I took my Yugoslavian m48 8mm Mauser to the range today. The gun looks unissued but with the exception of storage dings on the stock.


Anyway I loaded that dirt cheap Turkish 8mm ammo(the stuff that comes 70 rounds in those blue cloth bandeliers) All of the ammo was sure fire (no duds) and relatively accurate. I was busy experimenting at finding the proper aim point for 100 yards, since the sights start at 200m and adjust up.

Anyway after about a dozen rounds (punishing kick) I picked up one of the spent brass casings. It had a split from the neck to the shoulder.

I checked all of the used brass cases and only two weren't split. the splits were about a dimes width and about half of the brass showed two or even three splits - always from the neck opening down to the shoulder. I examined the brass of an unfired round for hairline cracks - none.

I chambered and fired the round and it split just identical to the others (again from neck to shoulder) hmmmm.

Has anyone had any experience with this Turkish ammo. The headstamps indicate 1947 manufacture.

My first thought was that it must be the gun, maybe an oversized worn out firing chamber - as I said, these are really wide and long splits - but on the other hand, the gun looks almost new, not worn out. I could answer my own question if I had another brand of ammo - but I don't as of yet.

My guess is that it may be the Turkish ammo which would explain why most of these companies are just about giving this stuff away. Any similiar experiences from 8mm shooters out there? I've shot a lot of old military rifles and I've never had this experience before. Need input from 8mm shooters.

u got to rember that the  ammo is  realy old and the brass may not have been of a good quality since was made for ww2 and they were just cranking it out as fast as they could. as long as your not getting any other signs of a problem i woudlnt worry about it. oh yeah taht stuff is corresive so i sure hope u rembered to clean the gun after u got done shooting it

we got a bunch of this stuff in the store i work at. from what i understand it wasnt annealed properly. they were able to tell which ones would crack, and threw most of em away. dont remember how they could tell. anyway the price is right on the stuff, shoot it up.

Send it back and get a new one

Turk 8mm...  I wouldn't go loading this stuff in your FN M49 if you've got one. I didn't experience that sort of splitting on so many cases.  But I did have a number of duds.  Turkish QC doesn't appear to be up to Western standards so sending it back for another case may just get you the same situation.  If you think case necks aren't properly annealed, try wiggling the bullet from side to side.  Or check runout on a few rounds.

Congrats on the Yugo, I've had mine about 2 weeks and love it. I've heard that alot of people are discovering cracks in the Turk ammo after firing but it doesn't appear to cause any problems, so I ordered a case form Century when they had their special last month. 1000 rounds for $60.00! Here's a great Mauser forum with a Yugo section in it: http://pub42.ezboard.com/bparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums
Good Luck. Scott