Yugo M-48 bolt jam

[lee sherman]

I'll try to make this short and sweet. I took out my pristine Yugo m-48, numbers matching to the range last Friday. Shot 18 rounds thru it. The 17th round caused the bolt not to open and jammed the action severly. I was able to open the bolt with a few good whacks with a rubber mallet. No apparent damage incurred. I sent round # 18 downrange with no difficulty. This has happened once before. All ammo was Yugo Mil-Surp steel case. The headstamp is as follows: {NNY 4 1981} Privi-Partizan. The first time it happened was like this 2nd time. I don't have the first case. Would this have been caused by an overpressure cartridge? I went thru all my 8MM rounds and threw out the one's with this headstamp. I only found 12 out of 300 rounds. Most of my 8MM is Mil-Surp brass case. All rounds fired with this rifle have been without incident with the exception of these two. Whatta ya think gentlemen??

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[mtbikerwvu]

I have a real distaste for steel cased ammo, period end of story. Sounds as though you are building up a layer of laquer in the chamber. Clean it out well and shoot good brass cased ammo.

[GRF]

In my limited experience some ammunition sold as "surplus" is in fact rejected. I had a good amount of 7.62x54R steal cased surplus(i can no longer recall country or year of origin) I used it in an SVT-40 Tokarev, failures to eject due to low pressure, cases needing to be pounded out with a rubber mallet due to high pressure were common. Very inconsistent. I pulled part 20 rounds to test for consistency. Great variety in seating depth, great variety in weight of powder charge, and great variety of neck tension. It shot like crap, because it was crap. Similar issues in a Mosin Nagant. When using recent Privi partizan or Igman factory no issues at all. I pulled the bullets from the "reject" ammo and will hand-load it for the MN.

Agree with the above post good brass cased ammo can be had for a reasonable cast and can be handloaded. Just my 2 cents. GRF

[Patrick Chadwick]

I pulled the bullets from the "reject" ammo and will hand-load it for the MN.

Probably the most sensible thing you can do. The "surplus" stuff is offered over here, and several members of my club have tried it. With similar results. I saw the results, and didn't even try it. Hammering the locking lugs to save on ammo is not a good deal.

---------- Post added at 09:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------

It shot like crap, because it was crap.

That's what they all said. In German, of course!

[Patrick Chadwick]

Shooting ancient or suspected reject ammo is ACWOTAM if you want good results. In fact, it is not just A Complete Waste Of Time And Money - it can actually harm your rifle.

[Jim]

Lacquer build up is a possibility. It is a well documented condition with Mosin-Nagant shooters whose ammo is largely lacquer coated steel cases. Only lacquer thinner will clean it. The best way is to chuck up a rod section with a bore brush in a drill and to spin it in the chamber with generous amounts of lacquer thinner.
You will want the action out of your stock because the thinner could damage your stock's finish.

Concerning the discussion of surplus ammo in general, I have to disagree.
I have been using it for over 10 years and as a moderator of a forum have been reading of it's use as long. No doubt hundreds of thousands, possibly into the millions of rounds of surplus ammo have been safely sent down range. Some is highly suspect, yes, such as that Iranian 8mm ammo currently on the market. But, such problems are well documented on the web and on your favorite forum(s) too so such is easily avoided.

Some of it, such as the Yugoslav sniper ammo, is pretty darn accurate. Accuracy is often a question of performance in an individual rifle.

Now, would I recommend it for competition shooting? No. Hunting? Never!
One thing to keep in mind with surplus is that all of it is corrosive. That just means that you need to clean after shooting and to clean, or at least pre-clean, with water or a water based cleaner.
Just my oh-2 but, that opinion is based upon long observation and practice.

Even if you don't care to shoot it, the components can be broken down, reloaded and used. Many I know of have done that too. But, not being a reloader (anymore) I cannot give and specifics on that.