For once I was pretty happy about German over-engineering.
I recently acquired a MG34 Fortress ammo can with the less common 300 round continuous belt. The belt was loaded with 1943 8mm Mauser ball and tracer rounds. Due to bi-metal rusting between the belt and the rounds, corrosion was visible. I was stuck with the dilemma of letting history waste away, or taking part in preservation.
I decided to preserve the belt and the ammo. At first I decided that I would push the ball end of each round onto a wooden work bench - as a result the rounds should push out of the belt and no pressure would be applied near the primers. I have used this method on 50 round belts with great success. After a couple of four letter words, sweat and some bruised knuckles I sadly realized that many of the rounds were rusted solid to the belt. I did not want to soak the belt/rounds in a penetrating oil as I did not want to contaminate the primers. It was time for Plan B.
Plan B involved mounting my TNW MG34 into my 1942 Lafette mount. With this nice stable platform, I would let the bolt/action do all the hard work. By cycling the rounds through the MG, they would be stripped off the belt and ejected onto a towel which I had placed under the mount. I had the foresight to realize that I was dealing with unstable ammo and made sure to complete this task in a safe location with a clear line of sight/arcs of fire.
Initially Plan B worked very well. The action took some prompting but one by one the rounds were cleared from the belt, chambered and ejected onto my towel. At about 100 rounds "BANG", smoke poured from the receiver and a whiff of smoke left the barrel. I was very surprised by this as the safety was engaged. I opened up the action and found the shredded base of one of the casings. I needed to removed the barrel to extract the top half of the same shredded casing. The casing was split in two and cracked vertically down the entire length of the casing. To my surprise when I completed a barrel inspection, there was no light. As pressure and gas had escaped elsewhere, there was not enough pressure to push the ball out of the barrel, the ball was still stuck somewhere in the barrel. Luckily the MG34 is designed with a barrel exchange system. Thirty seconds of less and I had the MG mounted with a new barrel. Well that was enough for Plan B, I would later move onto Plan C, D and eventually E.
Once all the rounds were removed I started to clean/inspect each shell. About 70% of the shells were fine, 15% had slight surface corrosion easily removed with a bronze wool, 5% were heavily pitted and declared NS and about 10% were corroded so badly that after I rubbed off some rust you could see powder within the cartridge. I am convinced it was one of these shells that caused the ND. What was more interesting is that the cartridges appeared to be rusting from the inside out (talk about corrosive ammo). This just goes to show why you need to be careful when using surplus ammo and why cartridge inspection even on modern ammo is a good idea. If I had been using a weaker action who knows what ill could have come to me. If I did not have an exchangeable barrel system, the rifle would be NS. This is why I do not shoot WWII ammo, but like to keep it for collector purposes.
My plan was to clean the belt/round, lightly oil them and place them back in the fortress can. Is this a good idea? Or will have the same problem of rust? Part of me thinks that the rust was due to improper storage and prolonged length of storage (50-70+ years). If maintained well and kept in a good environment, will rust continue to be a problem?
Now my final question is how to remove the ball from the barrel????
I recently acquired a MG34 Fortress ammo can with the less common 300 round continuous belt. The belt was loaded with 1943 8mm Mauser ball and tracer rounds. Due to bi-metal rusting between the belt and the rounds, corrosion was visible. I was stuck with the dilemma of letting history waste away, or taking part in preservation.
I decided to preserve the belt and the ammo. At first I decided that I would push the ball end of each round onto a wooden work bench - as a result the rounds should push out of the belt and no pressure would be applied near the primers. I have used this method on 50 round belts with great success. After a couple of four letter words, sweat and some bruised knuckles I sadly realized that many of the rounds were rusted solid to the belt. I did not want to soak the belt/rounds in a penetrating oil as I did not want to contaminate the primers. It was time for Plan B.
Plan B involved mounting my TNW MG34 into my 1942 Lafette mount. With this nice stable platform, I would let the bolt/action do all the hard work. By cycling the rounds through the MG, they would be stripped off the belt and ejected onto a towel which I had placed under the mount. I had the foresight to realize that I was dealing with unstable ammo and made sure to complete this task in a safe location with a clear line of sight/arcs of fire.
Initially Plan B worked very well. The action took some prompting but one by one the rounds were cleared from the belt, chambered and ejected onto my towel. At about 100 rounds "BANG", smoke poured from the receiver and a whiff of smoke left the barrel. I was very surprised by this as the safety was engaged. I opened up the action and found the shredded base of one of the casings. I needed to removed the barrel to extract the top half of the same shredded casing. The casing was split in two and cracked vertically down the entire length of the casing. To my surprise when I completed a barrel inspection, there was no light. As pressure and gas had escaped elsewhere, there was not enough pressure to push the ball out of the barrel, the ball was still stuck somewhere in the barrel. Luckily the MG34 is designed with a barrel exchange system. Thirty seconds of less and I had the MG mounted with a new barrel. Well that was enough for Plan B, I would later move onto Plan C, D and eventually E.
Once all the rounds were removed I started to clean/inspect each shell. About 70% of the shells were fine, 15% had slight surface corrosion easily removed with a bronze wool, 5% were heavily pitted and declared NS and about 10% were corroded so badly that after I rubbed off some rust you could see powder within the cartridge. I am convinced it was one of these shells that caused the ND. What was more interesting is that the cartridges appeared to be rusting from the inside out (talk about corrosive ammo). This just goes to show why you need to be careful when using surplus ammo and why cartridge inspection even on modern ammo is a good idea. If I had been using a weaker action who knows what ill could have come to me. If I did not have an exchangeable barrel system, the rifle would be NS. This is why I do not shoot WWII ammo, but like to keep it for collector purposes.
My plan was to clean the belt/round, lightly oil them and place them back in the fortress can. Is this a good idea? Or will have the same problem of rust? Part of me thinks that the rust was due to improper storage and prolonged length of storage (50-70+ years). If maintained well and kept in a good environment, will rust continue to be a problem?
Now my final question is how to remove the ball from the barrel????
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cause I'm visual
