Is this ammo and is it safe for K98k, and is it loaded to ww2 specs?

CanadianAR

CanadianAR

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Had this given to me. Based on the nature of my k98k collection, Ive never bought or sought out surplus 8mm. But local shops are dry of my regular Privi 8mm so a friend got me this.

Is it safe for a K98k?

Is it corrosive? Id think yes.

Is it close to ww2 specs?

It is 50 dated, with a little star, a d diamond and a 5 on the headstamp.


 
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Same specs as all those thousands of tons of SmE made for the War.

Cores are mild-steel, not hardened; this is Ball ammo, not AP.

Definitely corrosive priming. The 2.75g is the weight of the powder charge.

This stuff was being sold off surplus 25 or 20 years go, supply lasted a long time. Sold at $2.25 to $3 a box..... and now it's just about all gone.

There are NO "inexhaustible" supplies. MOST of them have already been exhausted!
 
Depends what you mean by "collectible".

I have 2 boxes stashed away; they will NOT be shot.

Gun show coming up; I will be looking for single loose rounds for a test.

To see just how good this stuff was when it was made, get some loose rounds and reload the powder and slugs into fresh primed casings. The original primers are Chlorate and it goes duff on you after a few years, whereas modern primers seem not to at all. I did that with 30 rounds of that awful Turkish ammo that people were complaining about and ended up with 2 rifles out of 3 shooting UNDER 1 inch at 100 yards. The ammo was Turkish 1942 reloaded into Metallverken brass with Winchester primers, rifles were a 1915 Mauser/O Gew 98, a 1914 Danzig Kar 98aZ and a "no-name" (Mauser) undated Kar 98b.
 
At the time this stuff was on the market, I wondered about the star. By 1950, I don't think that the Czechs were supplying Israel any longer.
 
I have some ammo with very much the same headstamp but with primer that looks like it's made with galvanized steel.

When I got it I looked into whet make and age it was and Info I got pointed to late war/early post war Czech production in "no name ",15 round boxes for IDF use.

That explained why primers where hard and ammo was HOT,maybe even hotter than Turk stuff. Heavier bullets?

Equadorian (or Venesuelan I cant remember)ammo in 8mm I have was made for FN-49-same thing.Hot and hard primers.

I don't shoot that stuff anymore but still keep it for fun.
 
"Star of David" (actually Seal of Solomon but who knows the difference) in this case has nothing to do with Israel. (I thought that once, too.) In this case it means a single-flash-hole casing.

This ammo has the 178 BT slug, mimics the SmE load of War Two.

Turk ammo has the 154 PFB slug, mimics perfectly the JsS loading of WWI.
 
smellie said:
"Star of David" (actually Seal of Solomon but who knows the difference) in this case has nothing to do with Israel. (I thought that once, too.) In this case it means a single-flash-hole casing.

This ammo has the 178 BT slug, mimics the SmE load of War Two.

Turk ammo has the 154 PFB slug, mimics perfectly the JsS loading of WWI.
Click to expand...

Very cool to know!!! Thanks!

I assume it's still a single offset, Berdan style, flash hole?
 
@ Desert Fox:

You are quite right in your assumption, friend. After all, why make something SIMPLE when you have a chance to REALLY COMPLICATE it?

But we have the last laugh, anyway: in the past few years, this same plant has adopted the ENGLISH Boxer primer.

Russia, China, England, Germany and a few others are still using that silly AMERICAN Berdan primer.

Makes sense in a way; you don't want your 'citizens' to have it too easy to load their own ammunition: they might revolt!

(Yes, I DO remember that 'Wizard of Id', when Sir Rodney comes into the throne room and announces that the masses are revolting...... and the King says, "Yes, I agree!")
 
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