8x57 Milsurp ammo....corrosive or not?

kombi1976

kombi1976

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I scored 25 rounds of 8mm Mauser FMJ ammo from a friend and want to use it tomorrow but first I want to be sure that I know if it's corrosive.
Most appear to be WW2 era German stuff.
Here are some of the headstamp numbers:

P S* 235 34
P94 S* 5 38
P131 S* 2 38
P131 S* 9 38
P131 S* 42 35
P132 S* 8 36
P181 VIIIw1 56 39
P346 S* 4 37
P369 S* 5 39
P379 S* 13 37
P491 S* 5 39

B 38 3 V

51 X *- 3

51 O - * 4 (steel jacketed FMJ!)

F N 50

hhW St* 31 43

Can anyone help me out with these?
 
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Yes all corrosive, many are collector's items worth saving rather than shooting them.
 
Ahhh.......ALL corosive.:confused:
So what would I need to use to clean up after this?
Hot water then solvents?
Will the use of non-corrosive rounds after shooting them help to clear some of the much away or will it make it worse?
 
airwapiti said:
its best if you don't shoot that stuff while the humidity is really high, no need to compound your problems.
Click to expand...

I think the regular firey explosions should serve to keep things dry while shooting on a humid day.

I know you mean well, but that advice is total overkill. New-users are already needlessly scared enough about corrosive ammo without thinking they need to look at a humidity index before shooting lest their rifle disintegrates in their hands.

To the original poster, shoot your ammo, on the same day clean your rifle. There will be one extra step in cleaning after this ammo vs N/A hunting ammo.

Here it is:
*Boil a kettle, remove the bolt, pour hot water down the bore and over the bolt, give the bore a couple of dry swabs. Let it air dry (it will be hot)*

-clean and oil as usual. Good to go.

Make sure you also clean the front sight housing, I find that gets salty as well.

Regards,

DT
 
If you were to hold your enthusiam a bit on fireing those rounds and post them on the exchange for sale, you would probably get enough to buy a couple of boxes of factory ammo that aren't corrosive. If you don't clean up properly after fireing that stuff, you may ruin a good bore.
 
I think the regular firey explosions should serve to keep things dry while shooting on a humid day.
Click to expand...

i am just speaking from experience. i fired my sks on a really humid day/ almost raining. i gave it a pull through and a quick cleaning of the major parts. i normally did this everytime i come off the range and would follow up the next day with a thorough cleaning. on this occasion i had to put the sks in a vice and pull the bolt with a belt to get it to move. i don't think its so much the firing that causes problems but the lag time between firing and cleaning. i guess my point is if you are going to fire known corrosive ammo and the rifle could be exposed to humidity, budget some time to clean the firearm immediatly after firing. it will save you much heartache in the long run.
 
You mean you guys don't have an original German humidity guage? This is why they lost the war and were wiped out by the Russians on the Eastern front. They could only shoot when the humidity was less than 70%. A little known fact.
 
to the question at hand...sell that ammo as collector stuff (I am trying to find enough origianl German 8mm to load a full belt)

Use the cash to buy TWICE as much non-corrosive ammo or 3 times as much surplus that ISNT German
 
Klunk,
You looking for any particular wartime German ammo, ie certain headstamps? I've got a bunch of wartime German for export 8mm. I'll get a pic of the boxes up later today.
 
Augh, I've been looking for original WW2 german 8mm surplus to collect for a while and this guy has some he's going to shoot!?! I though i was done crying myself to sleep for a while...
 
There was a huge batch from Turkey of genuine German ball ammo sold in the US over that last few years. I think most was simply shot up as with other surplus.
 
About time to look for one of those canadian cleaning funnels.
One thing to remember about the SKS is while the bore may be chromed, the gas cylinder is NOT.
 
ollie and klunk, is this the kind of stuff you're looking for?


8mm1.jpg
 
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So it's worth something, eh?
Well, I was given it by the guy who originally sold me my bubba'd K98.
I wonder if it's worth anything here in Oz.
I'll have to check.
Suffice to say, after a bit of tossing and turning I only shot my own handloads yesterday.
So I'll contact some guys here in Oz and see if anyone's interested in paying up.
Wish I could send it to you, Ollie.
 
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