Ammo question...

[mggunner34]

so I've been looking for ammo thats decent enough to feed my MG34, at the moment 8mm pickings are pretty slim but I am able to find the Yugo sniper rifle ammo that was made in the 90s, it looks like good stuff but has anyone used it in their '34? I'm considering either getting a bunch of that sniper ammo or buying up as much of the romanian 8mm on gunbroker as I can, I know that my gun loves the romanian stuff but I can get a better deal on the sniper ammo, any thoughts??

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Are you having any issues whatsoever with the hard Yugo primers? If not, go with the cheaper Yugo. I have a stockpile of the Romanian, and given enough time (in years) I will someday own an 8mm beltfed again (leaning toward MG08/15 with bipod! Shooting off tripod is kinda boring).

[Franz20]

I hate to detract from the original post, but I'd like to add, I too am wondering what is safe for semi-auto reweld MG-34's? I've read about how Turkish ammo has destroyed some of these receivers...

Thanks and my apologies,

(Didn't want to create a whole other thread)

Frank

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Most everyone here knows now how damaging Turk ammo is for self-loading firearms, and it should be reserved only for strong bolt action firearms. The bullets are steel jacketed and wear out rifling faster than other bullet designs, the cartridges are powder loaded very hot and put a huge strain on parts of guns that self-reload (semi auto or full auto), and WILL wear out and damage parts and shorten the life of your gun significantly. The 1800 round crate of Turk I shot (before I came to my senses) was VERY reliable with NO failures, being 1936 vintage, but the 1944 Turk ammo had plenty of casing separations and primer failures. I switched to Romanian after noting some damage, and never went back.

1952 vintage Yugo ammo primers are harder than most, and they seem to be recessed into the primer pocket farther than other rounds, which may create a firing reliability problem if the firing pin does not reach far enough, or strike hard enough to set them off. The casings of both Romanian and Yugo are good for any firearm. I did notice that my k43 rifle suffered failures to eject from sticking, tight casings using Yugo ammo. I believe that to be the fault of a combination of a poorly shaped casing necks and an exceptionally tight chamber in my rifle. 1970's Romanian works flawlessly in the same rifle, so casing shape can make all the difference sometimes.

Romanian or Yugoslavian ammo are both inexpensive and safe to shoot. Just make sure to clean your gun afterward to prevent corrosion from the primer chemicals. For the record: THERE IS NO REASON AT ALL not to use corrosive ammo if you clean you gun properly after you are done shooting. It worked in armies the world over for DECADES. For your MG-34, any other modern store bought 8mm should be safe to shoot, but you will find it far more expensive than old surplus, particularly in a fast belt-fed. Understand that over the counter ammo is usually weaker in powder charge these days, such that no one using commercial ammo is likely to damage their gun or themselves and likely to sue the ammo manufacturer.

Example: Prvi Partizan 8mm kurz ammo for my MP-44 is known to be so light in load such that many original MP-43's, MP-44's, and StG-44's have occasional or frequent failures to eject, of failures to feed from lack of forcing the bolt back far enough to guarantee a forceful forward return to battery. My reloads of Prvi casings are a tad hotter, and the gun cycles MUCH more reliably.

[mggunner34]

I have a case of yugo 50's 8mm that I constantly have trouble with primers popping out of the casing and getting stuck in the interrupted threads in the barrel extension, its definitely the ammo and not the gun because everything else I've used in it works just fine with no popped out primers. I'll probably go with Romanian stuff but has anyone tried the Yugo Sniper ammo?

[bbrown]

I've used both Romanian and some of Widener's 1999-dated Yugo (actually PPU) in my WLA-built S/A M53 with no problems at all. Well, other than a WW2 German belt with a bent link that brought things to a halt really fast.

I haven't done the corrosion test with the PPU yet, but I did clean up the M53 as if it's corrosive and, once again, no problems yet.