Tula Primers

[Hondo 60]

For those who've seen the Tula primers at Powder Valley, but were afraid to order.
I ordered 5k a couple of months ago & here's my thoughts on 'em.

1. They seat very hard.
If you have some brass with looser primer pockets, here's a great way to rejuvenate them.
Them suckers are TIGHT, you really have to give 'em some extra oomph to seat 'em.

2. I've had about 1% failure rate - where it just won't fire.
I've never had that happen with 10s of thousands of CCI, Win, or Fed primers.
(and yes, I'm sure they're seated properly.)

Any of them that won't fire, get dbl checked & tried 4 or 5 times to make sure it isn't just a "high" primer.

At $20/k for SPP, they're great for plinking, but I wouldn't trust 'em for SD/HD ammo.

Just my 2¢ - YMMV

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I ordered 10k last spring. True, they are a bit harder to seat. Out of a couple of thousand I have shot, I have had maybe 5 that didn't fire on the first strike. They all did the second time around...That fraction of a percent of misfires doesn't bother me a bit for what they cost. I'm hoping PV will do a free shipping and no hazmat sale again so I can order another 10k.

 

[GMAN]

I have only had problems with the SPP not firing, LPP have all fired.

 

[warnerwh]

I've had zero failures of SP primers out of about 500.

 

[Uniquedot]

I have experienced failures to fire with the sp tula's as well and will not buy anymore regardless of price.

 

[LiveLife]

Yes, they are slightly larger in diameter and will require extra effort to seat them even flush (seating them to proper depth of .004" below flush in once fired brass with tight primer pockets will be a challenge regardless whether you hand or press prime).

As to ignition, both Tula and Wolf LP primers (brass/bronze cup) have been consistent with no ignition failure for me in various pistols (even seated only flush). I have experienced some ignition failures with silver/chrome colored Tula SP primers (yes, they were properly hand primed to .004" below flush).

+1 on not using SP primers for SD/HD loads and although LP primers have been consistent, I only use Winchester primers for my SD/HD loads.

 

[kingmt]

I have used SP, LP, SR, & LR, without 1 failure. I perfer them over CCI because I have a hard time seating CCI & crush the primers on 7-10% of them. I ram prime & they are far better then CCI in my 3-4K piece limited experance with them

 

[cleanview]

i PICKED UP 4000 AT A GUN SHOW. I will get throught them and go back to winchester

 

[Jeff H]

I've only bought 1K SPP of them and haven't shot them all yet, but they seem pretty consistent so far. No failures yet. I intend on using them for informal steel shooting competitions so a misfire isn't the end of the world, it just makes my already bad times even worse .

I'm only using them in 9mm. The gun has a pretty strong striker spring. I don't think I would use them in 38spl or 357mag because one of my guns has a lightened hammer spring.

 

[jsnake]

I have been through 1000 so far. Ever so slightly harder to seat on a Dillon SDB. Barely noticeable. I have not had a single failure to fire. Will buy many more.

 

[Slamfire]

I bought a bunch of tula 7.62 primers from Graf's. I recently ran a primer test in 30-06 comparing Wolf and Tula to American brands.

I only fired 20 Wolf and 20 Tula but I was impressed with their low standard deviations and extreme spreads. They also shot very well.

I reamed my primer pockets to depth, as I shot the rounds in a Garand. Seating was no more difficult than CCI #34 or CCI 200.

I am going to shoot the Tula in competition this weekend, it will be cold, so lets see how they do.

 

[USSR]

bought a bunch of tula 7.62 primers from Graf's. I recently ran a primer test in 30-06 comparing Wolf and Tula to American brands.

I only fired 20 Wolf and 20 Tula but I was impressed with their low standard deviations and extreme spreads. They also shot very well.

Yep! David Tubb thought so highly of the Russian KVB-7 primers, that he bought 700,000 of them when they were first imported into the country. I bought 5,000 for 1,000 yard competition, and still have about 2,500 of them.

Don

 

[Slamfire]

Yep! David Tubb thought so highly of the Russian KVB-7 primers, that he bought 700,000 of them when they were first imported into the country. I bought 5,000 for 1,000 yard competition, and still have about 2,500 of them

.


A Bud of mine, who is an unlimited and tactical F Class National Champion, he uses his Russian primers. And Federal, and BR2. The choice is due to the cartridge, the group, and the chronograph.

Last I saw him at the range, he was jumping up and down in joy over the 1 fps extreme spreads he was seeing that morning in his new wild cat.

I will have to shoot more of my primers before I give final judgment.

 

[amlevin]

I've used Tula Primers since PV started carrying them and haven't had any issues. No harder to seat than CCI's and haven't had one crush yet (unlike the CCI's).

Can't beat the cost and performance is great.

 

[LiveLife]

My issue with Wolf/Tula primers is not necessarily their ignition flash size and duration consistency but the slightly larger diameter of primer cups causing issues with seating to proper depths (.004" below flush).

I hand prime a lot of pistol/rifle cases and prefer the easier seating of Winchester/CCI/Magtech/PMC primers. If they seat better with same effort as Winchester with no ignition issues I would gladly endorse them for SD/HD loads. I have used Winchester/CCI for the past 16 years with no ignition issues and will continue to endorse them for SD/HD loads that must go bang.

 

[GLOOB]

I think a lot of people have it backwards. With the SPP, at least.

After reading over and over how hard these primers were to seat, I really gave em a good squeeze when first using them. I even imagined feeling the "hard seating" myself. I even had a couple failures to fire.

So out come the calipers. They are a little longer than CCI, but certainly smaller in diameter. On examination, the "hard seating" I was feeling was the top of the primer crushing down at the end of the stroke. The two failures were crushed primers. Since they're a little longer, you won't get them to the same depth as your other brands without crushing them. The cups are softer than either CCI or Remington, and the tops are very domed/tapered, as well. This makes it harder to tell the difference between where the primer seats and were the crushing begins. In most cases, leave them just a hair below flush, and you're fine. Some really old brass I have (either Win or Rem 38 special, can't remember) doesn't like the longer primer at all, and you can't get the Tulammo primer flush without a bit of crush.

They're firmer than Remington, but not any harder to seat than CCI. This is my opinion after having been through about 3k Tulammo SPP, 1.5K CCI SPP, and 1K Remington 1 1/2's.

So, Hondo. Try a lighter touch, and I bet you'll see your failure rate drop from 1% to under 0.1%.