Tula small pistol primers...a first date

[BigK]

I've been sitting on a case of Tula small pistol primers since fall. I got a fantastic price on them (thank you DLM), so I just stashed them for hard times and kept using my Winchester primers until they were gone.

I finally cracked them open and reloaded about 400 rounds last week. I shot 170 of them Sat. at the range and had more than a few that didn't go bang.

I only shot 2 partial mags in my Glock 17 and had 6 bad primers. I gave up and put the Glock away. I loaded the duds into my CZ 75 Shadow and double and triple struck them all and only one went off. I shot about 150 more rounds pretty evenly between the Shadow and my CZ P-01.

At the end of the day I walked away with 13 rounds that wouldn't go off no matter how many times I fired them and much better muscle memory for clearing failures. So, it wasn't a complete loss.

If I had only given each round a single chance, I think I would have had about 1in 10 that were dead. What do you guys think about that failure rate? Is that par for the course with Tula? Edited May 17, 2013 by BigK

[Jamie Jackson]

So far that has not been my experience with Tula primers in my Glock 17 and 19.

 

I picked up a 5000 lot case of SPP last fall from Graf's...for $96.00( of course Hazmat...but I had several pounds of powder in the order for offset). They are the Lead Free btw. I just started using them about a month ago. I've had probably 4 failures out of 500 rounds. No better, no worse than what I've come to expect from the Wolf primers I've used the past few years.

So that seems like an inordinately large amount of failures, at least from my experience.

 

Have you ever had any issues using CCI primers (fairly hard primers) in your Glock?

[LawVol]

Of the 1000 I used, I had 3 that didn't ignite. They were hard to seat, and I was constantly battling high primers.

i probably won't buy them again unless I get desperate.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I have been using Wolf and Tula for years and can never recall having a dud. I generally don't use them in pistols though.

[ToysRUs]

I use then exclusively and have noticed one thing.

Striker fire guns have a problem with them.

I load them in .40 and 9mm and they always go off in my S&W and HK.

Shot in Glocks and M&P's and it's almost 1 in 20 FTF.

 

I beleive the cups are a bit hard for the striker fired guns.

Edited May 17, 2013 by ToysRUs

[camp]

i am using them in my glock 23 , and 1 out of 100 does not fire, is the average im seeing

[bikertrash2001]

I wonder if it is a mechanical issue or ignition materials? LawVol said he had a hard time with high primers and I would wonder if that doesn't complete the seating of the anvil in the cup t get the two close enough together. I've been using a lot of small rifle primers in place and my striker fired guns never fall to ignite them so surely the Wolf SPP aren't guilty of thick cups.

[jumprun13k]

I relegated the Tula primers I ended up with to practice ammo only because of this. My M&Ps cant stand them, and there are some seating issues which I believe are related to inconsistent sizing of the primers. I get about 20:1 failures on first try, but most will ignite on a 2nd or 3rd attempt.

[BigK]

Since my results don't seem to be typical, I took a closer look at the ones I haven't used yet. They look pretty typical to me. The Dillon has done a good job of evenly seating the primers. They aren't flattened or mis-shapened, so I'm at a loss for an explanation. I did have quite a few that were tough to seat, so I tossed them in my rework bin, because some had flattened cups.

 

My Glock17 has the factory firing pin spring, my Shadow has a lightened spring, but an extended firing pin, and my P-01 is bone stock. I guess it's possible the cups are too hard, but I don't recall having any issues with these guns back when I used CCI primers.

Edited May 17, 2013 by BigK

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I'm not mechanically adept and therefore read a lot about components before purchase. Never bought tula primers yet, but when reading, trying to decide tobuy some-- Some references said you have to be real careful to seat em right to ensure reliability. That is why I decided to wait, not knowing if I'd have skill to seat em "just right".