Had a customer come in with a sporterized GEW 98 and the bolt handle was broken off, also handed me some military surplus ammo (full metal jackets and all). I rewelded handle and decided to use some of his ammo. After firing bolt would lift up but not pull back without a sound rap with the mallet.

My factory Winchester rounds cycled flawlessly. Anyone else experience this and better yet have an explaination for this? Headspace good and chamber is polished very good. In fact this rifle has always grouped very well. I told him to ditch the ammo.

Thanks in advance,

Coon

Could be Yugo surplus ammo, which is rather hot. That and a slightly rough / dirty chamber can make a bolt stick.

I agree with it being a hot lot of ammo. The stuff made for machine guns was quite a bit warmer. Same with some of our old -06 stuff that may still be around.

Turkish Surplus ammo is REALLY hot. I've clocked it at well over 3000 fps in my Turk. That's pretty darn hot for 60 year old ammo!

Turk ammo shoots fine, 3000fps from a 29" barrel isn't too fast for 8x57

I'm with Buzz. I've clocked some of the Turk ammo in the 2850 range out of my VZ and had problems with it in both my VZ and my K98. I have a bunch of it upstairs that'll probably never be shot.

Over the last couple of years, there have been numerous reports of problems with 8 mm Turkish ammo. Most of those problems focus on bolt lift after firing. Yes, it is hot ammo, but not all rifles have a problem with it. (could be the ammo lot). Some rifles have NO problem, others DO. If you have a sample of the ammo in question,could you describe the headstamp or post a picture?

It would help alot if you can post headstamp info. He might have got ahold of some of the German WW II machine gun ammo that they sold a few years ago. Some if not all of it had steel cases.

I tried to do several headstamp pictures with the digital camera, but they did not come out. This is the Turk surplus ammo that you see at gun shows in the green bandoleers.

The headstamp has �7.9 | FS | 1943 | TUC |" on it . The U is actually some other character , but thats as close as I can come to it.

I don't know if I'd say it's dangerous in all rifles or not, but a Yugo Mauser I fired it in had very hard bolt lift after firing - enough so that one shot was all I shot in that rifle. My Turk gets slighly sticky bolt lift with it in warm temperatures but only occasionally when it's cold.

[ 03-13-2003, 21:10: Message edited by: Buzz ]

Check the cocking cam on the bolt. I bet it is anneled and is galling and lock the bolt.
Ray