Corroded Ammo

[Hinnerk]

OK, so I bought some old surplus 7.92x57 mauser ammo, mostly Turkish, at a price cheap enough to pull and reuse the bullets, if nothing else. The worst of the lot is a bandolier of 1938 Turkish where almost every single round has some corrosion on the case and many of the cupro-nickel jacketed bullets are also affected. Interestingly, every single round seems to have nice free-flowing powder shaking around inside.

As the powder sounds loose and fine, thoughts on cleaning the cartridges and using as is? tumbling bullets if pulled?

Intended rifle is M48 Yugo.

[pacrat]

000 steel wool or Scotch-Brite pads.

Then choot'em

['ol shooter]

I had some hang fires with old 8mm Mauser mil-surp. No thanks. I bought new PRVI, good stuff. Now I load my own.

[pacrat]

I had some hang fires with old 8mm Mauser mil-surp. No thanks. I bought new PRVI, good stuff. Now I load my own.

Yugo 8mm mil-surp is notorious for clicks not bangs. Neither it or the Turk stuff is reloadable. OP, Might as well clean it, choot it and get his bangs worth out of the expenditure.

The Turk 8mm is loaded HOT and kicks like a mule.

JM2c

['ol shooter]

If he squibs he is going to hate beating that FMJ bullet out of the bore.

[slamfire1]

Take a look at this thread, I pop in at post 52. Old ammunition can blow up your rifle. Gunpowder deteriorates and towards the end of its shelf life, pressures rise. So comments like

The Turk 8mm is loaded HOT and kicks like a mule.

is a clear indication of old ammunition gone bad. There are some good pictures among these posts and hopefully that will give you a better idea of what may be going on with your ammunition.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?230264-When-milsurp-ammo-goes-bad

When milsurp ammo goes bad........

Have had a lot of 7.65 Argentine for several years; SF 80. I have shot about half of it but hadn't shot any for a couple years. Took some out this last summer and loaded 5 into the mag of my M1909, took up a good sitting position and set the sights at 600m for a sage brush on a hillside about that far away. Fired the first shot and smack into the sage, worked the bolt and fired the second shot and smacked the sage again. worked the bolt and the third shot wen high right and away.......dropped the but of the rifle out of the shoulder and immediately noticed smoke curling up out of the receiver........not good

Opened the bolt and the case came out minus the primer Checked the other 2 shots and they all had high pressure signs. Stopped shooting.

I finally got around to pulling the rest of the bullets and about 2/3 had severe corrosion inside the cases and on the bases of the bullets. Picture shows 2 of the fired cases including the blown primer. Middle case shows corrosion inside the cases. Bullet on right shows corrosion on the base. Other 2 bullets cleaned up nice with polishing. Powder looks good with no discoloration and smells good but will make good fertilizer any

[pacrat]

The Turk 8mm is loaded HOT and kicks like a mule.

is a clear indication of old ammunition gone bad.

No, actually it is a clear indication that Turk ammo is loaded HOT. It's always been hotter than all other mil-surp 8mm. Some of which is downright anemic.

I pulled down a lot of about 200 rnds and reloaded them at 10% reduction. {same components} Not because they were bad, but because they were killing my rebuilt right shoulder. Even sitting upright at a bench or standing offhand.

The powder was fine, as was the case interiors, and bullet bases. No acrid odor, no red dust. Just hot.

Just because isolated incidents can and do happen. Mostly due to improper storage protocol. Doesn't mean it happens to all old ammo. Especially when discussing ammo loaded in South America or other high humidity environs. South American surplus rifles suffer the same.

Loaded ammo is hermetically sealed yet still susceptable to inclement temperatures. External mild corrosion of a case is not an apparent indicator of adverse interior conditions.

Old ammunition can blow up your rifle.

Gross exaggeration. In the right set, of wrong circumstances. NEW ammo can blow up your rifle. How many millions of rounds of old mil-surp ammo is fired in this country every year? How many rifles were blown up?

Split neck, cracked base, head seperation, click no bang, or even worst case hang fire, does not equate to blown up rifle.

Nitro based smokeless powders can cause internal corrosion as they degrade. But at the same time, nitro based smokeless powders lose potency, not gain it as they degrade.


JM2c

[Hinnerk]

Thanks for all the thoughts on this. I'll definitely be taking some of these apart before even thinking of shooting any.

The hottest ammo (based on felt recoil) that I have used in my mauser, so far, has been Sellier & Bellot current manufacture.

I cleaned up a few rounds with ScothBrite tonight and the corrosion seemed entirely superficial although not easy to scrub through the brown brass spots. Some of the necks look like the brass was not very soft when it was drawn. I don't think that the appearance was due to age or corrosion but I would not be surprised if they split.

[pacrat]

The hottest ammo (based on felt recoil) that I have used in my mauser, so far, has been Sellier & Bellot current manufacture.

Hmmm, is that an indication that it is old and gonna blow up your rifle? No it isn't. It is an indication that S&B ammo is loaded to European CIP pressure standards. HOT. Whereas all domestic US ammo is loaded to SAAMI standards. NOT HOT. Which due to our overly litigious society means that US Ammo makers. Have more lawyers than ballisticians on payroll.

All US made European military caliber cartridges are loaded to a level that can be summed up in two 4 letter words.

WEAK SUCK

Especially the 8x57 mauser because of the bore diameter change from .318" [1888 Commission rifle bore] to .323" [modern model 98 bore] in 1905. US made SAAMI ammo is loaded to a level low enough that if modern .323" bullets are fired in a 1888 vintage .318" bore. No Kabooms happen.

JM2c

[gunboat]

pacrat, you are wasting common sense on a internet educated henny-penny

[fguffey]

http://www.turkmauser.com/ammo.aspx

http://www.turkmauser.com/ammo/mhbTurk.aspx

I have pulled down Turkish 8mm57 ammo, I paid $4.70 for 80 round bandoliers. Two things I did not like about the ammo was the corrosive primers and split cases. I was never concerned with the 2,900 fps. I never purchased a Mauser to shoot 8mm57 ammo. The ones I do shoot became Mausers with an 8mm/06 chamber.

Then there was the bullet puller, I called Hornady and informed them of my plan, they insisted I purchased their cam lock bullet puller. They had the puller more than I did, I spent a lot of time waiting for parts. And then one day they told me I made too many mistales, that was not something I could work out on the phone so I went for a visit.

Finally they informed me they had a problem with a heat treating contractor, I suggested while I was there I could go by and visit them. It was about that time Hornady calimed they had changed contractors and would be getting some new and improved parts.

By that time I had moved on to the RCBS collet type puller, I still have the Hornady cam lock, I do not use it, but I have it just in case.

F. Guffey