Hi Jack!
Be a little careful of the ChiCom 7.62x25.
Jim Oehlenschlager at Mentor Arms did employ the ChiCom 7.62x25 to test fire the C96â??s heâ??d worked on, and recommended its use in the C96â??s heâ??d worked over. But he discontinued both his use of ChiCom ammunition and his recommendation for its use when he started to get C96â??s damaged by this ammunition.
The problem here, in my opinion, is the Chinese got sloppy with the 7.62x25 ammunition they sold for export to the US. Back in the late 1980â??s when the Chinese first began exporting 7.62x25 to the US the ammo they sold to us was drawn from military stocks and was quite good stuff. But the demand was so great they seem to have begun making this ammunition specifically for export to the US, and their quality control went south. Chinese ammunition head stamped 1992 and earlier seems to be OK - that stamped later is questionable. Itâ??s not so much that post 1992 ChiCom ammunition is all bad so much it is that some rounds of this ammunition are over charged and develop excessive chamber pressures. Alas, there is no way to tell a good round from a bad one short of disassembling every round and checking :-(
Soviet Russian 7.62x25 ammunition, when it was available, was quite good and ideal for use in C96â??s. But itâ??s been over a decade since there was any Soviet Russian 7.62x25 ammunition available. The current crop of Eastern European 7.62x25 milsurp ammunition is such poor quality stuff I donâ??t recommend its use in *any* firearm - including C96â??s, TT-33â??s, and Vz.52â??s.
At this point in time there are only two 7.62x25/.30 Mauser ammunitions Iâ??d recommend for use in a C96; Fiocchi and carefully assembled handloads :-(
Hope this helps!
Warm regards,
Kyrie
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