Me who will never in his life be able to get a gun let alone surplus ammo: Hmmmm interesting :3

My great uncle had a ton of ammo from WW2. When he was still on the islands he shipped back a few guns in pieces in the mail. When he passed away we had to get rid of so much ammo cause it got so corroded over the years. Was actually thinking of this earlier. Funny enough I see you make a short about it. Keep on rockin my dude.

Some of us are still learning or find these little info/tips shorts helpful, so thanks and keep em comin.

Good thing most Mauser actions are very strong.

Kentucky ballistics has entered the chat 😂

I bought my second M24/47 from a guy several years ago that offered to sell me some Egyptian ammo when we met up, and just gifted it to me when I told him I didn't have extra cash (it was like 200 rounds and then a clip of Turks). When I asked about the Turks, he said ' Oh, haha- don't shoot those.'

I bought 1000 rounds of Turkish 8mm a few years ago, about 200-300 was cracked on the neck. The rest is extremely fun to shoot, making a video on it as well very soon. Thanks for making people aware 🤟

ya definitely important to know. first gun I ever bought was a Turkish stamped 8mm rifle it is still my favorite .I paied under 100 I wish I had baught more

Yeah, some older 30-06 ammo has a built in age expiration indicator on the tip of the bullet. When it turns black or any other color, it should not be fired & should be immediately sent to me for disposal... :)

"The hotter the better!" -Friendly fire expert

Kentucky ballistics had to learn the hard way glad he's okay now

Had some Turkish M2 ball try and take me and a Garand out once. Learned a good lesson that day to bring extra boxer shorts to the range.

A round that gets hotter over time. It's like they planned for the future.

Turkish and Yugo 8x57 are the reasons I wish Paul mauser had added a graspable cocking piece like you have on the 1903 or the 1935 Mexican mausers. Being able to recock the bolt without unlocking it is such an underrated feature.

I actually thought you were going to show what happens when you ignore everything

I still have/use surplus British WW2 .303 ammo from 1939 in my Australian 1908 WW1 Lee Enfield SMLE (Used in France on the Somme by my Great Uncle 1917). Works absolutely perfectly, It uses Cordite and not gunpowder though.

Problem is videos like this typically only go out to the people who already know, and the people who don't go on being oblivious lol

I was initially displeased at the video title. Then was glad it was actually about a particular type of surplus known for its issues.

A buddy of mine traded me a pile of those exact bandoliers full of Turkish ammo along with an old Gewehr .98 back in high school for a pair of shoes. Shot so, so many of them out of that thing, and each stripper clip had at least one round that split open upon firing. So lucky that thing didn't blow my face off.

I got an 8mm mauser one month ago, just picked up some cheap ammo last week. I'll definitely double check it when i get home. Feel like this video was made for me....

"Don't buy surplus ammo" Kentucky Ballistics's Wife: "See! Even he knew better!"

If it seats, it yeets

Seriously a full breakdown video of the issues of civilian ammo stockpiling would be amazing! A lot of "I grew up on a farm so I know all I need to know about guns" in Illinois so a video to point them to would be very useful

i literally bought these rounds a month or two ago. for my gewehr 1888 and just before you talked about the cracks i opened my drawer and sure neough my rounds had cracks in them

lol I shot some more than 15 years ago. It was definitely hotter than some linked yugo surp I was using. It was surprisingly accurate for being from the 1930's.

Thank you for putting this out there before I put my Turkish surplus ammo in my 88! I had no knowledge of this prior.

I just don't even bother with surplus ammo.

Great video...important info.

Kentucky Ballistics: I wish I knew this a year ago…

And I will add to my first post, lots of my Turkish 8mNm is dated 1942. 80 years old! And it still works great!

have a few bandolears of that. hot, but not bad.

