iamkris
Member
Hirtenberger 7.92x57mm ammo corrosive?
I bought a beautiful, all original, matching Egyptian FN49 late last summer and didn't want to run any of my corrosive Romanian 8mm through it. So I ordered some of the 1983-headstamp, boxer primed, brass cased Austrian Hirtenberger 8mm from SAMCO that they advertise as non-corrosive.
I fired it a few months ago but rounds 2-5 in the magazine went full auto as the gun slam-fired. That ended that range trip and I went home and cleaned the bore of the gun with Hoppes. A 2-piece firing pin was already installed but found a broken firing pin spring...replaced that with a part from Numrich.
I finally got back to the range this weekend to see if I had actually solved the problem. 3 rounds fired but the action did not cycle even once. I got home and tried to take out the gas plug...wouldn't budge. Soaked it in Kroil overnight and through a lot of huffing and puffing and brass punch pins got it out. Lots of red, messy crap in there. The piston was frozen solid as well. Another overnight with Kroil and brass punches got it out (nothing got buggered up in the process, thank heavens).
The good news is there is only very light pitting in a very small area in the gas tube and on the piston (which can be replaced). The bad news is that I will now be treating the ammo like it is corrosive (which is a pain in a gas gun).
The bigger question is...does anyone have any experience with the Hirtenberger to know if it is actually corrosive or not?
I bought a beautiful, all original, matching Egyptian FN49 late last summer and didn't want to run any of my corrosive Romanian 8mm through it. So I ordered some of the 1983-headstamp, boxer primed, brass cased Austrian Hirtenberger 8mm from SAMCO that they advertise as non-corrosive.
I fired it a few months ago but rounds 2-5 in the magazine went full auto as the gun slam-fired. That ended that range trip and I went home and cleaned the bore of the gun with Hoppes. A 2-piece firing pin was already installed but found a broken firing pin spring...replaced that with a part from Numrich.
I finally got back to the range this weekend to see if I had actually solved the problem. 3 rounds fired but the action did not cycle even once. I got home and tried to take out the gas plug...wouldn't budge. Soaked it in Kroil overnight and through a lot of huffing and puffing and brass punch pins got it out. Lots of red, messy crap in there. The piston was frozen solid as well. Another overnight with Kroil and brass punches got it out (nothing got buggered up in the process, thank heavens).
The good news is there is only very light pitting in a very small area in the gas tube and on the piston (which can be replaced). The bad news is that I will now be treating the ammo like it is corrosive (which is a pain in a gas gun).
The bigger question is...does anyone have any experience with the Hirtenberger to know if it is actually corrosive or not?
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