I just fired my Sig M400 for the first time this past weekend. I first fired 30 rds. of PMC Bronze and it cycled beautifully. I then tried 20 rds of TULAMMO in the same mag. and it would fire once, then CLICK. I'd have to recharge manually before popping of another round. After 10 rds. like this I just emptied the mag. Is this typical with cheap russian ammo? Should I get rid of it?

Sometimes its loaded kinda weak and shortstrokes.

could be your buffer ect ect, but likely just the cheap ammo.

That would suck since I have a few hundred rounds of TUL and Wolf. Is this a typical thing with Russian crap?

Tula is love it or hate it ammo. I have never had a problem with Tula or Wolf.
My PSA M4 eats it and PTAC M4 eats it also.
Both run standard buffers.

make sure you cleaned out the chamber and upper of the shipping grease and crud  then lube it up real good you should see a improvement

That I did not do. I'll be breaking it down tonight and cleaning it up good. Thanks for the info. I'll try to get to the range again this weekend and give the TUL ammo another try.

I've built 4x AR's in the last few years and my experience with steel cased ammo is that if you try to run it before the parts had a chance to wear a little and mate with each other, you'll have problems with it cycling due to it being underpowered. Run a couple hundred rounds of factory brass  then clean it real well, then try steel cased again. Lube is your friend.

Tul ammo is very weak ammo.

You may need to
1) open up port or
2) switch recoil spring

Clean it good including using a chamber brush, oil it well and fire a couple hundred rounds of good brass ammo, then try the tula again.  Tula shot anytime sooner and it will likely choke.

you, need to put 200 rounds through a new ar/m4 before it may be considered broken in. I won't let my guys field a new M4a1 until we have a couple hundred rounds down range, sometimes they work great out of the box but many jam up a few times. I also run them wet during the break in. Once broken in with military grade ammo I bet it will function fine. Just remember to clean your new weapons before u take them out the first time and clean well right after your break in, this includes magazines and buffer assemblies, for u slackers out there.

NHseacoast,

Generally speaking I never shoot anything coming from Russia except for maybe Wolf ammo. Try some of that and see what you think?

Impala

This is typical of steel cased ammo, Russian or not. There are too many reasons not to buy this stuff and only one reason to, it's cheap.

Wear tests have shown steel case ammo from Russia and China reduces barrel life by 50%.  The bullets and/or powder they use erode barrels.

Many people report malfunctions when running this stuff, hardly a ringing endorsement for self-defense and just plain frustrating for target practice.  

Pressure tests show a double peak pressure wave using piezo electric methods. The chamber pressures peak the same as standard western made powders, subsides then peaks again. Both peaks are nearly identical and near the maximum allowed. The end result is your chamber takes a double hit in pressure spikes and is under pressure for almost twice the time frame because of it.

I won't buy the stuff. Brass cases ammo costs more initially but can be reloaded as long you purchased boxer primed ammo. Even 7.62x39mm can be reloaded (with much better bullets) for about the same price as steel case not counting your equipment or time spent.

 

AFAIK Tulammo has a different pressure curve than normal for US ammo and will not work reliably in some AR’s due to port pressure.

When I first bought my AR i bought a ton of wolf .223, ended up selling it all due to the same problem you are having. Its just too underpowered to cycle the ammo correctly. Never bought and steel cased crap again and never had that problem again.

Good AR manufacturers will size their gas ports to spec which will run with full powered ammo. Some manufacturers will oversize their ports to run with all ammo. Keep the good gun, sell the crap ammo.

NHSeacoast,

There are a lot of good comments here already from guys with good and bad experiences with Tula and other steel cased ammo.  I will throw in some old school thinking to complement that.

The AR was never designed with steel case ammo in mind.  The chamber tolerances, gas system and recoil mechanism were designed around brass mil spec ammo of a specific pressure range.  If you have a firearm that can process steel case stuff to start  then that , I think, is a bonus.  Sometimes an AR that won't tolerate steel cases will wear in and start to be more tolerant after awhile.  That is also a bonus.

The steel cased ammo has a different pressure curve due to the different loading and to inflexibility of the steel to expand and seal the chamber as brass is more likely to do.  Also, the early steel stuff out of Russia was corrosive. I understand that has improved but it is good to understand there are significant differences between Russian steel rounds and contemporary brass mil spec rounds.

If it shoots well with good quality brass ammo then that is what it was designed to do.  Smarter folks than me can speak to changing buffers and drilling gas ports and that is good knowledge to have, but it is also a good idea to keep in mind what the tool was originally designed to do.

Best,

Rick