I bought ten thousand rounds of that stuff. Two batches of 5000 rounds each in big wooden crates filled with 20 cardboard boxes of 250 rounds each on belts. The boxes and ammo were mostly in excellent condition other than a few with water marks and of course some were falling apart at the corners. I was lucky, I ordered it all without belts but they were shipped in the belts anyway. That was good for me because I sold the belts to a fellow in the US that was traveling through on vacation and he was always looking for that sort of thing. Especially in new condition. My overall cost was around $50/1000 delivered by Can Par.
It is darn good ammo. Corrosive primed of course but that isn't a problem as long as the barrel is cleaned properly after. Surprisingly, it is very similar to the 8mm Gibbs in performance. I had also picked up a reamer and unlike Andy I only did up one rifle. I did it on a sportered 98 action that had already been opened up for 30-06 length cartridges. Back then, barrels in excellent condition chambered for the 8x57 could be picked up at gun shows for $10. No such luck today.
The ammo as is shoots very well. One moa groups are not unusual. I tried two different barrels. The first was a 29in bbl because I was looking for a new Elk Rifle and wanted as much velocity as possible. I could never get that barrel to shoot well. I then replaced the barrel with the standard K length barrel that looked to have been removed from an exc to unissued K98, replete with all the Nazi stamps. Now, this barrel was a whole different story. It did and still does shoot very well as long as I do my part.
I would rate this rifle to be every bit as effective as my 338-06 with 225 grain bullets. Chronographed velocities on this rifle are kissing right on 2600fps and trajectories are almost identical. I pull the fmjs and replace them with 200grn Sierra SBT Game Kings. I don't even replace the powder. I have checked several different boxes to pull bullets from cartridges and weigh the components. They are very consistent. The brass is all within .35 grains in weight and the powder charges are within .4 grains and the bullets are all within .25 grains in weight.
There is one more thing about this ammo which was obviously built for machine guns, it has very little run out. There was a lot of care taken to make this ammunition accurate. Considering its end use purpose that is interesting in itself.
By the way, there is an extremely good reason for the M40 rifles to be equipped with a muzzle break. If you are recoil shy, this ammo is not for you.
Andy, I think I sent you a couple of 8mm Gibbs cases for comparison back in the day. I think you can verify they are very close. Because I was unsure of the powder type the 8x63 was originally loaded with, I used 8mm Gibbs loading data from the PO Ackley manuals as a starting point when I reloaded some of this ammo for hunting purposes. I will admit, I ended up adding weight to the butt and fore end as well as installing a surge tube filled half way with mercury to reduce felt recoil. Even after that, I wore a Past recoil pad even while hunting.
Your friend in the US was an extremely lucky fellow to find that M40. Word is that most of those were sold to Israel and broken down for components for spare parts or rebuilt into rifles more suitable to their supply system.
