igman ammo

triton said:
What are your opinions on this? Would just be for range shooting. Thanks.

Dave.

I have used 6.5x55 Igman, and I don't know about other calibers, but the flash hole in the lots I bought (about 800 rds) were all too small. In hot weather it did not matter much, however in colder weather the powder ignition was a little poorer and due to this, the neck did not seal the chamber properly. What happened was gas would seep around the case and make its way all the way back to the boltface. Not only were the cases darkened with soot (which by the way is another bi-product of firing Igman, black soot! big time fouling! :runaway: ), it was a real pain to clean.

Accuracywise, either with or without the poor neck seal, it was not bad. Not benchrest quality, but overall very consistent. I have no chrony, sorry :redface:

If you intend to reload, things to remember:

1) it may or may not have a tiny flash hole, which causes butt-pain when trying to decap. I had to drill mine to enlarge the holes

2) the primer pockets are crimped, so you need something to remove the bevel caused by the crimp unless you like your flash holes really really tight

3) the brass is very thick, and probably you will have to anneal it to use it properly

since I am a cheap bastard, I did the 1-2-3 case prep and now I am happy reloading my Igman brass.

If you are going to shoot it in a gas blowback semi type action, I would suggest you check to clean the gas system thouroughly when finished, because that Igman powder is dirty-burning stuff. But, it is non-corrosive and inexpensive (relatively) so for plinking it is not so bad.
 
I had a batch of 303Brit, same problems with the flasholes and fouling.

another problem was that many had loose or offcenter primer pockets that allowed the preasure to leak out around the primers.

I'm not reloading them.
 
woodchopper said:
I had a batch of 303Brit, same problems with the flasholes and fouling.

another problem was that many had loose or offcenter primer pockets that allowed the preasure to leak out around the primers.

I'm not reloading them.

that I did not have....I admit some of the flash holes were slightly off centre, however my prep fixed that. they are a pain to prepare, but once they are they are good for reloads.
 
i was shooting the 'bell' brand which is also a bosnian made cartridge, and i'm pretty sure its identical in every aspect to igman. the caliber was 8mm mauser and i had the same stuff happen. really dirty cases coming out and heavy fouling along with a blown primer that put a tiny dent in my bolt face. the czech sellier&bellot stuff is much better (higher priced too however)
 
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