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MG34 questions.. (becoming a 8mm ammo list)


Ryo

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On 10/14/2020 at 9:01 PM, Ryo said:

Machining one doesn't seem cheap either.. Seems like I need to get a top cover just for the screw which defeat the purpose of getting the screw.

As for the BRP 308 Conversion.. Yes I did get a chance to kind of run it. The kit comes with a new pawl for the 308, booster, guide to screw into the magazine tray to fit 308 rounds and the barrel.  The barrel weighs 3.58 lbs, lighter than the 8mm barrel, as expected. I didn't get a chance to drill the tray so I used some 3M VHB adhesive tape that held on just enough to run a belt of Malaysian 308 surplus.  It seem like it ran it just fine. On the one belt halfway and it stopped running. I opened the top over and discovered that it had a empty 308 brass jammed inside the chamber, causing the bolt to not be able to slam forward. I unstuck it and fired the rest of the belt without issues. The guide fell out right as the last round was shot out.

edit 2: I just double checked the video and needed to make some major corrections.

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Did you get the Lafayette Tripod adapter from TNW?

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  • 3 months later...
On 10/17/2020 at 0:12 PM, brad900 said:

Did you get the Lafayette Tripod adapter from TNW?

Sorry for the extremely late reply.  Didn't see this post.

Yes I did get the adapter from TNW.  It's just a simple block that can be easily made if you have a mill. 
I did file in a channel for the bipod retaining spring into the TNW's adapter so I could keep it on.  This way I can use the AA tripod without removing the block.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Most of the Chinese 7,9 ammo was sold with a "components only" warning from the importer. It was then picked up by PARAGON and sold as shooting ammo.

Quite a few serious head failures have shown up over the years, so be advised. Interestingly, some cases contained USA made 7,9 made for China in WW2, good stuff. I was not so lucky though, mine was all pulled down. Regards, JH

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I shot a few thousand rounds of the Chinese ammo from Paragon in the late 80's.  Loose stacked in wood boxes, maybe 500 round per box (?).  Red sealant.  Had to sort thru the rounds, as a small percentage of the cases were cracked at the neck, and there would be a few loose bullets and loose powder in the boxes when opened.  

I came across some in the bottom of an ammo can just last year and shot up the last of it.  Maybe 150 rds.  It cycles slow compared to Portuguese, and had an almost erratic cyclic rate, like some of the primers had a momentary delay to ignite.  

 

 

 

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So when it comes to Turkish ammo, what are all the problems? I have seen many reports that it is over powered, but if one were to tear it down and reduce the powder charge to a normal power level, what would the remaining concerns be? 
 

Random question I know, but I’m getting into the 8mm game a little late.

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Warthog,

I think the biggest problem with any surplus 8mm is dead or dying primers.  In the 80's I bought a case of 1935 FN production for use in my 08/15 Maxim and a bolt gun.  It was good stuff.  I also bought a case of mixed German WWII steel cased stuff.  Very dirty, some extraction problems but few or no misfires.  Next up was Portuguese and Egyptian... both were good.  Around 2000 I started buying the Yugoslavian stuff from Sportsman's Guide. It was reputed to have hard and/or deeply seated primers.  I gave a handful of my Maxim misfires to a guy with a 1919 and they all fired in his gun.   As recently as last month it was still mostly good in a bolt M48A Mauser, a few misfires.  I also bought some Ecuadoran from SG.  Worked at first but now seems all dead.  I have a new, heavy striker spring coming for the M48.  If that doesn't ignite the Ecuadoran then I will pull the projectiles and powder and scrap the brass.  I found a few posts online where guys have pulled duds apart, measured the powder weights and used that powder minus 10-15% for reloads and it worked fine.  To answer your question above, I don't think I've ever fired any Turkish.  Even if the primers are still good, the brass might not survive pulling and re-seating the bullet.  Split necks are another problem to face on old surplus 8mm.  One more thing, assume that ALL foreign 8mm has corrosive primers.  Let us know how it goes for you.

Kevin in NC

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  • 2 weeks later...
12 hours ago, WarthogA5 said:

Here is the headstamps of the Chinese ammo. What say you gentlemen?

I happen to look up on YouTube this guy who was talking about Chinese ammo. I haven't watched it yet.. they show some headstamps, and it was hard to tell, but it looked similar

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/6/2021 at 8:56 PM, Kevin Bartlett said:

Warthog,

I think the biggest problem with any surplus 8mm is dead or dying primers.  In the 80's I bought a case of 1935 FN production for use in my 08/15 Maxim and a bolt gun.  It was good stuff.  I also bought a case of mixed German WWII steel cased stuff.  Very dirty, some extraction problems but few or no misfires.  Next up was Portuguese and Egyptian... both were good.  Around 2000 I started buying the Yugoslavian stuff from Sportsman's Guide. It was reputed to have hard and/or deeply seated primers.  I gave a handful of my Maxim misfires to a guy with a 1919 and they all fired in his gun.   As recently as last month it was still mostly good in a bolt M48A Mauser, a few misfires.  I also bought some Ecuadoran from SG.  Worked at first but now seems all dead.  I have a new, heavy striker spring coming for the M48.  If that doesn't ignite the Ecuadoran then I will pull the projectiles and powder and scrap the brass.  I found a few posts online where guys have pulled duds apart, measured the powder weights and used that powder minus 10-15% for reloads and it worked fine.  To answer your question above, I don't think I've ever fired any Turkish.  Even if the primers are still good, the brass might not survive pulling and re-seating the bullet.  Split necks are another problem to face on old surplus 8mm.  One more thing, assume that ALL foreign 8mm has corrosive primers.  Let us know how it goes for you.

