M48 Mauser

[tomme boy]

The Turk ammo is not hot. It is what the original 8mm was meant to be loaded as.

If you think the Turk has a fire ball, Try to find some 50's era Romanian BRASS cased ammo. It was twice as loud and the fire ball was twice as big. I mean it looked like the muzzle flash you see in the movies.

[Multigunner]

More likely than not any 7.92 Milsurp ammo you find that gives excessive muzzle blast and recoil when fired in a rifle could turn out to be the specialized Air craft and Anti-aircraft loads meant for the cowl guns and defensive guns of military aircraft.
I saw a warning on a particular Luftwaffe load that stated it was loaded to at least 60% higher pressure than the standard infantry ball cartridge.
Since many 7.92 MGs remained in service after WW2, and some are still found in third world armories, no doubt the hot aircraft loads were produced on contract for many years.

Degraded propellants , decades past their sell by date, are another possibility.

[Larry Gibson]

I've pressured test several different lots of the Turk milsurp ammo. While they are not "hot" in the sense of over pressure they are indeed, as Tomme mentions, loaded to German specifications. German Specifications are up there but not excessive for M98 actions. The problem is one of brittle brass from age and apparently no annealing. Many of the cases have lost their elasticity and do not expand and contract anymore as they should. This is why they split and give sticky extraction, particularly hard bolt lift.

I have pulled the bullets and reloaded the powder charge and bullets into W-W cases and they extracted fine. I have also found a lot of the case necks will split when the bullets are pulled. Scharfschuetze gave me 700+ of the cases he had pulled down several years back. Many had split necks and many more necks split when NS'd. I did end up with 500+ loaded with 28 gr 4895, a Dacron filler and a 190 cast bullet from a GB mould. That load ran right at 1800 fps out of my M48 and was a wonderful load. Never had a misfire and accuracy hovered around 1 1/2 moa. I was rummaging through some ammo looking for some other when I found the remaining 150+ rounds of it. They are scheduled to slay some SW commie rocks soon.......


Larry Gibson

[Shiloh]

What I have pulled showed square flakes. There were corners chipped off of some of the grains and some dust in the mix. A lot of it is still bright and looks like new old stock. Other batches was turned in to a fellow from the range for disposal. I Agree that the ammo was loaded for full power military loads in a strong action. Firing 70 round bandoleers several times with my son, one sure know it at the end of the day.

My son wore one of those PAST recoil pads to take the sting out of the recoil. At the time, my son son was almost 6' tall, but only went about 140 pounds. The military bulked him up. still slender but now there is muscle. Even so, that ammo, full power ammo is stout, and I go 213 lb.
Different lots came in various colored bandoleers. Some in sort of a field gray or bluish bandoleers, some khaki, still others in faded brownish green.
The clips are usable and in good shape.

SHiloh

[tomme boy]

They also had 2 types of clips. The solid brass ones and then the nickle plated steel ones. The brass ones don't last very long.

[Scharfschuetze]

As mentioned by Larry above, I broke down around a thousand of the rounds for the bullets, which shoot pretty well with modern components. As a result, I have several pounds of the Turk square flake powder (probably German manufacture) that I use from time to time. It's reliable stuff, but has a slightly higher Sd and extreme spread than US manufactured powder. It shows no signs of deterioration.

[Texas by God]

They also had 2 types of clips. The solid brass ones and then the nickle plated steel ones. The brass ones don't last very long.

I use the clips to carry extra rounds for whatever 8mm head size cartridge I happen to be hunting with. I had a rebarreled Arisaka 38 in 8x57 with a 16-1/2" barrel and those Turk rounds were Hell fire& brimstone! Best, Thomas.

[Shiloh]

As mentioned by Larry above, I broke down around a thousand of the rounds for the bullets, which shoot pretty well with modern components. As a result, I have several pounds of the Turk square flake powder (probably German manufacture) that I use from time to time. It's reliable stuff, but has a slightly higher Sd and extreme spread than US manufactured powder. It shows no signs of deterioration.

Same here.
No sign's of deterioration from the good condition ammo. The ammo from the corroded bandoleers show some lighter colors on it. Burns okay though.
Lord knows how this stuff was stored and how many times it had been moved. I have ammo that looks very good for it's age. I have also seen bandoleers that looked like it they had been store wet for a long time. Rotted cloth with corroded ammo.

