Quality ammo for MG42?

SKumar

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One of my patients is a Vietnam Army Ranger combat vet, now with Parkinson's and severe low back pain. He was driving the school bus for the kids, but now he's out of work.

He's a big gun guy and was telling me about his collection this past week. All sorts of cool stuff, lots of full autos, etc. He has a Buzzsaw and G43 and would like to take them out again, but on a brief internet search, he wasn't happy with the surplus 8mm Mauser I found that's mostly from eastern Europe due to the corrosive effect it'll have on his guns. He preferred German surplus, or whatever was specifically made for those guns. He's a great guy and I'd like to get him a nice gift, but I don't want to give him something unacceptable.

Any 8mm experts can chime in?
 
Most, if not all, surplus 8mm Mauser ammo is corrosive, not just Eastern European stuff. There were small lots of non-corrosive surplus on the market a while back, but that's dried up. Your best bet for non-corrosive 8mm is commercial like PPU. A quick check on ammoseek.com shows the cheapest commercial 8mm at $0.67/rd, and that's not a shipped price. Let's call it $0.70/rd. Assuming the low end of the MG42, that calculates to a rate of fire of $840/min. By the way, what made him think that German WWII issue 8mm ammo wasn't corrosive?
 
Use PPU commercial. Any mil surplus is going to be corrosive primed. Wolf used to make some white box steel case that was surprisingly accurate in my Hakim but I haven't seen any for years.
 
By the way, what made him think that German WWII issue 8mm ammo wasn't corrosive?
That's what I was thinking.

Thanks for the feedback. I think it's gonna be PPU once it's back in stock, which runs at ~$0.64/rnd. Holy crap. A case of 400 will be gone in no time.
 
He could sell one or two of his MGs and buy all the ammo he needs.

I'm very surprised he didn't have it stacked to the rafters already owning a bunch of MGs.
 
Not that you'll be down my way (SE CT), but I have some Canadian 8mm: "7.92 MM 42" that's supposed to be non-corrosive.
Plenty of other surplus and a few factory loads, not to mention a slew of reloads.
 

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I’d suggest stoping over at 1919A4 forum. Bunch of great guys over there. They would certainly make sure a Vietnam Vet had some ammo for a 42. Those guys specialize in the bulk MG ammo
 
I’m happy to buy a couple hundred rounds if I can take it out with you guys, help setup and breakdown and shoot a few out of it.
 
Ammoseek seems to have a few selections in 8mm ammo. I'd buy corrosive because it's cheaper and the 42 will go through a lot in a hurry. Cleaning after corrosive ammo is easy. You just have to do it soon after shooting. The MG42 is a ball to shoot but if I was one of the poor bastards who had to face one on D day I think I might have jumped into the water and swam back to England
 
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