Kevin in NC

I tried some more of the Ecuadoran stuff today in the M48A Mauser with the heavier striker spring installed.  11 of 30 fired, which is a 63% failure rate.   The ones that fired were normal, no hang fires.   None of the duds fired when I tried them a second time, though a previous batch of duds had 2 of 29 fire with a second strike.  I'll cycle every one of these through the Mauser and salvage the bullets and powder from the duds.

Kevin in NC

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3 hours ago, Kevin Bartlett said:

I tried some more of the Ecuadoran stuff today in the M48A Mauser with the heavier striker spring installed.  11 of 30 fired, which is a 63% failure rate.   The ones that fired were normal, no hang fires.   None of the duds fired when I tried them a second time, though a previous batch of duds had 2 of 29 fire with a second strike.  I'll cycle every one of these through the Mauser and salvage the bullets and powder from the duds.

Kevin 

You salvage the powder too?  I would have assumed dumping the powder. 

Edited by Ryo
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I salvaged the powder on some old 8mm ammo. Brass was splitting and bad. Too much chance of damaging the guns. Small, square flakes. works great in my BAR. Salvaging of powder only works if all the powder is alike. Mixing powder types is not good. Reducing loads and working up is a must.

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Ryo,

I've still got plenty of 8mm that still goes bang so I've not reloaded any yet using salvaged powder.  Of the Ecuadoran stuff I pulled, I found the charges were on average 44.7 grains and the bullets were on average 197.6 grains.  Like Gftiv said above, small square flakes.  I plan to load a few soon and if they work, then start dismantling the duds when I accumulate a bucket full.  I've got a bunch of dead 7.62 Tokarev and will do the same with them.  It's a good excuse to drink beer and listen to classic rock while I'm doing it.   Maybe I'm cheap or maybe just stupid but I can't see myself dumping good powder if it works. 

Kevin in NC

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  • 1 month later...

My Chinese L451 seemed to work well, no hang fires on the K98 and a high cyclic rate on the MG34. It had an interesting, almost petroleum smell when I opened the ammo can. After taking it all out I found a white chunk of something at the bottom that was the source of the smell. Possibly some kind of moisture inhibitor that helped keep the ammo functional?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Don't forget about the 70's dated Yugo ammo. Good stuff if you can find it.

In the past, I had good luck with this 7.92 in a transferable MG34:
- Egyptian
- Greek '40 dated
- Romanian 70's dated
- Yugo 70's dated
- both steel cased and brass cased WWII and pre-WWI German ammo

 

Most all of that stuff was shot back in the mid-2000s. Nowadays, Romanian is the way to go if you can find it.

 

Good luck!

Cincylance

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/5/2021 at 11:04 PM, Ryo said:

Keep me up to date. Love to hear how it goes. 

Today I finally tried some of the Ecuadoran surplus powder that I had pulled from the duds.  I had a dozen once-fired S&B and Privi cases and based on the 44.7 grains per cartridge noted above, I loaded 6 with 40 grains and 6 with 36 grains.  I used the original Ecuadoran bullets.  They all shot fine, reduced recoil, accuracy about as good as my tired eyes can get with that tiny rear sight groove on the Mauser.  One of these days I will load some more and see if they cycle through my FN-49.  This powder is definitely worth saving.

Kevin in NC

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  • 1 year later...
1 hour ago, Aaron in Mohnton Pa said:

Lots of good info in this thread...... I have been having issues lately running surplus Yugo 8mm... Hard primers? or rounds just not firing. No obvious signs of corrosion etc.... Going to crack open some Romanian next

Aaron - Mohnton, Pa

Sales@BeltFeds.Com

Be aware that there are two flavors of Romy 8mm steel cased ammo.  The surplus stuff available 10+ years ago runs perfectly and has the correct overall length.  The newer stuff also runs perfectly, but it is shorter than the earlier stuff.  I pulled the bullets on the short rounds and re-seated them to get the same overall length as the original, longer, stuff.

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Left two rounds are the newer 8mm stuff.  The third from the left round is an original, earlier, round.  The rightmost round is one of the newer rounds where I pulled the bullet and re-seated it to match the overall length of the original stuff.  I did not notice any difference in performance between the original stuff and the reseated bullets newer stuff.  As an aside, pulling and reseating 500 rounds is a real pain-in-the-a$$.

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30 minutes ago, pstidan said:

Be aware that there are two flavors of Romy 8mm steel cased ammo.  The surplus stuff available 10+ years ago runs perfectly and has the correct overall length.  The newer stuff also runs perfectly, but it is shorter than the earlier stuff.  I pulled the bullets on the short rounds and re-seated them to get the same overall length as the original, longer, stuff. 

Interesting never knew of the length of the Romy. Any reason why you did it? Just a test? I'll have to look at my Romy.. 

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1 hour ago, Ryo said:

Interesting never knew of the length of the Romy. Any reason why you did it? Just a test? I'll have to look at my Romy.. 

I did this pulling and reseating because I wanted to run this stuff through a Vickers and MG08.  You need the correct length so that the round is picked up in the extractor to feed these guys.

Edited by pstidan
Punctuation error.
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Got some 8mm mauser new in box, NON corrosive on box. made in Romania. This stuff is also too short. My browning will not cycle it. the belt extractor will not pull the cartridge out of the belt because it doesn't reach the back of the cartidge. works in G43.

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