TulAmmo 9mm Steel Case Ammo Review

Paul,

I've never used Tulammo and was looking around for information on them. I found your review very informative and helpful; thank you.

One curiosity I was hoping you could address is whether the polished steel-case round is now bare steel and subject to corrosion? In other words, was the polymer coating layer removed from the polishing job?

Thanks again,
Merritt

Ammo that has a rough surface on the case may not seat completely into the chamber, and then move forward a tiny bit when struck by the firing pin.
This could help explain the misfires.

I have used a rock tumbler, with corn cob media, to clean brass used for reloading.
It can also be used it to gently tumble surplus ammoor other old cartridges that had turned dark from age. 
I wonder if this process could gently polish the steel cased ammo enough so as to allow smoother feeding, full chambering of the round, & easier extraction.
No manual labor required, just time. Allow a lot more media, or fewer rounds, when tumbling loaded ammo to reduce contact between cartridges.

I've noticed my weapon is much "dirtier" after shoot 100 Tulammo vs, PMC.

Regarding the shortage of 9mm ammo .... that's "banner's" back door gun control.

tulammo is coated with a hard varnish--to keep the steel casings

from tarnishing.a tight gun will have trouble shooting these rounds.

a loose gun can handle them better;

the varnish gums up the works-----

I have shot 45 ACP Tula in my Glock 36 with no jams or failures. Also in Springfield Armory 1911a Stainless and Beretta PX4 Storm. No jams or failures to eject. I'm not one to overly clean a handgun.
I have 2 9mm. A Taurus which would shoot rocks covered with cement, and a Ruger 9C that's pretty sensitive. I have fired 9 mm Tula through both of them with no Jams and no extraction issues. I have problems with lead Semi-wadcutters and lead in general. Bullets are unstable or the barrel leads up. So I am faced with keyholing and trashcan size target patterns or unacceptable leading. The Tula was a refreshing break. I'm saving about half the cost by reloading and casting my own bullets. A lot of effort for guns used for target shooting and not carried.

I recommend the Tula in both 45 ACP and 9 mm. Just clean the gun if you are going to use Tula as carry ammo.

Tulammo also has steel in the bullet.( try it with a magnet) and thus , many indoor ranges won't allow it..I personally don't have any issues running Tulammo in any guns a Bersa thunder9, 2 glocks, and a SW sigma ...the tulammo works just fine but I do notice its a bit dirtier after several hours on the range with it as opposed to midgrade brass ammo like WWB, Blazer or Remington UMC ....I actually have had much more issues with the Federal CRAPion they sell at Wal Mart...i get at least 2 ffe and several real obvious "light loads" out of every 100 rds of the Federal lowgrade stuff.. .as for the packaging..Herters 9mm ammo comes in an even smaller package of 50 rds..same idea as the tulammo yet even smaller profile.. I got 20 boxes at Cabelas , and save the boxes for when I buy bulk loads of 500 or more rounds.. its stacks better in the safe and the range bag....

My experience with Tula is nearly identical to David's comment in Oct 2012.

I just picked up a Beretta Px4 Storm last week. I've put a few hundred rounds through of brass cased ammo (Win white box and Federal 115 gr) flawlessly.

Then I tried out the cheap Tula steel ammo and my magazines HATED it. I am using 10 round 9mm magazines in the full size Px4 (NY bulls****). The ammo slides right out of the top of the magazine once you get 6 in there. After fiddling and observing, it seemed pretty obvious what was happening: the rough texture of the steel casing compared to the brass was creating friction down in the magazine. As you push the spring down to load a round, instead of the spring normally pushing the ammo upward against the top of the magazine like usual and them staying in place, the friction from 5+ rounds in the mag works hard against the spring and the upward force is lessened. Therefore, the top one or two rounds you load are only loosely pressed against the top of the mag, and slide right out.

I had success helping the spring force the ammo upward by tapping the bottom of the mag with the heel of my hand. The ammo fires successfully when you actually get a round chambered -- but that's the issue. I had to tap rack and bang the hell out of these Tulas and will not be putting anymore through my Px4.

150 rounds with 2 glocks 19 g4 no jams no problem !!! Realiable ammo for practice recomend this anytime !!!

Went through 300 rounds of tulammo with not a single problem. Both guns I used with this ammo are Turkish made Canik 55s, one is CZ75 clone, the other knock off of Walther P99. I did have 2 stove pipes out of 100 with rem. steel cases fired before, but not with Tulammo. I think it is a good ammo.

I've run Tulammo through my Hi point C9, no hate please, with no issue.  It's mainly for self defense and target practice. Prefer brass shells, but the steel casings go through it perfectly without any jams.

I have a beretta 92fs and px4 storm in 9 mm.  They both eat up the tulammo with no problem.  I only use for the range and clean the guns after every use.   I would recommend for practice.  

I bought 4 boxes of this ammo because of the good price. Never had any trouble shooting cheap ammo through my M&P9C before so I figured I should have no trouble with these. With the first 2 boxes I had feeding issues on almost every round. The previous casing would eject just fine but the round coming up behind it would get stuck. So I figured I just finish off what I had left and never buy them again. The second round from the 3rd box misfired and somehow jammed the slide. It won't budge more than a fraction of a centimeter. So until I can get to a gunsmith tomorrow I have a live round stuck in my pistol. I'll never buy this amunition again.

John,

Sorry to hear about your experience.  I have been shooting aluminum cased ammo which tends to be almost as cheap if not chaper than the steel cased stuff.  At least at Walmart it is. Federal makes some, as well as other companies.  Only negative is you can't reload it like brass.  Thus far not a single misfire with the Aluminum stuff.

I also had problems with the TulAmmo 40 S&M in my new Sig Sp2022 I've gone to the range twice using Brazer Brass 200 rounds each time. Had not one problem. And I cleaned my gun when first bought and everytime i come home from the range. Now the 3rd time to the range I had purchased 200 rounds of TulAmmo the first 2 magz went semi smooth had the slide stick back a couple times. Then the next 2 magz it would really get stuck back for a sec and then jam up. And that day I had a friend record me with my slo mo on my iPhone and I noticed the shells barely popping out in the gun about 3-4 inches. If it was any less they would have been falling out. I'm not sure if it was a bad batch of ammo and maybe not enough gunpowder or what but it drove me nuts. So I went and bought another 50 round box of winchesters and used all 50 rounds with no problem went real smooth. So I'm not sure if I will ever buy TulAmmo after that experience with them. 

I looked at the ballistics listed on the side of the box of Monarch steel case 9mm ammo and the velocity and energy were far higher than on their brass case ammo. This scares me. This has to mean higher than normal pressures--I think we're talking Plus-P-Plus. I think this is basically military ammo marketed to civilian  shooters. I wonder if this ammo was designed for use in sub-machine guns, which could be built to handle the higher pressures?  Go to Academy and put a box of steel case and a box of brass case Monarch 9mm ammo side by side and read the ballistics. The brass case is delivering ballistics comparable to a similar bullet weight in a .357 Magnum. I don't think 9mm pistols were designed to take that.

TulAmmo works well in my CZ 75O1 Tactical but works badly in my CZ 2075D Rami. 

My hipoint c9 chews tru tula ammo no probs at all not one jam or ftf stove pipe it shoots real dirty and has alot of flash out the barrel bit fires and cycles fine