Bad batch of Red Army STD/TULA???

[gruet782]

Hi all... I'm Gordon from Colorado.
Since my neck/throat job by Murray, Murray pin... no more popped primers for many thousands of round...(have my own range) but now I see this, wonder if others have.
I had 200 rounds, 10 20rnd boxes of Red Army Std, cases marked Tula I bought in 2021.
Kept dry, cool, sealed ammo can and stored with many other boxes of ammo in same can.
Had hang fires, no fires and 2 squibs. (No popped primers)
Changed to older Tula stored in same ammo can, no problems.
Just to be sure, cleaned everything up, changed to the OEM firing pin, grabbed 2 more boxes of the Red Army and bam.. same thing, hang fire, no fire, 1 squib... went back to Tula and PMC brass that is from 2015... no issues.
Anyone else running into bad batches?
Norinco, Tapco stock, Promag mags, owned since 2011

[JimmyJamesKY]

I no longer use TULAMMO.  I have some Tula branded 8m3, but it's manufactured by Klimovsk or Ulyanovsk, I can't remember which.  I have a few boxes of their 154gr offering also, so I can't say I'll never shoot it, but if TULAMMO is the only option, I will not buy it.  About 10 years ago, a round of Tula blew my firing pin out of the bolt and into the receiver.

I switched to Barnaul produced steel case and never looked back.

I've got Wolf, Golden Tiger, and lots of Brown, Silver and Golden Bear for range ammo, but the few pennies I save on TULAMMO is not worth the potential hassles or damage to my rifle.

Check out these folks for ammo:
https://www.sgammo.com/

Unfortunately, the days of the cheap Russian steel case is over.  That ammo from Kyrgistan (sp?) looks interesting, but I would go with Golden Tiger if it comes back in stock.  It is tried and true.

[gruet782]

Thank you, I'll check them out.
I'm in a very rural area with 1 ranch store to buy ammo, get what I can but may start mail ordering....

[old tom]

I've been using Wolf, but as you say, the Russian stuff is drying up. I switched to Igman. Very impressed with the quality, consistency and, it's a brass boxer case.

[zuma]

 Gruet782
 What part Co. are you in?

[gruet782]

Near Trinidad

[JimmyJamesKY]

Shipping is $12 to Kentucky for 500 rounds from SGAmmo.  Considering that locally even cheap steel case is $12 box, it's a much better deal than buying locally.

Plus, back when they had a good selection of x39, you could buy a few boxes of different types and see what your particular rifle likes best.  You can still do that with 5.56mm, but with x39 it looks like you take what you can get. That's how I discovered mine like Barnaul.  Golden Tiger hits at a different point of impact than other ammo I have, so I stuck with Barnaul.  GT has a boat tail bullet.  It's fairly accurate and totally reliable, but that's a moot point if you can't get your hands on some.

You may know this, but if you switch to brass after shooting lots of steel case, clean your chamber before going to brass.  It expands more than steel casings, and you may get an empty case stuck in the chamber when the brass expands.