The Turkish 8mm question again....

[ScottD]

My reserve of Romy 8mm is geting low, but Ive got about 1K of late 50's Turk ammo around. All of it is bright an shiny, but I know from shooting it out of my bolt guns that it is real hot and shoots very high. Has anybody here ever had any bad experiences with Turk ammo? PLease tell me from experience, not the old addage of "get what you pay for" or "Id never shoot 3rd world stuff...." We are talking about running it thru a semi. Im afraid to shoot this stuff because Im worried what a ruptured case may do to my receiver. Lemme know......

[Chuckm]

Well here we go again, I broke down some of the Turk ammo that came in the cloth bandoleers for a chap who needed some display ammo. I found about 25% of the ammo had the powder deteriorate down to some kind of sludge that would not come out of the case. I had to soak it in lighter fluid and wipe each case with a Q tip to clean them out.

After that I just broke down the rest I had for the bullets and trashed the rest. I guess I could have re-used the cases but they were corrosive primers anyway and I did not want to use them. I had fired some in me K98 but after finding this I gave that up also.

YMMV
Chuckm
Carson City, NV

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I broke two barrel locking pieces and ruined a set of unlocking cams on an MG-42. Hard lesson learned: DO NOT use overpowered Turk ammo in any automatic gun. A k98, which has been shooting Turk for a thousand rounds, had the barrel, reciever and the crosslug shift rearward 1/64", threatening to split the stock right behind the tang. I had to place a thin wooden shim behind the crosslug to move the metal parts back into correct position. Don't Use Turk in anything besides a beater Mauser, like a low value Turk Mauser. I have seen another MG-42 almost destroyed by an out of battery explosion from Turk ammo. It just ain't worth saving a few pennies on ammo. In a machinegun, you WILL run across that fateful bad round that will cause certain damage, sooner or later. It's like watching Bil play 12,000 turns at Russian Roulette. Very entertaining until BOOM. Then you hafta clean up the mess. Not cool.

Wanna see pics of damaged '42's from crap ammo? Go see Bob Naess's site at Black River Militaria. He's got photos that will make you cry.

Use Romanian in an MG-42. I also had some Yugo that worked okay in my '42 last weekend.

[Bil]

Portuguese is good also. DA-I only use the cheap stuff when I play-it increases my chances. ---bil

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Portuguese is good also. DA-I only use the cheap stuff when I play-it increases my chances. ---bil

Please don't discuss your choice of women in this forum section. We have an accessories section ya know.

[Bil]

Actually,they have entire sites on just that subject-but I have been thrown off most of them! ---bil

[JBaum]

It's a nice change to see that it's not me trying to convince people not to used crap ammo...

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

It's a nice change to see that it's not me trying to convince people not to used crap ammo...

Well, we can't expect you to police the WHOLE PLANET, John . .

[masterangler-01]

Is modern ammo ok for a semi? Meaning Sellier and Bellot.

[machinegunbob]

Any new ammo should run good. S&B works fine. Some of the new ammo is a little bit underpowered for being 8mm. If it doesen't want to cycle, put a smaller diameter booster (a .308 booster) in your MG. Any new ammo is a whole lot better than some old bargain-basement junk. Both of my (full auto) MG-42's destroy the neck of the cartridge, so it's a bummer to pay for reloadable ammo, and have to toss it out. But it's more of a bummer to blow up an MG and have to toss IT out!
BURN POWDER.
BOB

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

My full auto MG-42 also dents the necks in deeply. Kind of makes reloading almost impossible. Guess I'll have to setle for the MP-44!

[ScottD]

Damn, Im gonna rattle my teeth loose firing this stuff out of my Turk Mausers. My supply of Romy 8mm is getting low, looks like I should start shopping for more. Thanks for the experienced input, I hate ammo snobs who cant justify thier opinions.

[www.Prussia.us]

I would totally agree with Jbaum’s constant refrain on surplus ammo; but also just to give a heads-up I often use FNM from Portugal sold at Cole Distributing. It is commercial, reloadable, non-corrosive, priced fair, and available in lots of odd calibers even the Kurz round for the MP-44, but I had a primer rupture on an 8mm round once.

Granted Portugal is not a leading industrial power of western Europe or anything and quality control is always an issue on imported ammo both new and old, however even new discount ammo can have surprises.

[medved]

I had put 1000's of rounds through my 1919A4 without incident before reports of malfunctions came to light. Just lucky I guess. I have subsequently seen top covers bulged on A4's from head failures on early 40's dated stuff. Almost everything I used was 49 dated with some 50 dated. Jim Haak sectioned the early 40's dated cases a found the head of the cases were noticably thinner than the later dated ammo. However I would no longer use any of it in my MG's

[amafrank]

I'd recommend just like the rest of these guys not to use that ammo (turk) in anything you value. I got lambasted on many boards for saying that but the truth is the ammo is bad, somewhere in the box you have is a round that will ruin your day. I fired one round in my Hakim when that ammo first came in and it took me two weeks to get the damn thing opened up so I could clean it. By that time the bore was rusted so bad its hopeless. That one round cost me at least $100 in value degradation on the rifle. I am in the repair business and I have seen the MG42 that Darius was referring to at Bob Naess's place. It was actually blown up with indian .308 but there are many that were destroyed with turk. I've done a number of repairs on barrel doors and the bottoms of the receivers where extractors tried to get out. I don't think the damage is caused by out of battery firing but by some sort of detonation. At least one of the 42's I worked on still had the round locked up in the chamber and the bolt still locked to the extension. The bolt was missing an extractor and there was a very large dent inside the receiver where it hit. I've repaired a number of 1919 Brownings that blew up firing turk 8mm. Usually its just a bent topcover, a broken extractor and sometimes a broken T slot in the bolt. I've done one repair on a gun that had the trunnion blown out and the right side plate pushed over the two very large rivets that hold it there. This was a transferable gun worth $14K at the time and he fired 2 rounds, nr 2 did it in. He spent $1800 for a new part set and the work to fix his plate and install the kit. Thats basically $900 per round over and above the cost of the ammo. I ended up selling all my turk to a friend with the promise from him that he would not fire it in anything but his K98. I recommend it not be used in any sort of autoloading firearm and I won't even use it in my bolt actions. It is dirty, very corrosive and possibly dangerous to the shooter. For the cost savings you see in the original purchase you are likely to realize a substantial expense on the other end. Buy good ammo and you will save in the long run. I agree that the portugese military stuff is the cream of the crop and the romanian is excellent though corrosive. The egyptian stuff was not dangerous but it did have a high dud rate. The commercial ammo from FNM and Privi Partizan is good clean reloadable brass cased ammo. It is a bit lighter loaded compared to military stuff but when you reload you can adjust to your needs. A lot of the FNM ammo is actually made in Serbia by Privi like the 7.5X55 swiss and the 7.92 Kurz so either way its boxed the ammo is good.
My Pop always told to buy quality and you will only buy once, buy economy and you'll end up buying twice or more.
As always the choice is yours and you will live (or not) with the consequences.
Hope that helps
Frank