On the way to the range today, I stopped at Wal Mart to get a .22 brick. I noticed Tula .223 55gr for 4.90/box so I figured I would try it. After firing a couple hundred rounds of Remington 55gr and Hornady 55gr, I loaded a couple of mags up with the Tula. Absolute Shit. The boltcarrier failed to pick up the ammunition after EVERY shot. It had no problem chambering rounds by pulling the charging handle, and it had no problem ejecting the spent casings, but it would not pick up rounds from the magazine when cycling. I tried two different BCM mags and a Pmag. None worked with the Tula. Weapon is a BCM middy upper on a Palmetto lower that I put together with a DD LPK. Never had any problems with the gun until today. Lesson learned: Pay a dollar extra for decent ammo.
The other disappointment of the day was having the dial on the elevation knob on my Vortex Viper 2-7x32 come unglued and disappear. Wasn’t expecting that to happen from the massive recoil of a Ruger 10/22. Made adjusting the scope a bit tricky, as I had to figure out which way was up and down all by myself. :jester:
And my Eotech’s battery was dead when I got there. Automatic turn off feature obviously didn’t work from the last time I shot it a few weeks ago. Go figure.
Its probably shortstroking. Makes sense for the low pressure ammo and a barrel meant to run the 5.56 pressure stuff. On the other hand my BCM 14.5 middy runs the steel cased ammo fine, its all I use due to budget.
But today it was cold and i could definately feel the carrier being slower than usual. Some guns run it, some dont… no sweat.
This always reminds me of people that buy .22 pistols because they are so cheap to shoot…then they figure out that most .22 pistols will NOT eat the cheap .22 ammo. “I don’t want to have to buy CCI Mini Mags all the time.”
I’m not saying this to you, OP,or saying you are this way. I’m just saying I am reminded of these things.
As far as Tulammo…I have a friend with a DPMS carbine that is on a steady diet of Tula (I don’t think he has put anything else through it). It runs fine. Of course he is using a carbine buffer, carbine gas system, yada yada.
Sounds like your issue may be there is just not enough pop for your rifle.
Sorry if my thread came across as hurrr durrr. Wasn’t my intention. I don’t really give a damn if the tula ammo didn’t work because I never shoot tula. I grabbed a couple boxes to try because of the price. Just posting an account of what I experienced this afternoon, so others might learn from it.
I’m using an H buffer with a Larue spring. Barrel is 16" Next time I will take a carbine buffer as well and see if that helps. It did short stroke a couple of times, resulting in the bolt failing to lock fully forward, which I forgot to mention in my initial post.
As far as the Eotech draining down, it is an EXPS, which is supposedly much better on battery life than previous models, so I was surprised it had drained down already. Another lesson learned.
Forum would be pretty dull if all anybody posted was that all their shit worked perfectly all the time.
Mine won’t run ANY .223 Rem. I even tried some Federal 60gr Nosler Partition @ 3000fps. I figured at least that stuff would run reliably…but no.
In either event I have the same setup as you, BCM middy LW 14.5". I ran a car buffer at first when I had the issue, did try an H1 for shits and giggles. The H1 actually works VERY well with proper 5.56 stuff as recoil is a bit more tamed. I’m not sure it’s a gas issue since I can’t even run some of the hotter .223 Rem. Also, I can manage to get through a mag or two of 62gr Wolf without issue, then it starts malfunctioning every other round all of a sudden. I don’t get it. I think I even had the H1 buffer in for part of that, and it seemed to make the steel ammo run a little better.
I thought about talking to BCM about it but I don’t want to have the gas port opened up or otherwise do anything to effect recoil, since it’s pretty tame with XM193 right now.
I’ve got 3 BCM 14.5 middy’s, 2 of them lightweight. They all shoot anything and everything. I bought a case of Wolf 2 years ago and still have about 500 rounds. I only use it to ensure proper funtioning with crap ammo. Through these 3 I’ve shot Remington and PMC .223 numerous times and 1000’s of rounds of Federal 5.56 and .223. When they were new I sometimes used a carbine buffer with the crap ammo. They have always ran. I’ve read here that the “H” buffers aren’t needed on a 14.5 middy but that’s what I generally use.
Are you using a stiffer sping along with an “H” buffer?
And my Eotech’s battery was dead when I got there. Automatic turn off feature obviously didn’t work from the last time I shot it a few weeks ago. Go figure.
A dead Eotech when you needed it, you weren’t surprised by this were you?
My carbine length DD chf barrel and spikes NiB bcg eat it and anything else all day. This is this the kind of thing I questioned in another thread before it was prematurely closed.
I don’t understand why shooters spend over $1,000 on a weapon and then run the cheapest shit ammo in it. People are so focused on price these days they have forgotten about the value.
What value? If I’m shooting paper what ‘value’ does shooting a premium ammo bring me, save perhaps running a little better? But like others in this thread have said, their expensive rifles run the cheaper stuff just fine.
I fully understand the reasoning of using good ammo when the intent is to shoot things that need shooting…but to use expensive ammo to shoot holes in paper when cheaper stuff is available just makes more sense…especially for those not made of money.
My BCM midlenght 16inch SS carbine buffer, LMT 14.5 carbine lenght H2 buffer and my BCM 16inch carbine lenght H buffer runs wolf 55gr and brown bear 62gr H2 buffer fine.
This does point out a reality of the weapon system – it’s hard to get a weapon to run reliably with a single buffer/spring combo and cover everything from NATO-spec to Tula.
My advice would be to divide the ammo spectrum in half, and commit to running either the higher end stuff (and paying the price) or running the lower end stuff and buffer it and spring it accordingly. Or just resign yourself to swapping out buffers and springs depending upon what ammo you’re running that day. [ETA] In reality, the problemmatic ammo can probably be segregated to the lower 25% and your stock setup is probably already suited to run the upper 75% of the spectrum. You probably don’t have to divide the ammo population in half, more like 75/25.]
And if you commit to running steel casd ammo, by all means keep your chamber clean. Chamber brush, solvent, then dry patch. Even if your a “just lube it and don’t bother cleaning” kind of guy, you need to pay attention to this area. Don’t let it get carboned up. Brass cased ammo is a bit cleaner in this regard.
I like knowing an AR I just spent a big chunk of change on will digest most any ammo I feed it. Its a requirement to remain in my safe. Any picky eaters will be sold or traded…lol.