.

 

I don't think so but that's my opinion

Sent from my DROID RAZR

 

Watch this video:

The Truth About Wolf Ammo - YouTube


That said steel is the only thing I shoot with my AK, for obvious reasons...but I have shot Tula out of my AR with no issues. It's dirty stuff, but it's cheap for some (inaccurate) plinking.

 

Man I use wolf a lot in my ar and it runs fine? By fine I mean no jams and accurate. Now granted it is filthy but I haven't noticed a huge difference at +/- 100yds

Sent from my DROID RAZR

 

I've not experienced any problems with steel-cased ammo in my handguns. Relatively low pressures compared to rifle ammo is probably why.

My SKS eats the commie-bloc steel-cased ammo like a kid eats M&Ms... no problem. And while I personally don't run steel-cased ammo through my AR's, I've been in training classes and shot next to people at the range (as recently as a couple of months ago) who have had problems with ARs running steel-cased stuff. The only problems I've witnessed are stuck cases - hardly damaging to the gun, but inconvenient and annoying as all get-out. Even more so if your instructor is one Mr. Pat Rogers and you tie up the class for even a minute with problems due to steel-cased ammo (potentially earning you an "MC" or a "That Guy" award).

 

You know, never really had any problems with steel cased ammo.

Most recently shot a box of 50 Tul Ammo 124gr. 9mm, through my Kahr CM9 with zero problems.

 

i forgot to add that i had also bought one box of Tulammo .45 when i got the .380. The Colt series 70 1911 has fired thousands of rounds, and did break the extractor off firing the first magazine of Tulammo. Coincidence or not, thats when it broke and I threw out the rest of the box.

 

The range I frequent won't allow steel cased ammo for several reasons, and they are all economics:

#1 Can't be re-loaded, so they can't re-sell the recovered cases.

#2 They must be separated from brass and nickel/brass cases, or the scrap companies will discount the value of the scrap.

#3 They must use one of their hourly paid employees to separate out the steel cased shells.

#4 They figure every box of steel cased ammo is a box of ammo they did not sell.

As the famous TV saying goes "follow the money."

 

Re # 2 and # 3... the range I belong to must be really high-tech. They use magnets to separate out the steel cases... hardly any more effort than sweeping up the brass in the first place. Ain't science wonderful?

 

Cheap com-bloc weapons shoot cheap com-bloc ammo without problems. For my expensive US guns, I reload and rely on US brass ammo. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

 

Why do facilities prohibit shooting steel cased ammo?

 

I actually just talked with my range on the phone just now. The steel-cased ammo is fine. They prohibit bullets with steel in the core on the bullet jacket. The reason is that the steel sparks when it hits the backstop and can cause range fires. The guy said it has actually happened.

 

Actually there WAS a real reason why older steel cased ammo was tough on extractors.
It had nothing to do with the cartridge cased being made from steel though. The cartridge case steel was much softer than the extractor steel (which was annealed and therefore comparatively soft)

The reason why older steel cased ammo was tough on extractors was that it was originally lacquered as a rust preventative.
The lacquer would liquify when the barrel chamber heated up and then it would quickly harden again. That old lacquer was akin to shellac.

SO....extractors had to work like the devil in order to yank those sticking cases out of the barrel chambers and that would sometimes snap the extractor head.

I'm best guessing that most all NEWER steel cased ammo is no longer lacquered and so should be just fine.

I would stay away from the older stuff though.

 

Good explanation QKShooter. I always wondered myself, thanks!

Also had no problem out of hundreds of rounds of 1970's 5.45x39mm steel cased surplus in a Saiga though where tolerances aren't as tight as a handgun though.

 

I bought a box of Tulammo to prove my Kimber would eat anything. It gobbled up this garbage too. But I had a lot of fire coming out of the barrel and unburned powder. Dirty too. Not worth it to save $3 per box. Back to WWB for this guy.

 

I am not certain when exactly when the older type lacquered steel cases stopped being made. There will always be some lots of the old stuff turning up though.

 

Debunked!!!!

Check out the Box o Truth educational zone #18.... Conclusion is use brass or steel, just don't mix during a range session.

They also baked the lacquered casings for a ridiculous time at temperatures well beyond what your going to get unless your going cyclic..... The lacquer doesn't melt off guys. Like I said, google box o truth.

That said I've shot thousands of steel cased ammo through my ar15s, lacquered and not. I can hit a foot squared steel plate at 200 yards extremely reliably and rarely have any issues (jam, squib, etc). They happen but not very often, and then I welcome them as a training opportunity.

I still wouldn't use them for self defense, but they are great range rounds.

As others have already said most of the horror stories are "from a guy" who heard it from another guy who read it on a forum.

I love the stuff, mostly because I can't afford paying nearly .50 cents a round for brass ammo that does the exact same thing.

Until someone does a more definitive test with proof that it damages extractors or that lacquer melts (it doesn't) I'll continue shooting almost twice as much as I would with brass.

Of course, all of the above is worthless if your gun just can't run it. Some just can't reliably digest it, others can. Luckily both my ARs and my M&P eat it like candy.

Last note, I placed 5 rounds of tulammo 223 and 9mm into a cup of water, submerged for 5 minutes. All rounds fired without incident and all 5 223 rounds hit my foot squared steel plate at 200 yards. Good enough for me!!