Ammo Recommendations

R

Rguns

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Looking for recommendations of what you guys use for ammo in the K98's. I am only going to use it for plinking and range shooting occasionally. Where I live, I'm limited to indoor ranges only and most ranges restrict anything other then FMJ brass.

So I'm looking to find new, FMJ 8mm (7.92x.57) brass ammo. I'd prefer to stay away from surplus stuff. I don't do my own reloading, but understand that would be a cheaper option. I'm not really finding anything in my local stores, so will likely have to buy online. Currently looking at PPU and Sellier & Bellot brands. Any pros or cons? What brands to you guys use for target shooting (other then reloads) and any specific ammo sites you like for online purchase??
 
for general shooting, I like to buy PPU, reasonably priced & reloads well. (if you don’t, you could sell the brass or save it for later) Right now would be tough to start reloading, as particular components are scarce & have become quite expensive. (traditionally the motivation for reloading has been to save $$ AND improve quality) S&B is considered ‘good ammo’ as well.
where to buy online? use ‘ammoseek’ or similar search engine, pay attention to shipping charges, sometimes an extra dollar or two per box with a lower shipping charge will save you money. Right now SG Ammo shows PPU 8mm in 196gn soft point @ $24/box of 20 in stock, I’ve bought there before, no problems.
 
PPU is really good ammunition and the brass is a hundred percent reloadable. The only downside is it's a little bit pricing nowadays, and the cartridge is underloaded in power. Commercial made 7.92 ammunition has always been underloaded. Main reason, use of the ammunition in the old commission 88 series of rifles, and carbines. If you shoot some military surplus ammunition you can tell it's underloaded in power. As for military surplus ammunition. The best in my opinion is the Portuguese made ammo from the 70s. It's completely non corrosive, and it shoots great. Runs great in a MG08/15 as well. Unfortunately that ammunition is getting hard to come by too. If you buy other surplus ammo stay away from Turkish, Egyptian, and 1944-1945 German production ammo.
 
Rguns said:
Looking for recommendations of what you guys use for ammo in the K98's. I am only going to use it for plinking and range shooting occasionally. Where I live, I'm limited to indoor ranges only and most ranges restrict anything other then FMJ brass.

So I'm looking to find new, FMJ 8mm (7.92x.57) brass ammo. I'd prefer to stay away from surplus stuff. I don't do my own reloading, but understand that would be a cheaper option. I'm not really finding anything in my local stores, so will likely have to buy online. Currently looking at PPU and Sellier & Bellot brands. Any pros or cons? What brands to you guys use for target shooting (other then reloads) and any specific ammo sites you like for online purchase??
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Have a look at this thread:

www.k98kforum.com

PPU Serb ammo

I have a chance to buy some Serb ammunition - 8x57 PSP 196 grain. Is this stuff safe for my shooter?
www.k98kforum.com www.k98kforum.com
 
S&B is my favorite 8mm. PPU is decent, but as mentioned before it is loaded very light and doesn't give the best accuracy out of a K98. S&B is loaded close to wartime 8mm specs and performs very well, and is very accurate. I also like Portuguese FNM 8mm but I tend to save that for rainy days as it's very hard to come by these days.
 
Load your own. You can customize your loads to what you want and you will know your own quality control.
 
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I'll third/fourth whatever PPU being pretty OK, for pretty much all military calibers. It's not the best, but the brass is pretty decent and it reloads well. One thing I will say is that PPU brass in general, across all of their calibers, benefits from annealing. I forget what the deal is exactly - it's high in something, tin maybe? - but it's prone to cracking after a few reloads if you don't anneal. With annealing I get very good case life.

It's also cheap enough that it's often not that much more expensive to just buy loaded ammo than it is to buy the brass. For calibers that I don't really care too much about optimizing accuracy, my SOP is that I'll buy a few hundred rounds of PPU, shoot through that, then have brass for reloading. I think with their 7.62x54r it ends up being something like twenty cents a round more to get PPU than to just get brass.
 
Ok, thanks for all the replies, that helps! I just placed an order online for PPU FMJ, hopefully those rounds play nicely with my old rifle. Even though I don't reload, based on your comments, it sounds like I should at least try to capture those spent casings since they are good for that purpose. Still new on this forum, but are those spent casings something that could be sold/traded in the "Forum Trader" section? I don't have the equipment or know how at this stage to reload. Plus, I don't intend to fire this thing a lot, especially considering the crazy price for the ammoo_O
 
Rguns said:
Ok, thanks for all the replies, that helps! I just placed an order online for PPU FMJ, hopefully those rounds play nicely with my old rifle. Even though I don't reload, based on your comments, it sounds like I should at least try to capture those spent casings since they are good for that purpose. Still new on this forum, but are those spent casings something that could be sold/traded in the "Forum Trader" section? I don't have the equipment or know how at this stage to reload. Plus, I don't intend to fire this thing a lot, especially considering the crazy price for the ammoo_O
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Yes absolutely. Someone sells fairly regularly spent brass for reloading purposes and there'd likely be some interest in once fired PPU
 
At risk of detailing the conversation here, but is 50s yugo brass reloadable? My buddy gave me hundreds of cleaned cases over the weekend and I’m not sure if it’s worth reloading yet.
 
