A while ago I had a 9x19mm Tulammo round fail by what appeared to be overpressure in my Steyr M9A1. The primer cover blew off and the case became lodged in the barrel. The pistol was undamaged, and I was able to dislodge the case at home.
After removing the case, I ran 100 rounds through the gun without issue. A week after that I went to the range again and had sporadic failures to fire. The primers were untouched, and I was pretty stumped as to what was going on. I took the slide apart, and a brass price fell out of the firing pin/striker channel. I guess that when the primer failed, the cover was forced into the firing pin hole, and eventually was obstructing the striker.
It never occurred to me that this kinda thing would happen, and found it particularly surprising it didn’t start effecting the pistol until after 100 rounds in, so I thought it might be informative. Any one else have something like this happen?
I’ve had popped primers when pushing a new load too fast, with too much pressure. This was in a precision gun, and I had a hard time lifting the bolt after most of these too. Popped primers are usually a pressure sign. I’ve not experienced this with a pistol.
While I haven’t had any issues with popped primers; after running a bunch of Winchester +P+ ammunition through my Glock 19, I noticed a lot of flecks of what looked like brass shavings in the striker channel while cleaning it.
I remember you posting pictures in FDT a while back when it first happened. I suppose that if the circumstances are right, anything is possible. Hell, I’m trying to figure out how I jammed a revolver.
With that piece of brass in your striker channel, it may have wedged itself into a corner just behind the breech face, where the striker wasn’t impacting it or anything, then all of the sudden decided to come free and cause an obstruction. While that kind of thing isn’t completely unheard of, my guess is that it’s not very common.
It wasn’t just a piece of brass, that builds up all the time with no effect, it was the actual primer cover. See below.
Tulammo would be below average pressure from my experience. I know for certain the round failed do to over pressure, as there was a blight flash from the ejection port and the casing became lodged in the barrel. I am more curious as to the way the berdan primer cover was forced through the firing pin hole. That was just something I never thought would happen.
It’s always a good idea to detail strip the gun, clean it, and inspect it for damage after a catastrophic failure like that. Modern designs and metallurgy are miraculous, but not fail-safe. Unseen damage could cause another even worse failure if you keep shooting, and that could be the failure that ends your shooting career–or your life.
This past summer I picked up 200 rounds of tulammo from Walmart to see how it would do.
Turns out it “didn’t”.
First box I had a few failures to fire from a Glock 26. Then after that I started switching guns to see how things would go. A Glock 17 would get virtually the entire box as failures. A Sig P226R would not knock off the primers at all. Each round was rechambered and they would all fire on the second attempt.
The only gun that would fire the tulammo 9mm reliably was an MP5.
This was the worst factory ammunition I’ve ever used.
Up until this point I have not had any issues with the ammunition in various calibers. They only failures to fire I had were with my CZ-75 with a 13 lb hammer spring. With the stock spring in place the fed and fired reliably. The company was very helpful when informed of the problem, immediately asking if the pistol was damaged and for me to get an estimate on repairs from a smith if it had been, which they would pay for. I have heard reports that their customer support was poor but that has not been my experience.
I’ve heard mixed things about Tula. Typically I stick to Wolf or Brown Bear for the steel cased stuff. I can’t recall any personal experience with Tula.
It’s good that Tula was helpful in resolving the situation though and was willing to compensate you for any damages that may have been caused.
I have got about 2,000-2,500 rds of tula ammo through a late model gen3 g19 ser#NXZXXX without a single malfunction. On the other side of the coin I have about 1,500 rds of fed champion, and it caused the only malfunction the pistol has suffered(FTFire) after re-chambering the round it fired. My personal experience with tula has bee exceptional, but as always YMMV.
^^^^it is rather odd that you have had such a dramatic failure with several different pistols of different manufacture. It sounds like you gave it a go and it definitely didn’t work out for you. It could have been a bad batch, or just horrible luck. But as cheap as it is it should be worth a second look.I hope you have better luck this time if you decide to give it another go.
No experience with the above mentioned ammo, but primers going into places and gumming up the works I have seen many times to the point that it isnt surprising anymore.
I have seen this many times, albeit in my carbine with cheap practice reloads. I have had them lodge under triggers, get between locking lugs, and the worst was when a primer lodged itself between the BCG and the upper receiver…locked the gun up solid, and had to hammer the BCG out.
