Any 8MM surplus Ammo?

shredder said:
Wish I could say the same, I had a 20% failure to fire rate yesterday. It's why I only shot 10 rounds out of my K98, 2 were duds. These rounds came on stripper clips out of a sealed box of Yugo surplus I got when I bought the rifle.

Accuracy of the 8 that did fire wasn't bad, about 3.5-4 MOA - which is about what one can expect from a RC K98 using surplus. I may try it with Prvi Partizan ammo, if I can ever find any.....;)
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Are you sure that was Yugo ammo? Yugo 8mm Mauser does not generally come on stripper clips. Unless its earlier than 53.

My guess is it's Czech or Romanian. Was it green an lacquered? Or Czech could be brass.

Or if your positive it was Yugo... could be this stuff:

3119000_02_yugo_surplus_8mm_mauser_ammo_o_640.jpg


If so... it's probably from the known bad batches. Yugo ammo has a period around 50-52 which has a high number of duds and hang fires in certain codes. Other stuff is excellent.

I had sub 1 inch groups with 54, it was spectacular. Love that ammo.
 
pcvando said:
Are you sure that was Yugo ammo? Yugo 8mm Mauser does not generally come on stripper clips. Unless its earlier than 53.

My guess is it's Czech or Romanian. Was it green an lacquered? Or Czech could be brass.

Or if your positive it was Yugo... could be this stuff:

3119000_02_yugo_surplus_8mm_mauser_ammo_o_640.jpg


If so... it's probably from the known bad batches. Yugo ammo has a period around 50-52 which has a high number of duds and hang fires in certain codes. Other stuff is excellent.

I had sub 1 inch groups with 54, it was spectacular. Love that ammo.
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53 is also really good. That's what I've been getting for the most part. Non of 53 ammo came on strippers so far, boxes have very similar markings to above shown 53 boxes. My guess it's a bit different because of different factories. Anyways, crate from two years ago had one 15 round box that had duds in it for the most part. Every other round or something like that if my memory serves me right. Of course I ended up with that box :) I actually though firing pin crapped out after all those rounds failed to go off. Later on found out it was just that one box. Otherwise no complaints.
 
pcvando said:
Are you sure that was Yugo ammo? Yugo 8mm Mauser does not generally come on stripper clips. Unless its earlier than 53.

My guess is it's Czech or Romanian. Was it green an lacquered? Or Czech could be brass.

Or if your positive it was Yugo... could be this stuff:

3119000_02_yugo_surplus_8mm_mauser_ammo_o_640.jpg


If so... it's probably from the known bad batches. Yugo ammo has a period around 50-52 which has a high number of duds and hang fires in certain codes. Other stuff is excellent.

I had sub 1 inch groups with 54, it was spectacular. Love that ammo.
Click to expand...

It IS this stuff. The boxes are identical. Guess it's from the known bad stuff. Also, only some of it is on stripper clips, not all of it.
 
I have a couple 5 gallon pails full of the stuff available to me. Its Czech with lots of lacquer. Its dirty as all ##### to shoot but it all goes bang and have no complaints for accuracy considering that its surplus.

The best bet is to reload. Mauser bolts are easy on the brass, and if you can find/acquire some good Norma, prvi, or S&B brass, it will last you a long time.
 
shredder said:
Wish I could say the same, I had a 20% failure to fire rate yesterday. It's why I only shot 10 rounds out of my K98, 2 were duds. These rounds came on stripper clips out of a sealed box of Yugo surplus I got when I bought the rifle.

Accuracy of the 8 that did fire wasn't bad, about 3.5-4 MOA - which is about what one can expect from a RC K98 using surplus. I may try it with Prvi Partizan ammo, if I can ever find any.....;)
Click to expand...

I think those are Romanian 170grn surplus ammo.
 
pcvando said:
Are you sure that was Yugo ammo? Yugo 8mm Mauser does not generally come on stripper clips. Unless its earlier than 53.

My guess is it's Czech or Romanian. Was it green an lacquered? Or Czech could be brass.

Or if your positive it was Yugo... could be this stuff:

3119000_02_yugo_surplus_8mm_mauser_ammo_o_640.jpg


If so... it's probably from the known bad batches. Yugo ammo has a period around 50-52 which has a high number of duds and hang fires in certain codes. Other stuff is excellent.

I had sub 1 inch groups with 54, it was spectacular. Love that ammo.
Click to expand...

I have some Czech surplus, the box is as same as yugo without any labels and it contains 0 stripper clip...
 
I have some Czech surplus, the box is as same as yugo without any labels and it contains 0 stripper clip...
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Markzdb said:
Haha, I am not one of those smart guys...... :(
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Yup, me neither. Guy at the Chilliwack show 2 years ago had 3 crates of Czech '50's surplus for sale for slightly over .50 cents a round. Bought one case and walked it out to the car contemplating whether I should buy the other two. By the time I came back in and went back to his table to get the other two...they were gone. Still kicking myself for that indecision...
 
Buy it when you find it. I've been lucky that in my line of work there are many shooters who are willing to buy,sell or barter for guns and ammo. I found 1000 round of 50 BMG for 4000 dollars. All I need now is a 50. I'm willing to bet money that marstar is sitting on a few million 303 he got from his Greek contract. Sometimes waiting is worth the effort.
 
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So far in the Ukraine over 3 million small arms have gone missing from salt mines. I figure 10x that in ammo has also gone missing. The Russians never threw anything away. Im currently working with an old German tanker and he has mentioned t34 still packed away in warehouse deep in the Urals.
 
A bit off topic, but if you want to see tons of photos of what people are using back home, go here: https://reibert.info/threads/strilecka-zbroja-na-fronti.509373/
74 pages with some really old firearms and some really weird conversions.

The Kurgan said:
I would imagine the Russians are sitting on tonnes of the stuff... packed away in mines and warehouses. I remember seeing photos of Ukrainian "Pro-Russian Separatist" fighters armed with SKS's and RC K98's. Who knows, perhaps some of it will find its way on this side of the world?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25437334@N02/14107998717/in/album-72157624961088228
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