Is it safe to shoot surplus 8mm Mauser?

gotta say thanks for all inputs....

I inherited my vz24 along with a few rounds of this ammo....I haven't touched any off. With pressures as described by johnone (what does he know anyway?...ok everyone laugh, fella is awesome and, knowledgeable) I'm not in a rush to try them.
 
All of the rounds examined to date are clean with no corrosion.

I will pur the Turk stuff aside and pull the bullets when I have the right collet ordered.

Almost impossible to find 8mm mauser brass. I will have to order 200 or so new. If the pressures are that variable, I would use new powder too. Have mostly Yugo and S&B
 
CAMSTER;
whatever you do, DO NOT fire that Turkish junk.... You sound like a nice fellow, I would hate to hear I was dead right.

It seems the Turks had some issues with using (mixing?) the wrong powders, hence the wild variations in pressure.

When you consider that the operating pressures in the 7.92 ammo is 45,000 to 50,000 psi for standard loads the ones clocking 120,000 psi have the potential to kill the shooter....

Don't think for a moment that the MGs handle it any better, when several million rds were sold in the US a few years back we sold a lot of parts for MG-34s and MG42s that were blown by using this ammo....

NONE of this ammo was imported legaly into Canada.

John
 
johnone said:
CAMSTER;
whatever you do, DO NOT fire that Turkish junk.... You sound like a nice fellow, I would hate to hear I was dead right.

It seems the Turks had some issues with using (mixing?) the wrong powders, hence the wild variations in pressure.

When you consider that the operating pressures in the 7.92 ammo is 45,000 to 50,000 psi for standard loads the ones clocking 120,000 psi have the potential to kill the shooter....

Don't think for a moment that the MGs handle it any better, when several million rds were sold in the US a few years back we sold a lot of parts for MG-34s and MG42s that were blown by using this ammo....

NONE of this ammo was imported legaly into Canada.

John
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thanks john u saved me haha i all-most bought a bunch of the Turkish crap i guess ill be buying Yugo, i don't feel like dieing this early :) still got a lot of shooting into me left haha
 
cote_b said:
Good to know, thanks. I have an M48a to shoot this ammo with.
Click to expand...

I only had 20 or 30 rounds given to me by a friend. They fired pretty well out of my Kar98 and they cycled 100% out of a TNW Mg34 (AWESOME by the way :D). IIRC they are fairly potent loads, being surplus and all. Are they boxer or berdan primed?
 
Take a look inside one of the empties.

Boxer-primed cases will exhibit ONE flash-hole in the middle. Standard sizes are .175" (Small) and .210" (Large).

Berdan-primed cases generally exhibit TWO tiny flash-holes, one on either side of the dimple for the central anvil. Sometimes you will find Czech ammo with a single flash-hole but it is off to one side; this is usually headstamped with a star. Standard sizes are generally .177", .199", .217", .251" or .254"; .251" is used in a lot of .303 and 7.62x54R, almost al 7.92/8mm uses the .217" and Swedish 6.5s sometimes use the .199".

If you are still in doubt, get an ice-pick and pry a fired cap out and see where the flash-holes are.

Berdan cases + standard depriming equipment = broken decapping pin @ $3 apiece in most shops.

Note that most Berdan ammo uses priming pockets which are LARGER than the corresponding Boxer pockets. Generally, pocket conversion is not an option although it has been done.
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Just to reinforce the theme of looking askance at decrepit surplus ammunition, I had the following experience with some Dominican Republic sourced .30 M1 Carbine. Maybe 10 yrs ago, Marstar had a blow out sale on some very suspect carbine ammo. Well, I needed some blaster ammo, so I bought a .30cal ammo can full of it.

Fast forward, and I'm looking for powder and light .30 cal bullets to fireform some cases. One by one I pinched the bullets in sidecutters and pulled them from the cases in the press. Some of the powder flowed nicely out; other cases needed to be coaxed with a tool. New primers, powder, cotton ball for wadding and a dot of white glue for stick'em. At the range, easily three of five went pfft! (Pulled the bolt each time to make sure the bore was clear.) Only the primers fired, leaving grimy particles in the bore. Was it the glue? Was it the powder? I'm thinking the powder is bum. Next batch will be new powder on new primers behind pulled bullets.

Anyone want a couple hundred Berdan primed M1 carbine cases?
 
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