Tula ammo FTE. Lighter spring choices?

[aspiderfreak]

I'm experiencing FTE & failure to fully cycle with new Tul Ammo 223 fmj.

I'm a shooting fairly new, Olympic Arms A2 rifle w/ 20 inch barrel. (The only upgrade on the rifle is a BAD lever) The magazine I'm using is a magpul pmag.

It is failing to fully cycle when shooting this ammo. The FTE/cycle occurs almost 100% of the time when using these shells. When shot the bolt will frequently not pick up the next round, and will close on an empty chamber. Other times it will fail to fully eject spent shell, and being to pick up the next round, thus causing a jam. (I have checked the extractor spring & o-ring, and all seems ok there)

I decide to try and problem solve, initially thinking the rifle must be dirty. I stripped it down and cleaned it immaculately. I then returned to the range and experienced the same issues.

I then tried running Pmc & Monarch though it, and it ran like a champ. I tried feeding it Tul again and no dice.

I then took a friends Olympic carbine lower, and put my upper on it, and it shot great. I put his 16 inch upper on my lower and experienced the same issues.

My friend believes that the Tul Ammo is similar to Wolf, and is underpowered, thus has difficulty in fully cycling the rifle length buffer & spring.

My Q's:

Is my friend correct, and if so how do I correct this issue? (aside from choosing another ammo. I've already got 1k of the stuff.)

Can I run a carbine buffer and spring in my rifle tube w/o causing malfunctions & damage? I really want to keep the A2 stock, and avoid using a carbine tube if at all possible.

Thanks in advance,

S>

[xrayoneone]

I ran the Tula ammo through an A1 and two A2's and it did not cycle at all. When I put it through a CAR15 and a Mini 14 it worked fine. I then ran it through my Daniel Defense carbine and it did not cycle.

I assume this is the Tula ammo that was so cheap at Cabela's a couple of months ago. Tula makes some of the Wolf ammo. The main difference in the Tula ammo from the Wolf marked ammo is the Tula stuff I have is boxer primed as opposed to the berdan primed Wolf.

So there is nothing wrong with your gun. Cheap training ammo if it works in your gun, that's it. If it doesn't work maybe you can trade it for some stuff that does.

[aspiderfreak]

...

I assume this is the Tula ammo that was so cheap at Cabela's a couple of months ago. Tula makes some of the Wolf ammo. The main difference in the Tula ammo from the Wolf marked ammo is the Tula stuff I have is boxer primed as opposed to the berdan primed Wolf.

So there is nothing wrong with your gun. Cheap training ammo if it works in your gun, that's it. If it doesn't work maybe you can trade it for some stuff that does.

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad to know that my gun isn't malfunctioning. It was driving me crazy. I still wonder why it works in the carbine though.

Do you think I could run a carbine spring and buffer in my rifle tube, if i pull the old-fashioned 9mm trick (putting a $1.75 in quarters in the tube to shorten its internal length) ? Or would that be inviting misfortune?

[xrayoneone]

It doesn't work in all carbines. I have a bushmaster CAR15 that is about 20 years old and the Tula ammo runs through that and my Mini 14 no problems. When I run it in my Daniel Defense M4 it doesn't cycle at all.

As far as changing buffers I don't see how that will help. As far as I can tell the ammo is not very powerful so not enough gas is getting back to cycle your bolt. I don't know what the velocity is on the stuff I didn't put it over my chrony, but obviously it is pretty under powered.

[sdacbob]

Wolf is made by Tula. Of all the Russian made ammo....Brown Bear, Silver Bear, ect I believe Wolf/ Tula is the dirtiest and most least powerful of them all.

[JSantoro]

A light coat of lube in the chamber helps to counteract all the extra smut that gets spit back into the chamber when shooting steel cased rounds. Try that first and see if that solves your FTE problems.

Given that it's an Olympic gun, the chamber has a pretty high chance of being out of spec, tight, whatever term is least offensive. They're not the only manufacturer with the trend for ganking up rifle chamberings. Find an AR armorer or gunsmith that can take a Ned Christiansen 5.56 chamber reamer to it. Get the chamber reamed, you can shoot ANY 5.56 or .223 ammo.

Steel case ammo can be run in an AR platform just fine, but it takes a true 5.56 chamber and being a little more liberal with your motion lotion.

Tula and Wolf are made by the same folks, and are fairly low-pressure rounds, so your friend may have a point.

[fivefivesix]

i just had the same problem with my daniel defense m4. the ammo wouldnt cycle the bolt all the way to strip the next round from the mag. i have a cheap buffer spring so im replacing it to see if it helps.
my friends m4 is an elcheapo i assembled for him from some cheap parts and a bcm bolt and his cycles it.

[MarkG]

i just had the same problem with my daniel defense m4. the ammo wouldnt cycle the bolt all the way to strip the next round from the mag. i have a cheap buffer spring so im replacing it to see if it helps.
my friends m4 is an elcheapo i assembled for him from some cheap parts and a bcm bolt and his cycles it.
remember the bolt has to go back far enough to initiate the ejector rod and then stripthe next round.

What are you talking about? The ejector is always active.

[fivefivesix]

So what initiates the ejection process.
otherwise what keeps it from ejecting as soon as it starts its rear ward movement

[MarkG]

The ejector and extractor work together. The limited space of the chamber and upper receiver prevents the case from being "ejected" until it clears the ejection port.