I still have some of this ammo. I used to use it in bolt actions. Guy I bought it from years ago was trying to tell me he shot it out of an 88 commission rifle just fine. I was thinking in my head " man this guy is full of crap "

Thank you for this post. It is something that I never thought about. Is this an issue that needs to be considered for American made ammo? When my dad, an avid deer and javelina hunter, died there were boxes and boxes of 270 and 30-30 mixed brands of ammo that were at least 20 years old when he died. All was given away. Does ammo have expiration dates?

Nah if it seats, it yeets. In all seriousness though, be careful and know where your ammo came from. Kentucky Ballistics has several videos on the subject.

I think that's with any surplus ammo but ESPECIALLY anything from overseas and or a 3rd/4th party seller.

Mosin Nagant: “AMMO IS AMMO!”

I heard that Slap rounds are also very hot...

If the 8mm Turk recently came out of a spam can then you are virtually 💯 safe! My experience has been the stuff that has been out of a can or just in boxes over the last 50-70 years. The cases are generally much more tarnished and you will find a lot of neck cracks. Furthermore bullets that can be pulled out if the case with almost zero effort. Albeit, I only shoot this stuff out of a very strong K98K. I don't own any other 8mm tools.

Great point. Also I know it’s a very rare to still find the stuff but I’m always wary of Chinese surplus ammo especially 7.62x39 and 7.62x54r rounds because of operation eldest son. For anyone unfamiliar it was a sabotaging and propaganda campaign in the Vietnam war that made and dropped pamphlets that said the Chinese ammo they were using would make their guns explode. While actively sabotaging crates of ammo destined for the nva or the vc fighters. They would fill cases full of explosives and put the bullets back on and firing these rounds would seriously wound and even kill the user and their comrades while putting distrust in their ammo suppliers

What is your opinion of 7.62 x 51 in the O.D. Green Battle Packs from the 70's or 80's..? Asking for a few friends. 🤔

Got a bunch of 54r with the same problem. Still shoot it but good lord that stuffs hot. And smells horrible.

I remember buying that stuff by the case back in the late 90s early 2000s it was dirt cheap like a nickel a round but on the Turkish Mauser‘s half of them will blow the primers and I cold fill the hot gas on my Forehead. I still have tons of that and I sold the stripper clips and bandoliers on eBay to get free ammo

the only danger of surplus ammunition is that you can never get enough of it

Just cause the ammo is not in good shape, doesn’t mean you can’t find uses for it. You can use the powder for fun things like exploding cans or jugs and the casings as keychains. Or go full Rambo and seal your wounds with it. Thanks for this great info dude.

Watch Kentucky ballistics video on his surplus 50 bmg SLAPs, that’ll explain everything

Good Talk

My once father-in-law was a gun smith. He was an experienced gun smith and quite knowledgeable about guns and ammunition. But he was also skinflint, looking to get the best deals on everything he purchased or otherwise acquired. I don't think I ever knew him to use new, fresh ammunition. But did reload ammunition. He took me out skeet shooting one day with his very fine Belgian shotgun. But he was using shells that must have been made in the 19th century because only every other round fired. On each misfire I opened the chamber expecting the damn thing to go off in my face. It kind of ruined what would have been a wonderful first-time experience shooting clay pigeons. I was doing rather well.

