My son went to the range Friday afternoon and shot his new 7.62x39 AR. We built 2 for hog hunting, I had some hand loads but he didn't pick them up and went to the range with some White box Winchester (125gr), Remington (125 gr), and some Tula (154 gr) He said he got some good hunting groups out of the Winchester and Remington, but the Tula was all over the place.
SO... I pulled down 5 Tula rounds, powder weight was 23.1,23.8,23.3,24.1, and 23.5.
The bullet weights were, 154.3,154.0,154.2,154.4,and 154.2.
But it is "cheap"

I struggled with Tula, Wolf and Herter's 154 SP's for a long time, because I wanted a heavier bullet for hog hunting. I was always disappointed with groups and occasional fail-to-fires. I also measured some Wolf bullet diameters at 0.309" They should be 0.310" or even 0.311" for a 7.62. I have since gone to other brands of 123/125 gr, brass-cased ammo and get much better performance.

I shoot the Hornady SST's, 123 grains, out of my AR platform X39, and I can tell you from first hand experience that it is a "hog thumping" round. Puts 'em down hard and fast. It is also very accurate. Load up a few of the Hornady's; they are .310", and give 'em a try. I use R-7 as my favorite powder, but there's lots of others that seem to give good performance.

I got 2 medium size boars this afternoon with New Winchester brass, full of AA1680, and 123 Hornady Zombie Max bullets. Drops where they were shot!

Well done, boonee; keep after 'em!!

It's amazing what you can find in Tula I've gotten hallow points and steel core and fmj all mixed in one box I switched to fiocchi it's the only ammo my ak likes ( I've only shot Tula and fiocchi out of it)

Just received 200 rounds of Fiocchi 123 FMJ.

I've shot the Tula 154 SP and you can only expect so much out of cheap ammo. That said, my Mini-30 does like it so I have a couple thousand rounds worth of it just in case it is the zombies wake up.

As far as good hunting ammo, my "30" & Mini-Mauser is very accurate with the Prvi Partizan 123-grain RN and it is absolutely deadly on hogs and deer. That bullet expands as large as any 30 caliber Core-Lokt I've seen. As far as really well made ammo with a very tight SD & ES plus downrange accuracy, I'd have to give a big thumbs up to the Federal Fusion. If you don't reload, this is as good as you will find and the 123-grain bullet is deadly on deer size game. It isn't cheap.

My choice is cast bullets, I use a .313", 150 grain, round-flat nose in both the "30" and Mini-Mauser. The Savage 10FCP has a .308" groove with a little bit more leade cut in the chamber to get you there, so I use a .310", 165 grain, round-flat nose bullet that I designed for the 300 Savage and it fits like a glove. My preference for brass is Prvi Partizan.

You ought to pull down some Weatherby or Nosler "custom" ammo. I've seen powder charge differences as high as 2.4+ grains difference. Most factory ammo was anywhere from about 1 to 1.8 grains difference on the 30+ rounds I pulled. This is one reason why hand loaded ammo is much more consistent.

Here's my Link to pulled factory ammo powder charges.

Great topic Chad!