8mm & .303 ammo new/surplus observations

[ak_milsurp]

Greetings,

I have not posted here in quite some time... My apologies for that.

I'm a milsurp collector in Alaska with about 90 Milsurps in my collection, and also a member of the "Alaska Machine Gun Association"

My experience with 8MM & .303 Surplus:

Turk 8MM, 1944 Vintage-Brass case-154gr "light ball" Works great, quite "hot" near 3,000 fps in my Turk M38's. The most accurate ammo to date in the Turk mausers.. (go figure- turk ammo in turk rifles!) lol Don't think I'd want to use this in an FN49 or Hakim... But I was pleased with it and keep about 1,500 rounds in reserve.- The machine gun guys feel this is too hot and old to use in thier prized possessions

Greek 8MM, 1940 vintage, brass case- "PCH 1940" on boxes. -- When it fires...lol the accuracy is good. Extremely hard primers. ABout 50% did not fire or were hang fires. Thumbs down on this one. Sadly I have 800 rounds of this stuff

But it only cost me $50.. sooooo lol

Romanian 8MM -1979-82 vintage- steel cased, light ball- Excellent stuff, quite accurate on my Yugo M48's, FN49, and Hakim, excellent in Belt fed machine guns- 100% sure fire! I have 2,000 rounds in reserve..... (I have a scoped Yugo M48 that will shoot MOA with this stuff all day long)

Yugoslavian 8mm- 1977 headstamp- Brass case-"SS" Heavy ball- Excellent accuracy and reliability in all rifles and Machine guns we tried it in! Lovely stuff! The currently available "M75" yugo sniper ammo should be even better! I have 800 rounds left. Wish I'd bought more!


Ecuadorian 8MM, 1954 headstamp, "FN" contract- I had a few hundred rounds of this stuff. I think it it was "SS" heavy ball- was great stuff and quite accurate, but showed signs of being high pressure- difficult to open bolts etc. (I doubt there's much of this around anymore) I found it odd to see 8MM ammo from Ecuador, but I'mm assume it was for machine guns likely MG42 or MG34's that they had.


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Pakistani .303 -brass case-MKVII ,1950's vintage- "POF" on the 32 rnd boxes- It was acceptable, sure fire, but not so accurate. but hey it went BANG!

British .303, Brass case-MKVII,RG (Radway green) 1940's, Cordite- Sure fire ,acceptable accuracy, cane in bandoliers in stripper clips, smelly stuff.... thankfully all gone from my stocks

South African .303-MKVII,Brass case-1981 date!!!- NON-CORROSIVE!!--- Simply the finest .303 surplus to be had. Very accurate,sure fire... I have 2,000rds of this stuff Squirrelled away. WISH I had MORE!!!! I have 4 Lee-Enfields... they love the stuff!

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I've not fired handloads or commercial ammo in my Lee-Enfields, only surplus

I did try some "Hotshot" brand commercial ammo in my M48 and M38 mausers. While clean and sure fire, the accuracy and power level was not on par with the Military stuff. I'm sure it's loaded to a lower pressure level

I hope this review helps...