Picked up some new surplus Bulgarian 7.62x25 Ammo

[BruceNRALife]

I picked up a sardine can of 800 rounds of Bulgarian ammo at the Knob Creek show. I plan on firing it through a Tokarev pistol at some point. I have not opened the sardine can. So I don't know the headstamp dates. They had one of the sardine cans busted open, and the rounds were packed in stacks of eight rounds, wrapped in brown paper. That would tend to indicate it was probably intended for pistols, would it not? I was planning on storing it back for a spell, just in case. Anybody hear anything good or bad about the ammo? There is all kinds of rumors on the Internet dating from about 2008 about hot tokarev ammo from Bulgaria. The stuff I purchased was from Copes, and claimed to be newly imported, as they had a ton of it on a pallet.

Just wondering. Did these east block nations even have separate ammo for sub-guns and pistols? I would imagine for simplicity sake, they just made one ammo for both Tokarev pistols and PPSH sub guns.

[kARL]

Re: Picked up some new surplus Bulgarian 7.62x25 Ammo

I read that piece as well.
If I recall, there was a star on the base of the case.
karl

[jefferson101]

Re: Picked up some new surplus Bulgarian 7.62x25 Ammo

The Bulgie stuff that was making things go KB was in pink wrapping, and dated from about '52 or so, IIRC.

If it's not headstamped as being produced in the '50's, you don't have a problem. And just to note, that particular issue goes back to 1998 or so. I think it's probably cleared the system by now.

[BruceNRALife]

Re: Picked up some new surplus Bulgarian 7.62x25 Ammo

I have been doing more research around the Internet from different sources. I have yet to find any hard source that any Warsaw Pact nation ever fielded any hot Tokarev ammunition that was unsafe for pistols. They seemed to be use same ammunition for both pistols and sub guns. Most of the information seems to be rumors. I am thinking that the information being sited about the PPSH and PPS-43 submachine guns having higher velocities than the TT-33 or CZ-52 might be due to the fact that the Submachineguns in question have longer barrels than the pistols in question and would tend to develop higher velocity from the same ammunition. I have not seen description of any East Block 7.62x25 ammo boxes marked "For submachine guns only" or "do not use in pistols" in Cyrillic, or any other language.

I wonder if the problems with the 1950's era ammo was due to the ammo possibly being defective, or old with cracked cases? Or guys firing hand loaded hot rodded rounds?

[gripper]

Re: Picked up some new surplus Bulgarian 7.62x25 Ammo

AFAIK,the KB problems were confined to CZ 52s- where they undercut the chamber portion of the barrel to accommodate the rollers ,it formed a (potential or actual) weak point....OTOH,ergonomics aside,my friends who run CZ52s have done so for years....I think the TT and M57 s are safe platforms though...#1 on that 52 headstamped stuff- even of it was not overpressure,it was FILTHY in my experience.

[TheMrMitch]

Re: Picked up some new surplus Bulgarian 7.62x25 Ammo

I also remember "clark" who supposedly over stuffed ammo to burst guns. Methinks clark and unsafe 7.62x25 ammo is either gone or a myth.