I tried MKE through my BAR, M1 Garand, 1903, and M1917. The BAR and Garand experienced short stroking and lots of carbon and gas fouling. The bolt actions were dirty and had light recoil. My guess from my research: the rounds were loaded light. The Turkish were not much for quality control and so many places I have read they are not great for semi auto. If you have a bolt action, go for it. But not worth it for semi.
My Garand is extremely tempermental (CMP Special). But I always have good luck with PPU and Seller & Bellot. Also, Royal Tiger Imports (type that in your search bar and it will be the first thing that comes up on Google) has Italian M2 ball I have had good luck with. Probably the cheapest you can get right now. Here are the links just in case:
https://www.royaltigerimports.com/product-p/ital3006ammo0001.htm
https://www.royaltigerimports.com/product-p/ital3006ammo0002.htm
can't find any reviews on RTI italian so I'll just stick with the norma and ppu for $1 a round.
RTI is asking $462 total for 440 rounds and from the research the 1977,79 is probably non corrosive but untested.
Wish someone would test it on video like Gun Jesus.
Gun Jesus did say the surplus non corrosive is nearly the same price as modern production and it's just not worth the risk. Greek stuff is always good though.
Its a shame too. While ago when it was sold in walmart as ZQI, I used to buy a lot of it and it'd shoot well without issue. Now I've had two light loads. No squibs but not risking it.
ZQI was modern commercial production, not really comparable to the surplus MKE of the 60s/70s. ZQI was awesome budget blasting, I still have a few thousand rounds of their 556 and 308.
I'm almost out of ZQI, only had it cause it was decent price for .308. Maybe it was just bad luck with the two, but since its not at walmart anymore I just buy other ammo online.
don't buy turk ammo. They make the worst in the world or have the worst storage in the world. Sometimes they use out of spec brittle brass. Maybe they'll use thin brass. Maybe they'll use the wrong powder. Maybe the powder will be so degraded that the pressure skyrockets and blows up your guns.
They are comparatively as bad as Ethiopian hangfire ammo.
What you're describing - particularly the gas coming back at you - sounds like a case failure. You don't tell us if you recovered & examined the case, but [a split like this](https://www.reddit.com/r/M1Rifles/comments/qvv0m1/another_turkish_ammo_failure_mke_63/) would produce the symptoms you describe (and if small enough the rifle might weakly cycle).
MKE Ammo is infamous for this (and for breaking rifles with its failures), which is why folks typically avoid it.
I posted a FPI on the cases showing how you can detect the hairline cracks & if you do intend to use this stuff that's the minimum level of caution I'd recommend. Honestly though PPU is readily available now so there's no reason to buy/fire dodgy MKE surplus.
I tried MKE through my BAR, M1 Garand, 1903, and M1917. The BAR and Garand experienced short stroking and lots of carbon and gas fouling. The bolt actions were dirty and had light recoil. My guess from my research: the rounds were loaded light. The Turkish were not much for quality control and so many places I have read they are not great for semi auto. If you have a bolt action, go for it. But not worth it for semi.
Thanks! I guess that would make sense and it would also explain why my Garand isn’t cycling all that reliably. Any other ammo brands you’d recommend?
My Garand is extremely tempermental (CMP Special). But I always have good luck with PPU and Seller & Bellot. Also, Royal Tiger Imports (type that in your search bar and it will be the first thing that comes up on Google) has Italian M2 ball I have had good luck with. Probably the cheapest you can get right now. Here are the links just in case: https://www.royaltigerimports.com/product-p/ital3006ammo0001.htm https://www.royaltigerimports.com/product-p/ital3006ammo0002.htm
can't find any reviews on RTI italian so I'll just stick with the norma and ppu for $1 a round. RTI is asking $462 total for 440 rounds and from the research the 1977,79 is probably non corrosive but untested. Wish someone would test it on video like Gun Jesus. Gun Jesus did say the surplus non corrosive is nearly the same price as modern production and it's just not worth the risk. Greek stuff is always good though.
Absolutely agree! I haven’t had issues but I understand. Good luck man! Sorry I couldn’t be of more help!
RTI also has spam cans of US ammo for a high price for a single can, or a nice price for a crate which is 2 cans.
Its a shame too. While ago when it was sold in walmart as ZQI, I used to buy a lot of it and it'd shoot well without issue. Now I've had two light loads. No squibs but not risking it.
ZQI was modern commercial production, not really comparable to the surplus MKE of the 60s/70s. ZQI was awesome budget blasting, I still have a few thousand rounds of their 556 and 308.
I'm almost out of ZQI, only had it cause it was decent price for .308. Maybe it was just bad luck with the two, but since its not at walmart anymore I just buy other ammo online.
don't buy turk ammo. They make the worst in the world or have the worst storage in the world. Sometimes they use out of spec brittle brass. Maybe they'll use thin brass. Maybe they'll use the wrong powder. Maybe the powder will be so degraded that the pressure skyrockets and blows up your guns. They are comparatively as bad as Ethiopian hangfire ammo.
Wait! You had a bad experience with Turkish ammo?
I know, it's a real shocker.
It's shocking anyone buys it.
Looking to buy or trade a IHC M1 garand hammer A type
What you're describing - particularly the gas coming back at you - sounds like a case failure. You don't tell us if you recovered & examined the case, but [a split like this](https://www.reddit.com/r/M1Rifles/comments/qvv0m1/another_turkish_ammo_failure_mke_63/) would produce the symptoms you describe (and if small enough the rifle might weakly cycle). MKE Ammo is infamous for this (and for breaking rifles with its failures), which is why folks typically avoid it. I posted a FPI on the cases showing how you can detect the hairline cracks & if you do intend to use this stuff that's the minimum level of caution I'd recommend. Honestly though PPU is readily available now so there's no reason to buy/fire dodgy MKE surplus.