This is so true! I had some old Lake City Armory (official U.S. Army manufacturing plant) WW2 150gr. .30-06 “surplus” ammo I acquired some 25 years ago. After shooting about a dozen rounds, I noticed at least 1/4th of the ammo felt like some magnum stuff on the shoulder and it didn’t feel like any .30-06 ammo I shot in the past. Upon close inspection, near the base of the bullets and just forward about 2mm from the rim, tiny pin holes formed where the round was literary “blow torching” a hole/crack through the shell casing when fired. I stopped shooting and then tested 1 or two randomly chosen rounds from 6 or 7 20-round boxes of the remaining ammo I had. Same results for a large portion of the single bullets I tested. So I had the ammo destroyed by other means and not through my Mauser type bolt action Savage 110. I threw out a lot of that ammo I bought at a gun show back in the day. The exterior of all the ammunition looked to be in good condition and with no signs of any of it being “bad ammo. I had purchased the ammo to originally shoot in two of my CMP acquired M1 Garands and my prized but also excellent condition M1903 Springfield bolt gun that I had inherited from my grandfather. I always tested surplus ammo in my “beater” savage rifle first, because that was always easier and cheaper to replace if need be. I never had issues in the past, until that one afternoon at the rifle range. Needless to say, I can only imagine what that defective surplus ammo may have done to the op-rods of my Garands. Thank goodness I never actually found out. So, be extremely leery of ALL surplus ammo and in all calibers. Nowa days, I don’t shoot ANY surplus ammo of ANY caliber, as I consider it “taboo” in any and all firearms I own. This is also how I feel about ANY “remanufactured” reloaded ammo as well, regardless of the source it came from.

After watching Kentucky ballistics Sabo .50 almost take his life, I decided no surplus ever.

Good to know as I just bought 200 rounds of the stuff recently.

Yes. The Turkish 8mm Mauser can be dangerous but, there have been no reports of problems with other surplus ammunition. So let’s keep that in mind.

I’m still fairly new too buying and shooting surplus ammo is there anything in particular I should be looking out for? Obviously any cracks or obvious corrosion but any tips would be very appreciated! I’m shooting surplus 54r

If you're curious as to what can happen, the gentleman that runs Kentucky ballistics had a 50 cal slapper round destroy one of his guns, and mess him up pretty bad, he's got a video up, I'd recommend you check his channel out.

That's a quick way to get a hickey ☠️☠️

In the 1970s I had a C96 broomhandle Mauser pistol and at the Pomona gun show I decided to buy two or three boxes of DWM 1930s number 403 head stamp 7.63 Mauser cartridges with cupronickel bullets on 10 round stripper clips. I went to the Police Pistol Range where I was a member in Long Beach, California and one of the rounds exploded at the back end of the cartridge case while in the chamber being fired, throwing gas out the top rear which broke the extractor and down into the magazine which punched out the bottom causing quite a bit of damage including a broken magazine spring. I was able to fix the damage and I examined the the blown out case and I noticed it was a balloon head case for one thing and there was under magnification what looked like silver particles embedded into the brass so I believe some of the Mercuric priming got into the brass through evaporation after so many years causing the case to become brittle. I didn't fire any more of those cartridges. The best Mauser pistol ammunition in the 1970s was made by FN; 7,63 with cupronickel bullets.

Found this out the hard way.. Got some cheap ammo for 308.. 7.62x51/ 308 clearly marked Argentina on the crayon box I bought them in... Surplus guy told me later when I told him my issue and he said the "oh yeah.. That Argentina stuff is made for machine guns. It runs really hot, I wouldn't run that through normal guns unless you know theyll take it" of coarse he didn't say that b4 I bought it.. 100 rounds for $100.. Thought it was a good deal.. Instead I paid $100 for ammo I'll prob never use

When I was a boy, my maternal grandfather was a World War I veteran and a Purple Heart recipient. He still has some of the ammunition that he used in World War I. He used to use pliers to take the bullet off of the top of the casing, and pour out the powder, and then light it on fire to amuse me and my brothers. I am pretty sure he was well aware of the dangers of trying to fire around like that which was almost 50 years old at the time.

Scott from Kentucky Ballistics moment

On this episode of Kentucky Ballistics: “When guns go BOOM”

Turkish Mausers actually were made significantly stronger than other Mausers because they use a large ring Mauser receiver, but they were using small ring barrel shanks. So there's a quite a bit more metal in between two parts. So they were able to handle the higher pressure load. And for those who don't know the 8 mm Mauser from Turkey was a properly 151 or 154 grain bullet moving at about 3,000 feet per second. This only applies to the later Turkish Mausers made after 1903

" Meandered about with no substantial consciousness " Sounds like Joe Biden

That’s crazy I have two bandoliers of this stuff at home for my Yugo 8mm. I’m gonna watch out for everything you just said in the video. I know the dangers of surplus ammo, but I never knew that the Turkish rounds ran hot like that. Great tip thank you!

