You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
8mm armor piercing?
- Thread starter brouhaha
- Start date
Most of the 8mm ammo is steel jacket, not AP. US .30 AP has a steel or gilding metal jacket with a carbide steel core that actually does the penetration, leaving the jacket behind.
AFAIK, no one is importing (or maybe is allowed to import) anything other than ball ammo. As a rule, military non-ball (and some ball) ammo has some type of marking, such as a painted or stained bullet tip or a colored primer annulus. If yours has none, it is probably plain lead core steel jacket ammo with a cupro-nickel plating on the bullet to prevent rusting.
BTW, don't section any odd-looking or oddly marked bullets without knowing what you have. Explosive bullets don't take kindly to being cut with a grinding wheel.
Jim
AFAIK, no one is importing (or maybe is allowed to import) anything other than ball ammo. As a rule, military non-ball (and some ball) ammo has some type of marking, such as a painted or stained bullet tip or a colored primer annulus. If yours has none, it is probably plain lead core steel jacket ammo with a cupro-nickel plating on the bullet to prevent rusting.
BTW, don't section any odd-looking or oddly marked bullets without knowing what you have. Explosive bullets don't take kindly to being cut with a grinding wheel.
Jim
I don't know what kind of ammo you've got, but most of the surplus 8mm is pretty powerful stuff. The 8mm"JS" loadings used in the 1898 Mausers and variants are about equal to the .30'06 in their proper loadings. In fact, the development of the 8mm Mauser JS prompted our boys to scrap the .30'03 in favor of the .30'06. It's a real performer. Smokeless powder gets more potent with age, so the old stuff may actually be a notch more powerful (something to watch out for on well-used rifles). The Turk I throw out of my Yugo Mauser kicks even harder than the Swedish Norma hunting loads and burns a 1' to 2' fireball in the air. It's corrosive, of course, but what a show! I haven't measured it, but I've heard it gets up to 3,000 fps.
Keep in mind, the American loadings are all crap. SAAMI decided to prohibit domestic factories from loading to JS levels for reasons which stopped being relevant 75 years ago. Get the Swedish or Czech stuff for your good ammo, and surplus military for your practice stuff. This is one area where it's a good idea to favor our European allies.
Keep in mind, the American loadings are all crap. SAAMI decided to prohibit domestic factories from loading to JS levels for reasons which stopped being relevant 75 years ago. Get the Swedish or Czech stuff for your good ammo, and surplus military for your practice stuff. This is one area where it's a good idea to favor our European allies.
Last edited: