8mm Mauser Military surplus ammo

[Joe226]

I have been looking around on the internet for 8mm Mauser Military surplus ammo and have found a few sites with different ammo. I have found 198 Grain Yugoslavia ammo made in the 50's for a pretty good price.

1) Should I stay away from this ammo or is it ok?

2) Is there any better surplus ammo out there for this caliber that is available?

[GMG]

Not sure about the grain..........but 50's Yugo is usually pretty good ammo.

Been buying some myself.

[Joe226]

Thanks for the response. how corrosive is it? Do you clean your rifle immediately after shooting or do you clean it later, and what do you use to clean it?

[GMG]

I spray it down with Windex alot after the shoot, (it desloves the corrosive salts) when I get home it's normal cleaning.

I'm shooting a beltfed, which shouldn't make a difference.

Yes it is corrosive!!

[IrishPat]

The '50s Yugoslavian has a reputation for click-bangs and other issues. However, the rounds from the 80s and 90s are fantastic. Yugoslavia has been making great 8mm since the 1920s.

I strongly recommend rinsing your bore right away, at the range. Corrosive salts are washed away by WATER, not any fancy or over the counter products. Just be sure to wipe down your bolt head and firing pin, and then dry all the parts that the water came into contact with. After that, clean normally.
Pat

[Joe226]

When you say "click-bangs" do you mean delayed firings?

[Mssr. Eleganté]

When you say "click-bangs" do you mean delayed firings?

Yes, "click-bangs" does mean delayed firing. But I don't recall any reports of click-bangs with 50's Yugo 8mm though. IrishPat might be thinking about the reputation 50's Yugo has for hard primers. Some rifles won't set off the rounds on the first try. The solution to this is usually a new/heavier striker spring.

There are some lots of 50's Yugo that have a high rate of bad case splits when fired. There were a bunch of discussions about this on the various C&R firearms forums a few years back, where people were trying to narrow down the problem to a specific year or factory. I'm not positive, but vaguely recall that they found a specific year from one factory that had most of the problems. I don't know which year or factory though.

The headstamp and boxes of 50's Yugo 8mm will have either an 11 or 12 for the factory code. Factory 11 is Igman in Bosnia and factory 12 is Prvi Partizan in Serbia.

[diginit]

Yugo is 196/198 G. The 1954 Yugo had a bad run with inclusions in the case near the head that cause rupture resulting in catastrophic breech failures. Avoid these. The inclusions are visable. But not all 54 have this problem. Do a google on 1954 yugo 8mm. All the rest shoot fine. I've fired 1939 and as long as there is no corrosion around or on the primer, or rust on the case, you will be fine. 1939 + German is good ammo. Romainian is good stuff too. Don't shoot Turkish in a Hakim. Turk is the hottest and will blow a semi auto reciever. Shoots the best of all in a bolt gun as they have very strong recievers. My favorite in both of my Yugo 24/47 Mausers. Nickel plated and good to 1000 meters easy.
Just windex the barrel, muzzle, and bolt face and patch dry after shooting. Then clean with a solvent such as Hoppes 9 when you get home.
What are you shooting it in? If it is a 24/47, K98, or FR8, you will be fine with any surplus ammo in good condition.

[Joe226]

Its a Yugo 24/47 like the ones you have. Do you know of any place where I can find the Turk ammo you were talking about?

[diginit]

You just gotta look around, I just pick it up whenever I happen to find it.
The yugo will shoot great. The 24/47 is a Yugo Mauser. It has used that ammo all it's life.