Steel case 45 ammo

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Lefever

Bearcat
Joined
Apr 2, 2012
Messages
13
Location
MO
I inadvertently bought 150 rounds of TulAmmo .45acp steel cased ammo. Anyone with experience as to potential damage to my 1911's if I shoot this small amount through them?
Thanks.
 

LaneP

Single-Sixer
Joined
Oct 26, 2013
Messages
268
Location
New England
Not a problem for that amount. I've shot that through various .45 ACP pistols and it functioned fine.

During WWII when brass was in short supply, large quantities of USGI ball for the 1911 was made with nickel plated steel cases. I have an unopened can of 600 rounds of that stuff made in 1943.
 

XJBluto

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
14
That steel case ammo has lacquer applied to prevent it from rusting. When you are shooting this, your gun will heat up and melt the lacquer. It will foul your feed ramp, barrel and slide. I darn near ruined a Sig P220 with that Russian junk. Never shot it ever again......
 

meanc

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
124
Location
FL
XJBluto said:
your gun will heat up and melt the lacquer. It will foul your feed ramp, barrel and slide. I darn near ruined a Sig P220 with that Russian junk. Never shot it ever again......

:roll:

No... the lacquer will not heat up and melt from firing your gun.

No... the lacquer will not foul your feed ramp, your barrel, or your slide.

And finally -

No... you "didn't" nearly ruin a Sig P220 shooting the Russian junk because of the lacquer.


I've fired well over 50,000 rds of steel cased ammo through ARs - Mini 14s - Mini 30s - 1911s - Glocks - Berettas - Sigs - S&Ws - etc...

At no point in time have I ever had problems from "melting lacquer" - I'm 99.999% certain no one else has either.

So, if the Tula feeds and ejects perfectly fine in your 1911 - shoot it up and enjoy. Just scrub your chamber thoroughly afterward or before going to brass cased ammo.
 

rammerjammer

Blackhawk
Joined
Jan 22, 2010
Messages
735
Yup, as long as it feeds properly you're good to go. I don't want a gun that can't stand up to steel cased ammo, because it really has minimal effects of wear on the gun. Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.
 

Brian48

Bearcat
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Jun 8, 2013
Messages
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Location
Peoples Republic of MA
I've shot tons of Tulammo through my various 1911s, including my CMD which seems to love the stuff. No issues at all. It's very soft steel so i have no concerns of it damaging my extractor any more than regular brass ammo.
 

olyinaz

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
61
Location
Tucson, Arizona
It's probably polymer coated vs. lacquer. At any rate, it works just fine for plinking - no side effects noted after many thousands of rounds of it down range. (If there were any problems with it, I think our Comm Block friends would have discovered it many years and millions of rounds ago.)

Oly
 

dakota1911

Buckeye
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
1,021
Have not had a problem with the few hundred rounds I have shot. Some indoor ranges do not like it as there may be steel in the bullets also and that tears up their backstops.
 

Lefever

Bearcat
Joined
Apr 2, 2012
Messages
13
Location
MO
Thanks for all replys. A friend with a 45ACP revolver said he would buy it from me but based on everyone's experiences and such a small amount I think I'll just shoot it up.
 

jimjc

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 17, 2010
Messages
107
About 12/15 years ago...can`t remember.. 2 friends went in on a large quantity of Russian steel cased ammo.... They bought 10`s of thousands of rounds cheap and preceded to shoot it solely for what seemed like a couple years....Their guns shot perfectly all this time...I had heard bad reports on the ammo...so I didn`t get in on the deal...Ammo shot perfectly and rarely had any problems if any at all... So that changed my mind about shooting it..I'd have no reservations shooting it today...
 

XJBluto

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
14
[the quote="meanc"]
XJBluto said:
your gun will heat up and melt the lacquer. It will foul your feed ramp, barrel and slide. I darn near ruined a Sig P220 with that Russian junk. Never shot it ever again......

:roll:

No... the lacquer will not heat up and melt from firing your gun.

No... the lacquer will not foul your feed ramp, your barrel, or your slide.

And finally -

No... you "didn't" nearly ruin a Sig P220 shooting the Russian junk because of the lacquer.



I've fired well over 50,000 rds of steel cased ammo through ARs - Mini 14s - Mini 30s - 1911s - Glocks - Berettas - Sigs - S&Ws - etc...

At no point in time have I ever had problems from "melting lacquer" - I'm 99.999% certain no one else has either.

So, if the Tula feeds and ejects perfectly fine in your 1911 - shoot it up and enjoy. Just scrub your chamber thoroughly afterward or before going to brass cased ammo.[/quote]
So says the Russian ammo salesman..........
 

meanc

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
124
Location
FL
old 41 said:
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/

Great article. Thanks for posting.

Here is a little snippet that further backs my experience and claims:

"We shot them until they were too hot to hold – hot enough that a chambered round would cook off in ten to fifteen seconds. We also tried leaving rounds chambered before temperatures reached that point. None of this harsh treatment caused extraction problems.

We found no evidence to back up the claim that lacquer coatings melt in the chamber and cause extraction failures."
 

pisgah

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 17, 2006
Messages
1,633
Location
Upstate SC
The supposed damage caused by steel-cased ammo is one of the multitude of myths that has been spread for years among the gunning community that has absolutely no bearing in fact. (Dare I intone one that seems a particular bugaboo -- WD-40, which I used almost exclusively on my guns for decades and has never shown a single sign of causing the slightest harm -- but then, I don't soak my guns with ANY gun oil). Tulammo is not necessarily the best ammo out there, and tends to be pretty sooty, but it will not hurt your gun. If it feeds, use it. Just because "my brother-in-law" or "the guy at the gun store" says it -- or 10,000 yahoos online, for that matter, some of whom I suspect have never seen a gun outside of the movies -- does not make it true.

Hey, in Russia there are still thousands who'll swear Stalin was a saint...
 

ArmedinAZ

Buckeye
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Apr 27, 2009
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over the hill from Preskitt
rammerjammer said:
Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.

How? The steel core is inside lead that is inside copper (usually). I'm not aware of any steel core handgun ammo.

Now if you're talking about bimetal ammo that's a lead core with a steel jacket that covered with copper.
 

pisgah

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 17, 2006
Messages
1,633
Location
Upstate SC
ArmedinAZ said:
rammerjammer said:
Now the actual steel core bullet will deteriorate your barrel at a bit of a faster rate, but the savings are offset compared to the price of a new barrel.

How? The steel core is inside lead that is inside copper (usually). I'm not aware of any steel core handgun ammo.

Now if you're talking about bimetal ammo that's a lead core with a steel jacket that covered with copper.

I give up. Believe the world is flat, if you want to. :roll:
 
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