8mm ammo: Romanian, Yugo, Turkish

[Col. Plink]

Hey y'all,

Had a question. Have heard that Romanian and Yugo surplus 8mm are considered somewhat 'hot' loads. The Romi I'm shooting is 150-gr. Heard the same thing about Turkish 8mm ("never shoot Turkish in a Hakim") so was wondering how they compare amongst each other. Thanks!

Oh, and if anyone out there has shot them through their Hakims, I'd be astounded and grateful to hear from you. Mine with the gas closed still pops the magazine catch with the Romi!

 

[Col. Plink]

No 8mm Mauser ammo-knowledgeable folk out there? C'mon...

All I'm really looking for is surplus 8mm that's not too hot, if anyone knows what that might be - I think the typically stepped-down American stuffs have soft primers ). Thanks!

 

[CornCod]

If my shoulder is any judge, the Yugo 8mm is pretty mild in my Yugo Mauser. In fact, I like it so much I bought a couple of boxes more at a gun show today. Accuracy seems fine.

 

[Col. Plink]

I've heard Yugo, Romanian, and Turkish 8mm is too hot for Hakim's, but perhaps not for the Yugo. If it's comparable to Romanian then likely it's just a little too much.

Maybe I need to test a little; but even with the gas tube as closed as I can get it, it dumps shells right next to me on the table (which is great) but still blows the latch on the magazine catch. Very strange...

 

[TehK1w1]

Yugo and Romy should be fine in a Hakim if the gas is properly adjusted. It's the turk that you need to avoid. I use romy in my Hakim, and it works fine. I would suggest taking a close look at your mag catch-if the brass is landing right next to you, the ammo isn't too hot. Turk brass practically goes into orbit, btw.

 

[nathan]

Turk ammo is superhot . It kicks hard esp using my Yugo M 48 A.

 

[Col. Plink]

Kiwi & nathan, thanks.

I have the gas system on my Hakim as closed as I can warrant getting it with the tools I have, and clearly it still vents enough to cycle and just flop the brass onto the table. A cool trick; but if Turkish is that much hotter, it would be unable to adjust low enough should it start to threaten the ejectors with ballistic brass.

The rest of the rifle is in great shape and should be a real joy to cycle through a mag with (REAL LOUD, no kick!). I guess I just need to figure out why the catch is blowing open. Don't direct impingement gas systems put a lot of pressure into the receiver and mag well?

 

[CMP]

Well portuguese seems to be not so bad out of my mauser, and its not corrosive!

 

[Col. Plink]

Do they have hard primers? (hoping so)

 

[Rubber_Duck]

Most foreign surplus 8mm will be hotter than domestic 8mm hunting ammo. Domestic ammo is downloaded I assume for liability reasons considering the age of most 8mm rifles in common use stateside.

As for surplus 8mm, my favorite has been '80s Yugo M76 'sniper' ammo (1 MOA out of my scoped Kar 98K), and Portuguese 8mm. I've no experience with the Romanian surplus though I hear it is good stuff. Stay away from '50s Yugo and Turk ammo in an autoloading rifle though, here's why: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=458010

 

[jaholder1971]

Most foreign surplus 8mm will be hotter than domestic 8mm hunting ammo. Domestic ammo is downloaded I assume for liability reasons considering the age of most 8mm rifles in common use stateside.

It's loaded light in deference to the lawyers who really run the companies. They're afraid some bozo with an older 88 Commission rifle with a .318 bore will use 8X57JS ammo with its .323 bullet.

 

[coosbaycreep]

Most of the articles/posts I've read about hakims says that yugo is the best ammo for them and that's what I shoot through my hakim. I've had a few problems, but I'm not sure if it was the gun or the ammo.

From what I've read about turkish, it will generally blow up your hakim, but I've read of a few people who had their gas system adjusted for it and had no problems. Since it's supposedly machine gun ammo and super hot, I wouldn't risk it though.

I've read that it's more difficult to get hakims to function properly with romanian because it's a lighter grain bullet than they were designed for.

 

[Rubber_Duck]

...a lighter grain bullet than they were designed for

On that note, some 8mm rifles were sighted to shoot to point of aim with heavy bullets (such as German Mausers), so 197 grain slugs (Yugo, Portugal) will work better in some rifles than the 148 grain (Romanian) ammo. And for the autoloaders, the gas system may not even work with the lighter rounds without adjustment.

 

[Col. Plink]

True, the gas system should be adjustable all the way down to closed, when no gas should be available to cycle the rounds.

Does anyone have experience with adjusting the gas system for various rounds or how closed they can really get?

Strange thing is with mine that the shells fall right out onto the table next to me but the mag catch and sometimes the mag get dislodged.

 

[ssbn731g]

I have been shooting yugo and romo surp in mine and I do not consider either that hot of a load. all seem to shoot just fine