Bought one with a mint bore and AVT stock earlier this year for $650 shipped. Why pay top dollar when, with a little time and effort, you could find something nicer for half the price?
Jackson Armory. They usually have +/- 10 pages of items on Gunbroker and none have a single bid. Their prices are incredibly unrealistic, on Gunbroker as well as in their retail store in Dallas. I've been to their store and it was like the owner's personal museum. He wouldn't get off his ass to...
Wow, I submitted an order the day they posted the loose Port and they notified me yesterday that they could not ship because it was sold out. Switched to 500 rounds of the Swede ammo.
I have never had any case splits with the Yugo surplus. That being said, I was told the quality for this ammo varies by lot. Mine is "11-1956" (Factory 11, made in 1956).
For anyone interested, there is a Hakim on GunBroker ending in about an hour that is still reasonably priced. I'm not sure...
And I will second the warning on the Turk 8mm. I recently bought 700 rounds because it was so cheap but after inspecting the ammo, I noticed many had cracked case necks. I imagine this could be potentially catastrophic in the Hakim.
Having bought Oldcarjunkie's Hakim, I figured I should chime in... I've only been able to shoot it a couple times, but when I did, I used 50's Yugo as well as Romanian surplus ammo. Both shot without issues but the Romanian was particularly mild and therefore much more pleasant to shoot...
Apparently the corrosion/tarnish is due to the acidic cardboard used to pack several lots of this ammo. I'm sure thats why the Portuguese got rid of it.
Interesting, I never even thought about keeping the brass that couldn't be reloaded. 60 bucks in my pocket is better than leaving it for the range to cash in.
Not that I have the tools to do so anyhow, but it's my understanding that you can reload Berdan brass. Its a more involved process, necessitates special tools and the right sized primer (of which there are many) but it can be done and there are many people who do. Graf's even sells some Berdan...