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I have a wiselite M53 and was wondering which 8mm is best. I tried Yugo 1950s and that was a no go. Also where do you all find your 8mm ammo? Any upgrades you all suggest in springs or firing pins, etc... Thanks in advance keith375

Hi Keith
I am new to the Mg42 and its clones but I have been doing a tremendous amount of reading on it. So take my comments with a grain of salt and verify. It is my understanding that the military Yugo ammo has harder primers than other ammo, thus taking a harder hit necessary to ignite the primmer. In most but not all of the cases that I read about, a heavier hammer spring did do the trick. I am assuming that you have an AR trigger group?

The other thing to think about is semi auto vs full auto. Using only good ammo in the full auto is a must. I would also like to see more post on good ammo vs bad ammo for the semi auto. Keep in mind however if you are going to be bump firing then you should think full auto style ammo is also a must.
If shooting slowly using a semi auto what ammo can be used???? Anyone???? Again using a stronger wolf spring.

Later 42rocker

I'm in no way an expert, but I've had luck using surplus Romanian 8mm ammo. Bought a spam can at the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife show in August, bought out the remaining at one gun store, and working on buying out the other. Thus far, that is all that I've tried to shoot. Only a few failures to fire out of the couple hundred rounds I've shot so far. It is getting tougher to find though, so I'm trying a few other options.

Picked up a bunch of rounds of surplus Yugo from the 1950's on Gun Broker for fairly cheap. If it doesn't work well in the Semi-auto M53, I'll put it through my Mauser.

Biggest thing I've noticed is keep the rails wet, and make sure you get the full recoil for the gun to function properly. I also lightly oiled the links on the belts when I loaded them with just gun oil to help the stripper do its job. Its a blast to shoot, quite literally, and I was surprised how little kick there is. The recoil spring and feed mechanism really absorb a lot of the recoil (obviously). I'm used to shooting a 12 ga and your shoulder is sore after a few rounds. Not so with the M53.

dover
Question are you running it through a semi or full auto??

Later 42rocker

My M53 is semi only. How about upgrades our parts I should change out?

I use 50's Yugo in my M53 and it runs good with no issues. I believe BRP sells a extra power firing pin spring that resolves this issue for people that have it.

I have a full auto MG42 and have been using Romainian 8mm and Yugo 1979 8mm with no problems. I did run some 50's Yugo until I was advised about 60 year old ammo in an expensive investment. I also run Pakistan 7.62 with no problems. Good 8mm is becoming harder to find.

Thank you all for the info. Any .308 I should stay away from?