Need advice - looking for an 8mm Mauser as a cheap shooter?

[Lochaber]

Ok folks, corrosive ammo is not all that hard to live with. First you have to know what makes it corrosive. The residue itself IS NOT CORROSIVE. The problem is that that older primer chemicals used to leave salt crystsals in the barrel. These crystals in turn attract moisture which in turn reacts with the bore and makes rust.

Thus your cleaning problem is the removal of said crystals. This can be done either with a chemical cleaner designed for it (anything ammonia based will disolve them, Windex with ammonia works, I prefer Sweets 7.62) or by just pouring hot water down the barrel which disolves the salts and flushes them out. If you use really hot water, it will even dry itself as the warmed up barrel will make the last of the water evaportate.

Personally I prefer using Sweets, and I do it on the range. I run a patch soaked in Sweets through the gun a couple of times while the gun is still hot and let it sit while I clean up after myself, collect targets and such. Then run a brush through a couple of times and a few clean patches. Never had a bore rust. I shoot a lot of the corrosive dirty turk 8mm ammo. If you clean you rifle while still warm, it is a lot easier to get all the crud out, plus your significant other won't bitch about the smell of chemicals if you clean your gun on the range and I don't have to worry about getting the wood stock wet as I would while cleaning the bore with water.

YMMV

Loch

 

[AlexI]

Since the discussion shifted to ammo issues, I have an interesting question:
have anybody tried to find a combination of a cheap surplus FMJ ammo (like Turkish everybody is talking about) and a modern manufactured SP or other hunting ammo, with same or very close ballistics? Would be interesting to know for obvious reasons (practice with cheap stuff, use expensive hunting ammo only when required, with no re-zeroing).

Alex.

 

[sumpnz]

AFAIK there's no commercial equivalent to the Turk ammo. They used a 154 grain FMJ loaded to a MV of about 2900 fps. All of the commercial ammo I've seen has either been emasculated American loads (170 grain at 2350 fps) or reasonably hot 196 grain loads. S&B does the 196 grain rounds, and from what I understand they're pretty close to the military(Czech???) loads of the same weight.

If you want modern ammo that nearly duplicates the Turk load, you'll either have to hunt sown some obscure European load, or roll your own.

 

[albanian]

I didn't know that water alone would get rid of the salts. That makes me happy as I have an almost unlimited supply of water.

 

[AlexI]

Interesting info about Turk ammo. Sounds like it will have a much flatter trajectory then any other 8x57 out there?
What about other surplus - Yugo maybe, or whatever else is available, do you have bullet weight and MV for them? Something closer to the S&B or Igman (some Bosnian 170gr SP, no idea what MV)?

Alex.

 

[sumpnz]

The military 154 grain loads are probably the flattest shooting of the readilly available loads. If you want anything faster or flatter you'll probably have to roll your own. My FFL also does custom loads for a bit le$$ than factory equivalent. He's going to work up a 150 grain (Noslers)load for me for deer hunting. If we decide that we can safely push MV to 3000 fps that's probably what we'll do, but if I have to keep it less than that, oh well.

Not sure about Yugo or Greek surplus ammo. If they're 154 grain bullets, they should be about the same as the Turkish, only possibly non-corrosive (YMMV). If they're heavier (196 grain) they should be about the same as the S&B loads. I'd have to chronograph the Ingman loads to see how hot they are as I have no personal experience.