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Ammo for Mauser K98

10K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  AZshooter 
#1 ·
Any highly recommended...and/or avoided?

Going shooting soon and wanted to include the Mauser in our morning.
 
#2 ·
The three main types of surplus 8mm you'll come across these days are Yugoslavian, Romanian, and Turkish.

Yugoslavian surplus 8mm is the most common these days. It is brass cased heavy ball ammo. Overall, it is good quality. The older production ammo (1950s) can be hit-or-miss in some rifles, due to hard primers. Some folks have to upgrade their firing pin springs, or attempt multiple primer hits, in order to get ignition. With my Mausers, I get about 1 in 20 rounds that need a second primer strike to fire. Older Yugo ammo is also known for the occasional case split, so be sure to wear eye protection. Newer production Yugo 8mm, up through the 1990s, is better. I haven't had any problems with my 80s or 90s-dated Yugo.

Steel cased Romanian 8mm is decent and available from time to time, but it's light ball, and most Mausers chambered in 8mm are designed to shoot heavy ball. It is surefire ammo, though. And there are fewer worries about cases splitting. It makes good plinking ammo.

Turkish 8mm is brass cased heavy ball. It can be okay, but generally fairly old. Expect occasional misfires and hangfires. There have also been reports of cases splitting, like with the older Yugo ammo. It pops up for sale from time to time, but in my opinion, it's the worst quality of the three common surplus 8mm ammos.
 
#5 ·
The Iranian 8mm has had very poor reports. The worst 8mm to be imported in quite a while it seems. The 7mm is from the Dominican and also below average quality. I wouldn't purchase either except for reloading components and the Samco prices are too high to make reloading a viable option.
 
#4 ·
Regarding the Turkish ammunition. If you have any gas-operated semi-autos in 8mm, KEEP THIS STUFF FAR AWAY FROM IT. The powder and barrel pressure curve is all wrong for the gas systems, and it tends to beat the rifle to death.

If you look around here enough, you will find a number of posts about this.

About 50 rounds of this Turkish stuff managed to crack the firing pin carrier in my G43, as one example.
 
#8 ·
The 50's Yugo is real close to original WW2 german loading and as stated above ,hard primers. I relpaced several FP springs with Wolff 20lb springs , no more problems . The Romanian is steel cased , dirty, stinky and IMO good only for plinking. The Turkish seems to be loaded fairly hot .Some of my K98k's like it some dont . I have a 98/22 mauser that loves the Turk ammo . All of this 8mm is corrosive so clean well.
 
#9 ·
I was out at the range this morning with my Samco Yugo 24/47 and some 8mm headstamped w/two stars 180 degrees opposite and 12/53.
First shot click,click nothing.Second and third same thing.Fourth surprised me it went bang,thennext one bang then last one click,click,click.I went right to surrender,which in this case was break out the Remington 1858 BP pistol.Only one click there.25 year old BP and caps.Wrong caps btw,#11s.I pinched them to keep them fromngetting jarred loose.
Anyway when I got home I miked five rounds of the 8mm and the primers were all .001 in the hole.Is that normal?
What now,can the firing pin be adjusted or would I need a stronger spring?I want to take this ammo out again next time with my 98-40 and CE41 and see if they digest it.
 

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#17 ·
The Turk ammo is loaded to true German specifications. Folks call it hot only because most of the surplus ammo on the market today is not loaded to full power. The Yugo ammo is a close second in loading. The primers are very insensitive to firing pin strikes due to age. It can drive you nuts trying to get ten rounds to fire in a row. The Romanian is the weakest of the lot,but it does shoot well at long range and is almost always sure fire depending on the lot number/year.
 
#21 ·
The Turk ammo is loaded to true German specifications.
And did the Germans specify a slow-burning powder that would destroy the G41's and G43's firing that stuff, or did they just originally design the rifles so they couldn't deal with the ammunition they were going to be fed?

The Germans from WW1 onward used a boattail heavy ball in the 180-190 grain range and all the Turk I have ever fired (quite a bit of it) was flat-based 150's.

'German specs'? I don't think so .
 
#18 ·
My all out fav is 1970's Yugo, it works in everything I own, and the Mausers love it. Quite accurate and always goes off.

With a Wolff spring the 1950's Yugo works well.

Turk is reliable, and the muzzle flash is entertaining, but the shoulder gets sore.

I save the Romanian for the semi autos, they all love it.

be sure to clean it the same day as shooting, all of these are pretty corrosive.
 
#20 ·
Try to check the firing pin overall length before you start swapping springs, I got a yugo mauser that came with a broken tipped pin; drove me crazy doing the same as your rifle. Check protrusion and if you have another rifle to compare to do a side by side on the firing pin.
 
#23 ·
There are two standard loadings of the 8x57mm round. A 150 grain flat based bullet and a 198 grain Spitzer boat tail. I have fired tens of thousands of both type loadings in rifles and machine guns.
 
#24 ·
what machine guns? 1919's eat the stuff for breakfast, but the belt fed forums are full of horror stories of blowing up MG42's in semi and FA styles with Turk 8mm. One round ruined my FN49.

FWIW, Every semi I've tried loves the 8mm Romanian, and fires it without a hitch.
 
#25 ·
Took Yugo to range today.Fed it 60 rds. and had two clicks,which both became bang on second try.The action on this 24/47 is silky smooth.My Mosin is an entirely different story.And the difference in stripper clip feeding is worlds apart.
Are there any Mosin strippers that dont require muscles and later bandaids to function closly to half as smoothe as the mausers do?
 
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