AP 8mm Mauser ammo?

[Moparmike]

I was sold a couple of bandoliers of ammo, which the Armory guy said was AP because it was steel jacketed or cored. A magnet barely sticks to it, but the coatings are silver-ish.

Any info? The ammo is turkish made in 1949, and I will get some more info from the headstamp when I get home.

 

[Sir Galahad]

I doubt it. It sounds more like a cupro-nickle plated/bi-metal jacket. The last real 8mm AP ammo I saw was a box of military ammo made in Occupied Belgium. I got this at a gun show in the 1980s. It had green tips.

 

[GD]

I have never seen AP Turkish 8mm. I would suspect that AP ammo would have a different colored tip (commonly black).
BTW, although the Turkish is not AP I have sent some of it through 1/2 inch steel. It is high energy stuff!

 

[Moparmike]

In other words not good for anything other than plinking and the occasional blue helmet?

 

[PlayTheAces]

Century has imported literally millions of rounds of the Turk 8mm. Most of the stuff from the 40's appears to be cupro-nickel jacketed, with a steel core. At least that's what's been reported by some people who sectioned a few rounds. Once in a while some copper jacketed shows up.

This stuff has a bit of a kick to it as well. A number of people report it to chrono in the 2950 range, when used in a Turk Mauser.

It's not really armor piercing, but it's fairly impressive against steel plates.

 

[Sir Galahad]

Hold the phone here a minute! If it's not AP, it's not good for anything but plinking?! What did you have in mind for the AP?

 

[Moparmike]

Hold the phone here a minute! If it's not AP, it's not good for anything but plinking?! What did you have in mind for the AP?

I guess I was also inquireing if it was infact AP, and if it could be used for things other than AP uses, and therefore meaning that I would have to hold it back for motor block plinking or SHTF. I bought this rifle with plinking and other stuff, like hunting, in mind.

 

[juicy]

ap for hunting? what do you plan on hunting? steel deer?

8mm is right up there with 30-06


have fun with it

 

[Sir Galahad]

AP is really not neccessary for SHTF. From my AK, Russian bimetal-jacketed 7.62x39 has gone through almost 1/4" of steel and 7.62x54 zings right through without a problem. Bradleys and above and the Euro armored vehicles are not going to be daunted by AP rifle rounds. Deuce-and-a-halfs, Humvees, Landrovers, and the like are defeated by standard ball ammo of any 7.62 denomination, your 7.62x51, your 7.62x39 and so forth. Most military vehicles preyed on by the Saddam Hussein Fan Club in Iraq are Humvees and I saw one tank carrier flatbed hit as well. The Fan Club uses a lot of RPG-7s backed up by AKs and they only hit the vehicles they know they can take out. In this region, SHTF is thought to be some kind of insurrectional revolution. Truthfully, having to defend oneself in a riot is far more likely and that applies predominantly to city dwellers. In such cases, you need as much ammo as you can have because you can't get more for days. Better to spend $50 for 1,000 rounds of standard FMJ than $50 for 25 rounds of AP. Standard FMJ of any 7.62 denomination will punch right through any auto body. Who cares about the engine block? The engine block doesn't pilot the car.

 

[Moparmike]

Aahhso. Always good info here on THR. The stuff I bought was $10 for a bandolier of 70, which is expensive I know but I havent gotten my credit card for extra ammo online yet. I guess my inquiry was also "Should I hold it back for an extra punch?" Anyway, good stuff to know.

I thought that a HMMWV was supposed to be good up to .308 at point blank range? I thought all came stock with bullet-resistant paneling. Anyone have info on this?

 

[Sir Galahad]

Humvees have windows. What does one see in a vehicle window? Driver's and passengers' heads, necks, and upper torsos. There have been attacks in both Icrap and Trashcanistan where grenades were thrown into the open windows. Truthfully, attacks such as these are hard to defend against. Where people have the will, they shall always find a way. Guerilla warfare (a term the U.S. military is reluctant to use because it implies a popular peoples' movement) is dependant upon hit-and-run attacks on soft military targets, of which the Humvee is one. Firing into a Humvee window is easily done. With a bolt-action rifle, even more so from a distance. The original Mujahadeen (who fought the Soviets) were using old British Lee-Enfields to engage Soviets personnel and light vehicles at dustances that allowed them to get away afterwards. Now the advantage of the higher-powered bolt actions becomes apparent, does it not? In Icrap, the guerillas take great risk to come up on a Humvee with an AK. There have been a few sniper attacks that may have been the work of 7.62x54 Dragunovs or even some bolt action sportng rifles due to the cicumstances behid them. But getting close enough with an AK requires a certain bravado. A bolt action military rifle, such as your surplus 8mm, your .303, your 7.62x54, your .30'06 can allow a skilled rifleman to hang back a little. This is why Afghans hung on to the Lee-Enfields they had even after liberating AKs. A rugged bolt action with good iron sights has advantages in a guerilla situation because usually, a stand-up fight with better armed opponents, opponents that outnumber you, and have better training and access to airpower means you will die. The semi-auto has advantages of its own, but a few well-placed shots here and there drains the resources of the opponent and hits them hard in selling the war to their own people back home. Living to fight for years as opposed to dying in a few weeks is what usually creates a win for a guerilla army.

"The guerilla must move among the people like a fish in the sea..."----Mao Tse-Tung


"Push forth a bayonet. If one hits flesh, push forward. If one hits steel, pull back for another day..."---V.I. Lenin