Ammo? Head space? Oval chamber.

[Dentoro]

I was shooting a rifle I traded for and noticed the ammo had split necks. It was 1947 Turkish ammo in a Turkish rifle. Is this over pressure or bad headspace or ovaled chamber. Ive not shot this rifle a lot but I’ve shot other ammo but not had the same result. Is this rifle safe to shoot. Any help is appreciated.

 

[chenowethpm]

Could be the headspace or the ammo could be bad?

 

[Clay Pigeon]

The brass is very hard on that old ammo, it's not as elastic as newly manufactured brass or old brass that has been annealed.
I would shoot it.

 

[jinks]

Split necks are common on the corrosive Turkish ammo.

 

[Wolfhound]

+1 for old brittle brass. The rifle is most likely fine.

 

[bloodandgutsmurphy]

Turkish brass has a reputation for being brittle, especially cases made in 1947. I would stick with Yugo or German surplus cartridges. PPU makes some great ammo as well

 

[johntheplinker]

Yeah, ammo. Fairly common with certain types of old surplus ammo. Brass composition off a little, improper or lack of annealing, lots of reasons. As long as the splits don't go into the shoulder its not really anything to worry about.

 

[AmmoManAaron]

As several others have stated, it's just old brittle brass and is typical of certain older foreign surplus. As long as it's just splitting up at the case mouths like shown in your pictures, it is nothing to worry about. The brass is berdan primed anyway so the mouth splits are no loss, just shoot it and enjoy it!

FYI - if your local scrap yard will buy spent brass, save up a small bucket full and it'll pay for a box or two of ammo.

For context, I reload for 30-40 Krag, 30 Remington, and 35 Remington (among many others) and small splits at the mouth or on the shoulder are how I lose most of my brass in those three calibers. Annealing helps, but those three calibers have thin shoulders so that is typically where they give out. It doesn't cause any harm.

 

[Dentoro]

Thank you everyone! I was thinking I bought a worn out Mauser. I have shot a few ppu rounds when I first got it and they were the ones didn’t split. That was what was confusing me. The rifle never showed any signs of overpressure while shooting or had any problems pulling the brass out out. This was the only thing I noticed. I bought it to plink and plink I shall!

On a separate but related topic, the last round is always held high and ends up being pushed by the ejector rather than the bolt and will not chamber because of this. It is only on the last round. It there a quick adjustment for this?

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Thank you everyone! I was thinking I bought a worn out Mauser. I have shot a few ppu rounds when I first got it and they were the ones didn’t split. That was what was confusing me. The rifle never showed any signs of overpressure while shooting or had any problems pulling the brass out out. This was the only thing I noticed. I bought it to plink and plink I shall!

On a separate but related topic, the last round is always held high and ends up being pushed by the ejector rather than the bolt and will not chamber because of this. It is only on the last round. It there a quick adjustment for this?

I think you mean extractor rather than the ejector. I had a Mauser that did this and it had me stumped for awhile (but mine did it on every round). Working the action very slowly I was able to see what was going on. There wasn't enough clearance between the extractor and the bolt face to "grab" the rim of the round when feeding it from the magazine. I just had to remove the extractor and file a little bit of material from it to create the needed clearance and it worked fine after that. In my case it was a mixmaster rifle and someone had probably replaced the extractor at some point. Since yours only does it on the last round that may not be the case with yours, but it's something to check for. Maybe there's enough upward pressure from the magazine spring to allow the first 4 cartridges to "pop in" to the extractor but when it gets to the last one it might not be enough. I'm no gunsmith though, but that's what I would check first. You could also have a weak magazine spring that just doesn't have quite enough "umph" at the end. That would be a cheap and easy fix as well.

 

[Dentoro]

I think you mean extractor rather than the ejector. I had a Mauser that did this and it had me stumped for awhile (but mine did it on every round). Working the action very slowly I was able to see what was going on. There wasn't enough clearance between the extractor and the bolt face to "grab" the rim of the round when feeding it from the magazine. I just had to remove the extractor and file a little bit of material from it to create the needed clearance and it worked fine after that. In my case it was a mixmaster rifle and someone had probably replaced the extractor at some point. Since yours only does it on the last round that may not be the case with yours, but it's something to check for. Maybe there's enough upward pressure from the magazine spring to allow the first 4 cartridges to "pop in" to the extractor but when it gets to the last one it might not be enough. I'm no gunsmith though, but that's what I would check first. You could also have a weak magazine spring that just doesn't have quite enough "umph" at the end. That would be a cheap and easy fix as well.

The mag spring looks looks as thought it pushing up too far or the ejector is too wide or a combination of both. The bolt is a different number than the rifle. But it only has this on the last problem on the last round.

 

[rob63]

The mag spring looks looks as thought it pushing up too far or the ejector is too wide or a combination of both. The bolt is a different number than the rifle. But it only has this on the last problem on the last round.

The last round is the only round that is in contact with the follower, the other rounds are stacked on top of other cartridges. It's a guess, but perhaps the issue is with the follower presenting the round in a slightly different manner than the previous rounds that were stacked on top of each other? The Turks purchased a number of different versions of Mausers from 1890-1903. The Turk contract allowed them to demand any updates that Mauser came up with, and there were a lot of them in this time period! Subsequently, the Turk rifles then went through various rebuilds as the nation attempted to standardize what they had ended up with. It's possible that your rifle somehow ended up with a follower that was originally made for a different model of Mauser and the difference is just enough to cause a problem, even though they were designed for the same cartridge. Just a thought.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

The mag spring looks looks as thought it pushing up too far or the ejector is too wide or a combination of both. The bolt is a different number than the rifle. But it only has this on the last problem on the last round.

Any chance of getting some close up pics of what's going on? Might help someone here see the problem. Maybe 3 or 4 showing the entire bolt travel at various stages as it tries to pick up a single round (last round) might provide some clues. Rob made a good point about the follower too.

 

[Dentoro]

Here is pic. See how the bullet is being pushed forward by the extractor rather than sliding it under? It is just the last shot that has this problem. Should I shave it a bit? Try another follower? Any help appreciated.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Here is pic. See how the bullet is being pushed forward by the extractor rather than sliding it under? It is just the last shot that has this problem. Should I shave it a bit? Try another follower? Any help appreciated.

First, check Numrich to see if they have an extractor in stock before you shave it. Seriously I don't want to be the cause of screwing up your rifle, but that might do it. My rule of thumb is to try the cheapest available fix first. I don't think an extractor or a follower (or follower spring) for a Turk will break the bank, but just make sure they are available before modifying anything. Got any pics of it picking up a round with a full magazine? The more I think about it, if the extractor were the problem it most likely have issues with a full magazine too, so your problem might not be the same as mine was. Mine looked like yours whether it was the first round or the last.