My guns (1919 and '28) love Turk and Yugo and with no incident (so far thank the Lord). Right or wrong and it can be debated until the cows come home, but I contribute most blown covers to headspace first and barrel second. There is no other logical reason why one shooter can fire 1000's of rounds of Yugo with no incident and another person shooting the same stuff has 3 blown covers. Also, why is it we never hear of a bolt action Mauser blowing up with Yugo? Because the headspace is correct or at least close enough. If the ammo alone was bad it would be blowing up bolt guns too.
Why have I been lucky so far you ask?
#1, I know how to headspace for it.
#2, I know how to headspace for it.
#3, I know how to headspace for it.
#4, I use barrels that will shoot it.
#5, I make sure my breach block cam screw is backed off so when the gun gets hot the bolt still locks up good before dropping the firing pin, preventing out-of-battery ignitions.
#6, I make sure the left rear feed guide is removed so that no cocked rounds on the feed tray can be accidentally banged rearward into the edge of the feed guide resulting in a feed tray ignition from a primer striking the feed guide (8mm front cart stops vary greatly in thickness which can cause this to happen). Look at the sharp edge on the inboard end of the feed guide in the photo below...with the guide removed the primer can't bang into anything sharp in that area. In my opinion, 308 doesn't have a problem because it's better ammo and the front stop is made more accurately.
If you have a John M. barrel that you are sure has a long chamber, take it to a smitty, along with another barrel that shoots Yugo, and have the chamber reamed so that the round protrudes from the rear the same in both barrels. I have two of John's barrels and they will be going to Cole's gun shop, along with my ammunitionstore barrel as a model, to be reamed. John has already told me that there is no problem in doing that. I have 45k of the Yugo and the small investment in getting John's barrels reamed to work with it is miniscule in comparison to the ammo savings. There is nothing wrong with John's barrels, they are chambered to SAAMI specs...unfortunately, Yugo and Turk ammo is no respecter of any standard.
If anyone needs a dollars and cents justification for buyng and having John's barrels reamed to shoot Yugo, here's the economics:
Rommy at 9 cents per round - Yugo at 5 cents per round = 4 cents savings per round
Cost to ream a barrel $35 +/-
$35 divided by 4 cents savings = payback in just 875 rounds
John's chrome lined barrels will likely go 40 to 60k before being shot out and an ammunitionstore barrel is probably good for 15k so the math speaks for itself. When I get John's barrels reamed I will never have to buy another 8mm 1919 barrel for the rest of my life.
For my '28 water cooled, I have my barrels made from 8mm Mauser barrels by one of the machinists on this site and we all know a Mauser barrel has a chamber that will digest anything.
One more caution, the Yugo will sometimes have deep seated primers so you need a firing pin with like new protrusion. Do a search on the old site and you'll see all kinds of stuff on how to do a little filing on the fp to get it right if you have a problem...or post the question on this forum and you'll get a refresher course.
My .02 for what it's worth.
But, pleeeeeeeeeease, save all the Yugo for me.