Polish 7.62 x 25??

[yesterdaysyouth]

Picked up a tin of this ammo this morning at the gunshow and we headed out to the range to wring out the new 52's. About 4 mags in we notice some neck splits, alot of them. Since we'd already fired plenty of ammo and hadn't lost a hand yet I caught some fired brass and here is what it looked like...

First round on the left is a fired case, middle shows the primer and headstamp, right shows unfired round with neck split.

Now would I be insane to finish off the tin??

 

[444]

I would.

 

[Jim K]

Typical season cracking and usually not dangerous. Note that the incipient crack in the case of the unfired round is also through a stake mark.

I suspect the cause was improper case hardening plus the extra strain imposed by the staking.

I would shoot up the rest of the ammo, but (need I say it?) don't buy any more.

Jim

 

[wasrjoe]

Happens occasionally with Wolf 7.62x54R in my M38. I have found no ill effects. However, with Wolf ammo I can now tell which ones will crack most of the time and do not shoot them.

 

[possenti]

yesterdaysyouth:

Now would I be insane to finish off the tin??

444:

I would.

What? You'd be insane, or you'd shoot the ammo?

YY - Did you inspect random rounds from all of the boxes yet? I checked the two I got from you. One box seems to have fewer cracks than the other. About 3 out of 10, versus about 6 out of 10...

 

[Rico567]

The 7.62 x 25 is pretty hot to start with, and some is plain dynamite. There used to be a set of pix on the Internet showing a CZ-52 that was destroyed by some Bulgarian stuff. If mine were splitting like that, I'd ditch the rest of that lot fast and get something else. Of course, when you're dealing with a caliber like this, the reason most people shoot it is the availability of cheap surplis. So what are you gonna do? If there are any sites out there rating various makes of this ammo, I don't know about it. And a lot of it has very few markings....it's a classic case of take your chances. If you're determined to keep shooting the 7.62 x 25, I would stick strictly with a CZ-52, which is one of the strongest pistol designs ever, and avoid the Tokarev. If you've already got a Tokarev, convert it to 9mm Para.

 

[jsalcedo]

I bought several boxes of this stuff and had the same problem.

I threw it away even though it didn't malfunction. I was more concerned about the hot chunks it was flinging in my general direction.

 

[possenti]

For those who might be interested:

http://members.nuvox.net/~on.melchar/tokarev/tokspol.html

 

[Robb]

Lemme tell ya, this stuff spits some major fireballs too!

 

[DFBonnett]

What you want to remember is that the Czechs were the only ones to design a pistol for this round. I believe all other countries who loaded it did so for open bolt subguns and loaded it accordingly with hot loads and hard primers. That accounts for the fireballs from a pistol barrel and the multiple hammer strikes sometimes required to light it up when fired in pistols. I've fired some subgun ammo in my CZ52 and all I can say is "Holy crap!"

 

[woerm]

Seconds on the Bulgarian

I have not seen the Polish ammo but back in 96 I picked up some Bulgarian 7.62x25 and it was astouding,

foot in diameter fireballs at the muzzel , split about half the cases, and tossed them 12 to 15 meters off to the side (normal ammo threw cases about 5/6 ft).

spent a few minutes scrouning my brass til I saw the cases were Berdan primed (I had been told it was boxer primed )

thankfully the tt-33/m-54 Norinco ate it with out issue but the CZ-52 might not enjoy the Skorpoin(?) ammo.

I later looked up the data on that box it was for the Czech machine pistol called the skorpion IIRC. not for a pistol

the TT-33 ate it but I didn't buy and more of the stuff, and when I see folks with the CZ-52 or any 7.62x25 I try to warn them away from the Bulgarian stuff, I may have to add any 'staked' rounds althought the Bulgarian 'fireball' ammo was not staked IIRC. That staking must do some radical things to the time/pressure curves.

back to Sellier-Belloit

btw it was incredibly accurate. sub inch groups at 15meters

r

no I would not finish the box with a CZ-52

 

[RON in PA]

Let me take exception to Rico's post that the TT30 is weak compared to a CZ52. Forget who, but a year or two ago there were many posts on this subject that had good evidence that the Tokarevs were stronger than the CZ52s.

That Polish ammo is 50 years old and has season cracking as Jim posted. As long as the cracks don't go into the base it's safe to shoot.