Good info, thanks. Jeepkid, no. No department locally does that I'm aware of either. Perhaps some of the better departments in nicer areas do. We go to the range twice a year as a department and they provide ammo then. Which will equal about 150rds by the time they run a few practice rounds then a qualifying round. Not enough practice for my liking obviously. I used to buy bulk through a guy that gave law enforcement a good deal but I can't get a hold of him now. Then I loaded my own for awhile, but with the lady and kids, I just don't have time to spend hours loading bulk ammo on my single stage press. So looking to order some myself online. I'll avoid tula though. Thanks for the advice folks.
-JaKe

Not if the barrel life difference pays itself back in ammo savings. A practice barrel will last many, many years, many thousands upon thousands of rounds. At 5cents per shot saved for Tulammo, a $200 barrel gets paid back in 4,000 rounds, run 10,000 rounds through it and you've saved $300 more on top of paying for its own barrel. I have a lot more than 10,000 rounds through a couple of my pistol barrels, as long as you don't need extreme precision, they'll still shoot qualifying scores for practice.

It's not for everybody, but if we consider rifle barrels to be consumable, why not pistol barrels too?

I've always been of the school of practice with something similar or identical to what you carry. He is talking about practicing with his duty weapon. What you are proposing is changing out the barrel and shooting ammo that wouldn't even be CLOSE to what he is carrying. At least I would HOPE like hell he isn't carrying that junk! And those Tula rounds aren't only hard on barrels, they are hard on extractors and ejectors and feed ramps as well. Steel cases are flat out rough on the whole firearm. Steel on steel at speed is NEVER a good idea.

I would stay away from steel cased ammo in a duty gun also, for many of the reasons SH outlined & more.

I'm assuming you mean with the weapon that you carry. In which case, I agree. I practice with my duty weapon.


If you mean practice with the ammo I carry... It would cost me around $700/1000 rds to practice with what I carry. That's just unrealistic. At least in my opinion. Practice is about drawing, and getting rounds on target in realistic situations, environments, positions, angles, etc. It's about shooting under stress, and learning how to use the weapon in various situations that you end up in. I don't think I need to shoot rds that cost .70 cents a shot to replicate these situations.... I've ran several boxes of my duty ammo just to be sure that it functions properly and shoots well in the gun, but I can't possibly afford to practice with the stuff.


Standard bulk type ammo works just fine. I was just concerned with putting unnecessary wear on my pistol by shooting high volume of what I've heard is junk ammo. And ya'll confirmed what I've heard. I'll be ordering something other than tulammo


-Jake

I don't know about that. Have you ever heard of American Ammunition? My dad had an old box of that for his 9mm. Seemed like standard 115 grain FMJ loads, till I fired one that blew up, blasted apart the grips, and singed my hands. I discovered online that was a distressingly common occurrence when people used American Ammunition in their guns.

Yes Jake I meant the firearm BUT you can get bulk ammo that is probably similar to load and bullet grain to what you carry. Hence why I suggested that American Eagle (Made by Federal). And you really do want to practice with at least a similar load to where your weapon hits at relatively the same point. There is a TON of muscle memory going on in handgun shooting. How you practice will definitely come out in a stress situation as to how you hit! People seem to forget that little tidbit.

I have to agree here that Tul Ammo is rather less than desirable. I bought my lady friend a Taurus Curve for Christmas that she was wanting for another CCW. She bought a case of .380 Tul at Wally World on discount, her mom works there. Almost every flipping time that pistol would hang, jam, fail to load the last round in the mag, something!!! I grabbed a box of Remmy ball round, runs like a quarter horse!!! I put it through my LCP, not much better. I told her that we will shoot it up and get rid of it unless she can push it off onto someone else and that we wont buy anymore. Just quality ammo. I have her carrying Winchester PDX1's for carry ammo. All 3 of our 380's like em!!!!

I don't run steel cases through any of my guns. American Eagle is made by Federal and is cheap enough to practice with brass.

^^^As much as I love to argue with super_hunt, I have to agree with this.^^^

If I was a professional, I would probably be inclined to practice with the same ammo I carry on duty. That said, the word professional has likely never been used to describe me in any way, so take that for what its worth.