72usmc said:
50s Yugo gives case splits, use 70s yugo or PPU. Most 50 is brittle brass, maybe if its all re annealed? I throw mine out. Do a search on Yugo case splits.
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Yeah I’ve heard of that problem. I have some PPU laying around I’ll use instead.
 
Garnerzd said:
S&B is my favorite 8mm. PPU is decent, but as mentioned before it is loaded very light and doesn't give the best accuracy out of a K98. S&B is loaded close to wartime 8mm specs and performs very well, and is very accurate. I also like Portuguese FNM 8mm but I tend to save that for rainy days as it's very hard to come by these days.
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You do realize PPU has two different 8mm Mauser ammo. One is loaded less hotter and labeled 8mm and the other one is closer to s&b and labeled 8x57.
 
Warrior1354 said:
PPU is really good ammunition and the brass is a hundred percent reloadable. The only downside is it's a little bit pricing nowadays, and the cartridge is underloaded in power. Commercial made 7.92 ammunition has always been underloaded. Main reason, use of the ammunition in the old commission 88 series of rifles, and carbines. If you shoot some military surplus ammunition you can tell it's underloaded in power. As for military surplus ammunition. The best in my opinion is the Portuguese made ammo from the 70s. It's completely non corrosive, and it shoots great. Runs great in a MG08/15 as well. Unfortunately that ammunition is getting hard to come by too. If you buy other surplus ammo stay away from Turkish, Egyptian, and 1944-1945 German production ammo.
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Ppu has one that’s under loaded and another 8mm labeled 8x57 that’s truer to nazi era ammo and s&b.
 
Taybyes said:
You do realize PPU has two different 8mm Mauser ammo. One is loaded less hotter and labeled 8mm and the other one is closer to s&b and labeled 8x57.
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not to be argumentative, but got ppu cat #s to back that up?
it isn’t any of PPM8, PP8S, PP8F or PP8571, which is a rimmed cartridge. all of those have 196-200 grain bullets, velocities around 2100-2200 fps @ muzzle, except for PP8S1, which has a 139 grain bullet & therefor clocks @ 2608 fps @ muzzle because the projectile is 20% lighter. I know they have different product lines, but their online catalog doesn’t support your statement. You may be right, the cat # will tell……j
 
Muncher 1953 said:
not to be argumentative, but got ppu cat #s to back that up?
it isn’t any of PPM8, PP8S, PP8F or PP8571, which is a rimmed cartridge. all of those have 196-200 grain bullets, velocities around 2100-2200 fps @ muzzle, except for PP8S1, which has a 139 grain bullet & therefor clocks @ 2608 fps @ muzzle because the projectile is 20% lighter. I know they have different product lines, but their online catalog doesn’t support your statement. You may be right, the cat # will tell……j
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Here are pics defending my statement and previous post. Right from the ppu website itself.

Pics:
https://imgur.com/a/xJOVvvr

The hotter stuff is 750m/s or 2460 ft/s
Meanwhile the anemic stuff is around 660m/s or 2180ft/s

The hotter stuff is def better and more accurate. I guess a lot of people don’t realize they have two different lines according to this forum lol
 
Taybyes said:
Here are pics defending my statement and previous post. Right from the ppu website itself.

Pics:
https://imgur.com/a/xJOVvvr

The hotter stuff is 750m/s or 2460 ft/s
Meanwhile the anemic stuff is around 660m/s or 2180ft/s

The hotter stuff is def better and more accurate. I guess a lot of people don’t realize they have two different lines according to this forum lol
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I would still consider that a light load for some military 7.92 surplus ammo. The romanian production 7.92 ammo from the 70s is running between 2600fps to 2700fps. Honestly, it's good ammunition. Runs great in Maxim machine gun as well. But beware corrosive primers. The Turkish 7.92 is running around 2900fps. Believe it or not that is close to the proper load for the earlier Spitzer round for WW1 era. Basically the Turks copied the earlier German S round. What makes Turkish ammunition dangerous is the unsafe chamber pressures it produces.
 
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Warrior1354 said:
I would still consider that a light load for some military 7.92 surplus ammo. The romanian production 7.92 ammo from the 70s is running between 2600fps to 2700fps. Honestly, it's good ammunition. Runs great in Maxim machine gun as well. But beware corrosive primers. The Turkish 7.92 is running around 2900fps. Believe it or not that is close to the proper load for the earlier Spitzer round for WW1 era. Basically the Turks copied the earlier German S round. What makes Turkish ammunition dangerous is the unsafe chamber pressures it produces.
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For sure but I merely said ppu has ammo closer to the ww2 Nazi spec ammo. Turkish ammo is very hot and I would personally never shoot it
 
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