Russian 8mm

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MattE93

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I finally got around to shooting my K98 yesterday and took some Romanian surplus and some of the techrim repackaged Russian stuff. The Romania surplus was fine. The techrim had flattened primers, but no hard extractions and not overly hot. My question is, is this stuff fine to continue shooting? I know it has been horrible for some people but outside of flattened primers I had no problem except for one small crack in one of the cases that may have just been brittle brass.

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I had that stuff and every 8mm rifle I had used it out of struggled with it. Excessive kick and hard to open the bolt (rifles used were a Gewehr 98 and a Portuguese M1904/39). Promptly sold the ammo at a loss as I didn't enjoy it at all.
 
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Aside from the one cracked case I wasn’t too worried. Didn’t seem to kick much harder than the Romanian surplus I was using. I inspected further and the one with the cracked case has the flattest primer. Flattened primers didn’t bother me too much as the bolt was still very easy to operate.

I just want to make sure I am not in any danger
 
German Mausers even if captured by the Russians have very strong actions and chambers. They can tolerate quite a bit. I have not shot Russian 8mm but the Romanian remanufactured stuff is awful. I fired 7 rounds and am glad I only bought 1 pack of them.
 
It’s the Russian reworked Romanian airforce captured stuff. I think they took German casing, powder and bullets and used new (cheap) primers
 
You think just a bit over powered then? Not overly dangerous though? Only one primer was full flattened (the cracked case) but the other two did flatten.
 
Where the case split would worry me. Neck splits no big deal, side of the body mid-case like that and I wouldn't shoot anymore of it.
 
MattE93 said:
You think just a bit over powered then? Not overly dangerous though? Only one primer was full flattened (the cracked case) but the other two did flatten.
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Tough call. Everyone seems to think it's on the hot side, so taking the charge down makes sense. One can always inspect the cases once they are apart for internal corrosion or weakness. Then again, if something is wrong with the case(s) can it be detected by inspection ?
I would think that the external condition of the case is pretty indicative of the internal condition, so I'd be ok with lowering the charge and checking it after---then again, I'm no expert in detecting pressure signs
A wishy-washy answer to be sure, as I have not even seen any of this ammo.
 
Looking at second photo the neck looks a bit pitted. So maybe the brass on this one was a little weak. I might try a couple more rounds and look at the results
 
Don't think exterior condition tells us anything, lots of surplus gets tumbled before sale. Plus these were stripped down to brass anyway so they probably cleaned them at that point.
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Fair enough. I only shot the three rounds and got 1 somewhat flat primer, one flattened, and one flattened with a split case. I might try another three and if no problems I may just proceed with caution.
 
Keep an eye for pierced primer too, mine had this issue in all my rifle. glad im done with these terrible rounds
 
I haven’t got a pierced primer yet, aside from the flattening the strike looks good, I might get some 8mm dies and a puller and load them down a notch. I wonder if Canada got a bad batch as the reviews out of the states are really good.
 
They are much cheaper in the states also.... I guess most things are.
It's 80 year old brass, so who knows what it's gone though.
That being said, I did find it pretty inconsistent. Some periced primers left right and center, most times it flattened primers and extracted hard, and on very few occasions it worked as it should.
Seating depth is all over the place too, you can see the cannelure on some of the ones I got.
I don't think it's worth the price we pay up here, especially if you get it from a store that adds their cut on top of what canadaammo charges.
I've pulled some, and reloaded the projectiles and powder in s&b cases with cci 200 primers. 42 grains chronographed 2500fps.
 
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