Disassemble, inspect, replace the gunpowder! All you have to buy is the powder and pay whatever the defective ammo costs.

another issue that I don't see people talk about alot with surplus ammunition/old ammunition is the round not always going off immediately after pulling the trigger sometimes it takes a couple of seconds for it to go off which can have major consequences if not handled properly I grew up with old ww1 and ww2 ammunition so it was something that I've known about since I was a small child but alot of people aren't aware of this issue and I've saved quite a few weapons and people by having that knowledge myself

In 1999, me and my father bought some turkish Mauser rifles, m1 mk3 1938. Never had any issue with either the action, or the ammunition. Over 12 years, I fired at least 15k rounds of ammo through it at the range and never had a single issue.

Yes, this is very true. When I collected WWII era and older firearms, I had to be careful. When it came to surplus ammo, with very little exception I never had a problem with surplus ammo that was manufactured in the country that the firearm was manufactured, I.E. WWII German manufactures ammo in a 98K Mauser and the like. The worst was 30-06 ammo imported by Interarms. While it functioned fine in my 1903 Springfields, when it came to my M-1 Garand, the case would jam in the chamber after the round was fired. The brass was ether made of a substandard material or what I do not know. Plus, although I doubt if any of it around anymore and not too many people know this, but I found out that in WWII there was 45 ACP ammo loaded hotter than standard pistol ammo. It was loaded to be used in machine guns only and was known to jam the slide on a 1911.

I shot some 7.62x54r from 1980 a while ago, I stopped using it when 4 cases in a row cracked after firing them and even with a nice pad it was kicking the shit out of my shoulder. Probably screwed the rifling a little with how hot that ammo was.

We only need to look at what happened to Scott on Kentucky Ballistics. Dude had a .50 BMG SLAP round detonate in his RN50. It put him in the hospital for about two weeks, almost killing him and he was pretty much out of commission for a month or two. He's still got a healthy fear of exotic/surplus .50 BMG ammunition.

I don't think it's stupid to talk about this. A LOT of people own guns and 70%+ don't understand how they even work, or how the bullet they are firing is even made. We just expect the ammo to be ready to go. And there's a LOT of people who own old school guns including those rifles. And someone could easily not have known this. Not been told what you said, and load it up cracked and then go to shoot it. It may seem like common sense to some but there's a lot of people who just buy guns, take 1 safety class, and then think they know it all. Good video. Knowledge is key, and sharing it with others is awesome!

Got 200 rounds of Turkish 8mm. My Czech kv24 Mauser is seems to be handling it pretty good 👍 I’ve bought surplus ammo before tho that had like 15duds.

I've personally have never had an issue with surplus ammo.

I shot a lot of these Turkish ammo back in 2000-05. This Turkish 8mm ammo indeed shoots hotter than any other 8mm surplus ammo available back then. Some of the Turkish ammo also suffered from hang fire. I still have a few rds left but do not shoot them anymore.

my brain read it as sulfur

I bought turk 8mm about some 20 years ago. I fired a few rounds in my K98 and realized that the recoil was truly ferocious. I dismantled the rounds, reused the powder, dropping the charge 30%, and its shot nicely. They are simply over loaded. the cases typically neck split 50% of the time after being fired. Seems like a quality issue.

In the early 2000's I fired 2 or 3 1400 round cases of Turkish ammo through my yugo m48 Mausers very accurate no problems have seen it crack stocks on a k98 but the issues back then we're the machine guns and semi auto 8 mms but in a good condition Mauser just fine

Had some WW2 ammo dated "Repacked 7-44" that my grandpa got in the 60's with his surplus M1- Carbine. We shot some of it around 2007 and when we picked up our brass found multiple split casings. Now I just keep the ammo on display in the cool old original packaging.

