Armory Sponsor
Posted: 1/18/2003 8:41:47 AM EDT
| Just placed an order for a new unissued yugo m48 mauser and now I need some surplus ammo recomendations. Also will regular cleaning practices immediately after shooting take care of the corrosive ammunition problems? I have been told that a solution of soap and water can be used to clean the bore but don't know if it is necisarry. The thought of putting water to steel makes me cringe! |
|
I like the Romanian 8x57 that AIM is selling for $25 per spam can. I use that MPro 7 bore cleaner and it is water based and it cleans corrosive ammo just fine. Water is what dissolves the corrosive salts. Oil based bore cleaners do this poorly. Dennis Jenkins
|
|
OK, heres the short condensed gotta run. Commercial ammo is lighter load than the surplus and cost more. I don't find it as acurate. Does come soft nose for hunting. I prefer the surplus since it is what the rifle was designed for and there is a big difference from 2,700 ft/sec to over 3,000 ft/sec muzzle velocity. Chezh is close to 3,300 ft/sec. Turk is most likely best first ammo. It has a moderate load, reliable for the age, acurate, and comes in bandoliers with feeder clips. Clips can be used over and over and saves time reloading at the range. $5-$7 for 70 round bandolier or around $35 for ammo can with 7 bandoliers at a gunshow. People are really buying this stuff up. Chezh is my fav 180 grain high velocity, extremely acurate, but has one heck of a kick. Alot of Mauser guys I know won't shoot it because of the kick. I find the combo Mauser and Chezh, if you can hold the aim the bullet goes there. German late 1930's vintage boat tail phoz bronze bullet is cheap but goes all over the place and has little consitency. The phoz bronze and heavy bullet is suppose to have a hell of a penetration but so does my .22 when it comes to paper. Haven't fired the Ecuador that is out there yet but haven't heard any bad reports. Cleaning is same as any gun except I use a household amonia solution 50/50 after the solvent to neutralize the acids. I run patches till the blue goes away. Light oil and then come back 48 hours later solvent the oil out, amonia, cycle again. Second step is like insurance but have found it necessary. The amonia mixed with the acids sometimes leaves a salt that later combined with water becomes an acid again. Base + Acid = Salt chemestry 101. Please remember that the gun/ammo was originally designed for repeated military use and subsequent muliple cleaning almost daily. We sport shooters don't shoot as often and therefore have to take more care to remove the acids. A good idea is to check the barrel every now and then with a bore scope to make sure you got it all out. If you didn't you will see little black specs in the barrel. I know this sounds like a hassle but you have just bought one of the finest rifles you will ever own. It is rugged, acurate, and reliable and well worth the extra care. Given a one shot long range senario, I would take this rifle over any I have ever shot. It puts my 30.06 to shame. By the way, the M48 new comes in cosmo. My best found way to clean is 3M Adhesive Remover found at any autoparts and was designed to remove glue and not harm paints. Cosmo desolves right off with it with far less hassle or danger from gas or diesel derivatives. Don't have the link handy but there are a number of Mauser sites that show you how to break the bolt down. Theres a trick to it and done wrong you will find yourself with a screw driver and pliers fighting the spring. Yes, I have learned the hard way and yes I type fast. LOL |
| The best 8x57 Mauser milsurp ammo is probably the Portuguese 1980's stuff. It comes in 80 rnd. boxes on 16 mauser stripper clips. The bullet is the correct 198 gr. weight that the sights on your M48 (or K98) are regulated for. It's supposed to be NC, but I treat it like it was corrrosive. I believe empirearms.com still has it. |
|
Eric the Ammoman: www.ammoman.com/webstore_8mm.htm I shoot his stuff (reminds me I need to order some more). It's not bad at all. To clean out the corrosive crap from your barrel and chamber use Windex WITh ammonia since not all Windex has ammonia in it. Or you could do what I do and that's to get a bottle of ammonia and make a 50/50% mixture of water/ammonia to clean out the gun. |
|
Alot of people and manufacturers just round off the number. I'm surprised there are so many of you Mauser heads out there. If I'd known that I wouldn't have spent so much time on my earlier post. Any of you guys shooting a turk? What do you think? I can pick one up fairly cheap but have been wavering. |
| after shooting commercial ammo at $16/box i finally decided to go surplus..i now have ever 1200 rds of romanina 8mm. the cost for me was $47 per 760 case. not bad. i shoot it in my m48a and my german k98 russian captures. i'm a light weight and can only handle about 60 rds before my shoulder gets sore. i also use the windex with ammonia while at the range, then dip my patches in a cup of steamy water followed by hoppes #9. no rust problems so far. |
|
I have just finished going through a load of 350 rounds of 1954 Ecuadorian ammo, and I was largely disappointed. While I know this isn't exactly "high volume", I would say that 2 out of every 5 rounds did not go off on the first try, and several would not go off after 2. I could have easily gotten part of a bad batch of it, but it was consistent from box to box. I have a load of 760 rounds of Romanian ammo which has been good so far (80 rounds) , and some Turkish ammo that has been good for 60 rounds. |
| As folks have said, the surplus corrosive stuff is fun and cheap. If you buy up a bunch of the Turk stuff out there right now you get to keep all the stripper clips for free. I also use the stripper clips with my SKS. It lets me load 5 at a time or top off if needed. It's a little slower than the 10 round clips but still faster than loading by hand and FREE. |
Armory Sponsor