7.62x51 NATO Ammo in a 700 .308 Win Rifle?

[Larry Gibson]

giericd

Apologies for the mistaken impression you were a "grunt". That was not meant as a criticism as I have a high respect for grunts. You simply said you ran "the largest arms room in the 2ID" so I made the wrong assumption you were a "grunt". MP or grunt, you served our country and my thanks to you.

Larry Gibson

[nicholst55]

Many moons ago I had access to literally all of the M80 Ball and M118 Match ammo that I cared to shoot. I shot it through a Ruger M77 rifle with entirely acceptable accuracy and no pressure excursions. The only down side was that I had to delink the M80 Ball before I could shoot it.

[Jeff H]

.... He called me a grunt! ***!

Classic


Best post I have read in ages.


Thank you, giericd and Larry both for your service and a much needed chuckle.

[supe47]

Let's be nice. There are a lot of us 11b's out here.

[oneokie]

Back in the '90's when there was a large variety of Mil-surp 7.62 Nato ammo available, I bought some Hertenberger ammo just to try in a 788. Second or third round locked the bolt. Got the action open and case out, measured the OAL of the fired case. Was way more than book spec. length. Fired some in a M1A, no problems, BUT, measured those cases and they were longer than book spec. also.

[GabbyM]

Back in the '90's when there was a large variety of Mil-surp 7.62 Nato ammo available, I bought some Hertenberger ammo just to try in a 788. Second or third round locked the bolt. Got the action open and case out, measured the OAL of the fired case. Was way more than book spec. length. Fired some in a M1A, no problems, BUT, measured those cases and they were longer than book spec. also.

That's just junk ammo. I have a box of Winchester M193 in the white box here. Won't even chamber up in a 5.56mm NATO chamber. As they buckled the case neck with the crimp. It's 20 or more years old from back when Winchester was importing foreign junk ammo. It's so messed up I spotted it visually and never jammed one in the chamber.

[Love Life]

It's fine to shoot.

POGs. Coming up with reasons to not be grunts since 1775.

[giericd]

LOL, I fugured Larry was an understanding guy! that OLD branch/MOS rivalry, have to love it, because it doesn't go away
"second to none"

[Petrol & Powder]

With respect to the .308 WIN v. 7.62 x 51 and avoiding all of the "it's not quite the same" arguments, .....It's basically the same.
Now a lot of folks are going to have a cow right about now so let me say: Yes, the case wall cross section may be different and therefore the internal cases volume may be different. Yes, they may be loaded to different pressures, Yes, the primers may be crimped in the primer pocket, Yes, there may be other differences.
However the differences are not significant enough to matter in a SAAMI spec rifle. I will say that military chambers may be on the larger end of the acceptable dimensions to allow chambering of dirty or slightly out of spec cartridges to chamber BUT "on the large end of specifications" doesn't mean "out of specifications".
If you read the history of the 7.62 NATO round and the private sector adaptation of the corresponding .308 Winchester you'll get a good idea of the development of that fine cartridge.

[303carbine]

Got a Remington 700 ADL Varmint rifle for Christmas, and was wondering if I can shoot 7.62x51NATOammo in it? Most likely will be factory loads, not mil-surp. Why or why not?

Thanks!

I have shot a lot of Nato stuff out of 308 Win before. Nato chambered rifles tend to have a more generous chamber along with thicker brass. Where you may run into problems is when shooting commercial ammo in a large chambered Nato rifle is that the commercial stuff is thinner and could possibly split upon firing.
The Nato and commercial drawing are the same, it's the rifles that are different that may cause problems such as short case life.