I dunno what other people have found, but in the batch my dad pulled apart the weight variance in the bullets he pulled was really low. We kept them and loaded them on top of new powder in better brass, and they were pretty freaking consistent!

Surplus ammunition could be dangerous. The guntuber, Kentucky Ballistics, was shooting surplus rounds with his 50 cal rifle and the rifle literally exploded while he was firing it. Luckily, thanks to his father and first responders, he was able to survive.

My dad had a Turkish mauser and a bunch of this same ammo. I've shot a couple thousand rounds of this stuff. One out of ten would misfire or delay fire, but I never had anything bad happen. This stuff really reminds me of being a kid

That makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why the bolt on my M48 was so hard to open after shooting ammo that looks just like that.

"Surplus ammo can be really hot and dangerous!" Every Kentucky Ballistics Viewer: Yeah we know....

There’s also the possibility of the ammo being sabotaged during the Vietnam war.

I’ve told people before old ammo can become hot and most people don’t believe it.

Another thing to mention is that you can get ammo that hang fires, got some 303 brit that had a POF stamp for the Pakistan ordinance factory and there was a half a second delay from click to bang

Honestly I didn’t realize when bullets break down the powder is more powerful.

Old surplus .45 ammo sometimes takes a few seconds after trigger pull b4 it launches from out the barrel.

I learned that when Kentucky balististics 50cal exploded

One good tip is to look up reviews of surplus ammo on forums. People post on gun forums the surplus ammo that's good and the surplus ammo to stay away from based on experience. Always do that before buying a specific type of surplus ammo.

I don't much about rifles but as a forgotten weapons fan I recognised these bullets and the bandolier immediately. These Turkish rounds are so hot that it cracked Ian McCollom's Mauser and he said if they were fired through a semi-automatic or a machine gun they could explode. Crazy stuff

I agree with your statements, however with Gewehr 1888 (and other small ring Mausers) you really shouldn’t fire any modern commercial ammo. Just a safety tip. Hand load or low pressure steel ammo works best

Surface area increased by breaking down. More Surface, faster burn.

Old shells and old fireworks can be dodgy even is stored 100% properly. After what happened to Kentucky Ballistics I have gotten a bit wary of surplus ammo. Thanks for the PSA! I am always glad to see enthusiasts actually informing people about these things.

During college I had a Yugo M24/47 and we used to shoot the piss out of this ammo and never had an issue, but as always YMMV. It also used to cost 5 Washingtons per bandoleer, when someone would ask to shoot it you just handed over the rifle and a bandoleer and say have fun!

Shot my first stag with a German Mauser 8 x 57 with a 98 action. I also used surplus military ammo carefully ground to expose the lead. Beautiful mushroom.

Do you have a full video where you actually fire those? :D

Odd, my understanding is that surplus Turk ammo is usually very good. Thank you for the info I suppose.

Another note on any surplus ammo: bad/corroded primers and gunpowder can cause hang fires and squib loads.

My experience with the Turkish stuff is not that it is deteriorated as much as just trashy ammo to begin with. The crimps are so deep on some that the bullets aren’t round. I pull them all down for components anymore and used to weigh the charges. On a single clip I found charges from 31 grains to 53 grains!!! On one clip! (41 seems ideal if you were curious) this stuff was slapped together in a big damn hurry probably without proper equipment. On the up side, it was really really cheap…

My go to gun had for many years remained my first gun I bought. 1940 Ishapore armories (India) SMLE .303. Runs great on surplus ball ammo and given the way .303 tumblers with a light tip and heavy base it works great on deer. The cordite filling is very stable as well compared to other ball or flake powder used in civilian rounds.

Dumb question, where is that pouch belt from? It actually looks kind of perfect for a project I'm working, couldn't find it googling ammo pouch belt bandolier or any combination of those