Strange Tula Ammo!

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Panzerschwein

Panzerschwein

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Hello everyone! I've got a PTR-91, and it's a hungry beast. .308 ammo is expensive, so I decided to hunt for some cheap ammo to fire in the gun. This lead me to Tula steel cased ammo. I bought 200 rounds from an online vendor, and when it arrived today I was surprised to see that the bullets were of a silver coloration, not the usual copper color:

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This is most strange to me, I've never seen this before from Tula ammo! What is it? Is this just an exposed steel jacket?? Wouldn't that be hard on my bore? I am a bit worried that this ammo will hurt my gun... I knew Tula ammo was cheap, but if they're so cheap they've stopped putting a copper jacket on their rifle round I don't know...

What do you guys think of this? I assume this is a new thing, because with a basic google images search all the Tula .308 I've seen does have copper jacketed bullets. What gives??

Looking forward to your thoughts guys! :)
 
They never had a copper jacket on the steel jacket bullets.

All they had was a copper wash on the steel to prevent rusting.
It was never thick enough to do anything to protect the bore from the steel jacket.

I imagine your new ammo has something like it, only a different color.

Put a drop of cold blue on one.

If it's bare steel, it will blue.

If it's a protective coat to prevent rusty bullets, it won't.

rc
 
Do you all think this will damage the bore of my PTR-91 semi-automatic .308 Winchester/7.62x51mm roller-delayed blowback operated rifle?
 
It's fine. They change lacquers/coatings from time to time. Your gun will shoot it fine, it's a combat rifle.
 
Doesn't the roller delayed chamber have fluting? If so, I'd wonder how well that steel case will function in such a system. Either too much blowby or stuck cases.
 
The West German DAG .308 with 80's headstamps had silver colored bullets. I never paid much attention to it, it shot fine.
 
@spazzymcgee

Oh, I can only imagine the great 4" groups it will deliver at 100 yards.

Personally, whenever I find an H&R Handi Rifle in .308, I'm just gonna stick to bulk military ammo. Tula is fine for handguns, but for rifles, I just don't think it's so cheap it wouldn't hold up to long range shooting.
 
Wally world sells brass cased zqi nato ammo for 50 cents per round (at least in some places)
I'd suggest that instead. If you don't reload, sell off your once fired brass for even more savings.
 
I'm sure the steel in your barrel is much harder than the bullet metal. They have fired how many billions of the same type ammo in AK's?

There will be no damage.
 
Bimetal*refers to an object that is composed of two separate metals joined together. Instead of being a mixture of two or more metals, like alloys, bimetallic objects consist of layers of different metals.

The projectile features a bimetal bullet jacket with lead core.*
 
Wally world sells brass cased zqi nato ammo for 50 cents per round (at least in some places)
I'd suggest that instead. If you don't reload, sell off your once fired brass for even more savings.
Click to expand...

My recommendation as well. The Turkish ZQI is quality ammo, M80 ball made to NATO spec. It's clean, it's consistent, and it's about as accurate as ball ammo can be. It's also high quality brass for reloading.

Their M855 was good stuff, too, but wally world quit stocking that after the debacle with ATF. Also nothing wrong with the 9x19mm, although it is pretty warm stuff and has hard military primers; can beat on the micro 9s pretty good, and not all striker fired guns have enough oomph to get 100% consistent ignition (yes, even Glock)
 
I've gone through probably 500rnds of ZQI though my XD9 Sub Compact without a single hiccup. I went through probably 300rnds of the M855 through my 20in HBAR Wilson Combat AR and again no issues so if you could find the 7.62x51 at your local Walmart do that unfortunately my Walmart doesn't stock ZQI anymore
 
HammsBeer said:
Doesn't the roller delayed chamber have fluting? If so, I'd wonder how well that steel case will function in such a system. Either too much blowby or stuck cases.
Click to expand...

I shoot tons of Tula 9x19 in a MP5/Hk-94 clone with zero issues with cycling or reliability (ammo related, at least...it is pretty magazine finicky).
 
I've been shooting bi-metal stuff from an Oberndorf HK-91 for years, no issues....ever. It just keeps going, with an annual cleaning if we even remember.
 
308 steel case Tula?

Dangerous garbage. Had two case head failures out of a single box of 20. Blow out at the extractor groove. Thankfully it was in a Garand-style action and occurred after the peak pressure impulse (blew gas/smoke a good deal, but wasn't violent enough to damage anything & never unlocked since it sprung the bolt closed). The case was either so thin & soft it blew out at the cut where the case was thinnest (more on that below), or was so crystallized & brittle the tension of the extractor claw tore the cheap metal while under a bit of remaining pressure.

I sectioned a couple of the good & bad cases, and they looked like freakin' balloon head shells. Cheap jerks are saving half a gram of steel per case or something, on a case as high-pressure as 308 :fire:

TCB
 
A PTR-91 isn't a good gun to be using steel cased ammo in, as the chamber is fluted to help delay extraction long enough for the pressure to drop to safe levels for the roller assembly to actuate. Steel and brass have differing expansion/contraction qualities which do not seem to affect most guns that do not use fluted chambers. The jacket is a non-issue. Military ammo has had cupro-nickel jackets in many different calibers, by many different arsenals.
 
"A PTR-91 isn't a good gun to be using steel cased ammo in, as the chamber is fluted to help delay extraction long enough for the pressure to drop to safe levels for the roller assembly to actuate"
Supposedly it usually isn't an issue, because steel does not adhere to the chamber walls like brass does (now, lacquered cases are likely another kettle of fish altogether) and doesn't expand as much, either. If anything, the flutes are likely less necessary in that situation. Still worth mentioning that some PTRs have shallow or no fluting, which makes any operation a more sensitive proposition.

Anyone worried about cupro-nickel jackets should examine Swiss weapons. Barrels are always perfect, ammunition they fire is always c-n jacketed GP11 ball. Poor cleaning practices or lack fire discipline are the reasons why barrels wear out (well, non high-end match barrels, anyway). I suppose some guns have historically been made with softer barrel alloys than others, and suffer accelerated wear compared to a modern hammer-forged quality barrel, but that's not the fault of the ammo.

TCB
 
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