SHiloh

[tomme boy]

The heavy ball Turk I had, I never had any problems with it. The light ball and mainly 1947 had cracked necks before you fired them. I don't remember the primer color difference any more but one had black and the other was green. The heavy was 196gr and the light was 154 gr

Then you had the Romanian steel cased. It had a 154gr bullet with a steel core. It was the same length as the 196 gr lead core. I hated that steel cased ammo. Every once in a while the case did not expand and the gasses were blown back in your face.

[Texas by God]

The best surplus ammo ever in my opinion is the FNM/Portugal 196 gr Berdan NC ball of 1970's vintage. Very clean consistent and shot 1.5 MOA from my Hakim and Mauser. Samco had it. Best, Thomas.

[Multigunner]

Best 7.92 Mauser milsurp ammo I've ever bought was Canadian made. It had Boxer primers and clear annealing lines on the necks. It was easily reloadable and sure fire. Of course that ammo was still fairly fresh at the time, the late 60's.

The ammo may have been intended for the BERSA MG or for a Chinese contract, not sure which. Never got to try it in a full length rifle, but it shot well enough in my short barreled carbine.

[Shiloh]

Loaded up 60 rounds for it. Gonna be high 50˚'s Sat and Sun!!

SHiloh

[Texas by God]

Wish I was there to help! Have fun. Best, Thomas.

[Geezer in NH]

As usual Mr Humble is belittling people. Weren't you just spanked and told to knock it off?

If you look closely you will see a M48 and a M24/47 in the first pic.



But look here is a better pic of the M48. And two Yugo SKS's with "teak" wood stocks.



But little does Mr Humble know that I build wood boats and help a friend who restores old ChrisCrafts. I have built five boats out of wood. Lots of steaming stips to bend around a frame and nailing the whole thing together. But who am I to know about working with REAL Teak on these older boats. I used my first scull boat for hunting duck for almost 20 years before I sold it off.

Before you belittle a person on this post and any other you might want to do a little more research of the person before you do.

Please mark the teal ones.

[Geezer in NH]

The surplus Turkish ammo kicked like a mule and had a muzzle blast like a naval gun. It is all but gone, and what I have seen in the last couple of years was a lot more expensive. Used to get a 70 round bandoleer for less than $5. I have some that I paid around $3 for.

Some was in good shape, other bandoleers had corroded cartridges, and the occasional ones that were spilling powder.
I use 4227 with the LEE 175 gr. RN.

SHiloh

Brings back memories of the 2 pallets I bought from Century Arms at $.03 per round in the 1990's. I got 2 8mm barrels for my 1919A4 just for them.

Wow!! Many cracked necks I had to separate out. These went to use in the Turk 98's I sold in my shop. It seems the cracked necks were no big deal in them.

After separating and linking them up either in cloth belts or metal links about every third 250 round belt the top cover would blow up!!! Big fire balls at the muzzle were observed.

God bless JMB take the top cover and bang it flat on an anvil and the gun would function like new. After the first pallet was gone and part of the 2nd I gave up no reason for it by dates or looks of the ammo. Sold the rest off later at $.30 a round, the buyer was informed why but wanted it then as 8mm was at least $.60 at the time.

Most Bolt action shooters were taking it and pulling the bullets and dumping the powder to be reloaded 5-7 grains less. I have 3 50 cal cans of it in my storage and when get time will pull it down and do the same.

It is one of the foulest ammo I have ever shot. Not just the primers but the bullet jackets leave stalagmites in the bore. Thank God for Sweets 7.62.

[Shiloh]

C.A.L Georgia Vermont on the right side just being the front sight. Mine is a Century Arms import.

SHiloh

[Prospector Howard]

I bought alot of that Turk ammo back in the day. I pulled the projos on all of it and reloaded it back with 40 grains to tame it. They shot great at that level. I remember paying J & G in Prescott AZ $79 for 1400 round cases. The leftover powder worked great with cast in my 30-30. 23 grains with 160 grain cast was a nice load as i recall.

[tomme boy]

Please mark the teal ones.

Geezer it was a jab at Mr. Humble. NONE of these or any gun from Yugo were made with teak.

[Shiloh]

You are right Tomme Boy, and here is why.

Yugoslavia, like the rest of communist, post-war was dead broke. There currency was no good outside the country, and there was little to buy with
it in country. What do you pay or trade for teak when they had elm, birch and other hardwoods??
This has been a good topic. Learned a lot about surplus 8mm ammo.

Shiloh

[Geezer in NH]

Geezer it was a jab at Mr. Humble. NONE of these or any gun from Yugo were made with teak.

Duh got it