Can You Shoot 308 Ammo in a 7.62 X51 Rifle
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Introduction
The straight reply to this question is yes, y'all tin fire common seven.62X51 war machine ammo in any currently produced rifle chambered for .308 Winchester. However, there is more than than one reason for this evaluation.
The seven.62×51 NATO cartridge is specific and it is congenital for armed services specifications. The reason is to brand the round able to operate both chugalug-fed machine guns and semi-automatic rifles. The current specification for 7.62×51 is a pressure level limit of fifty,000 psi. And it is best for operating the M14, motorcar guns, and other semi-auto gas guns that the military uses.
As for the .308 Winchester armament, the pressure limit is SAAMI standardized at 62.000 psi. It makes a slight difference in cartridge specs between the military round and the .308 Winchester as currently produced. Therefore, the basic understanding is that the military machine cartridge will fit and fire in currently produced .308 rifles.
Ordinarily, in a typical gun saloon bar discussion, the most heated debate is asking a agglomeration of people well-nigh the differences betwixt .308 Winchester and vii.62x51mm NATO. There is a diverseness of responses that often include
- They are not different
- There is a difference
- They might exist different
Weirdly all those statements are all quite true. Every bit it may be confusing to grasp, this article volition endeavor to explain it in a way that you will not bash your brains out. I volition try to be void of making you lot read all the nuances of things like piezo transducers.
In that location are only limited categories of comparison and this will pretty much mess things up.
Understanding the Departure Between 7.62×51 and 308 Winchester
Before nosotros delve much further, I must address this often-posed question "Are the7.62×51 NATO and .308 Winchester the same?"
Again, the respond is NO. It is because of the differences in maximum pressures and the chamber specs. Nobody makes a seven.62mm (NATO) ammo that is not fitting to the .308 'headspace' dimension spec. Equally a dominion, this makes the 7.62mm ammo fit into .308 chambers.
Just if you lot become the other manner, you lot can encounter problems. A commercial .308 Winchester round exceeds the maximum rated pressure for the seven.62×51 ammo. If this is the instance, avoid putting total-power .308 Win rounds into armed services rifles designed for a maximum pressure of 50,000 psi.
7.62 vs .308 – Pressure level
The pressure level is where most people get confused when analyzing the two ammo. The maximum pressure numbers for the two calibers are 50,000 psi for 7.62 and 62,000 psi for .308. At a glance, it appears to be a big deviation and a reason to consider it unsafe to fire. The logic is, practice not burn down a higher force per unit area commercial .308 cartridge in a rifle built for 7.62x51mm NATO.
While information technology is true that a .308 ammo has a slightly higher pressure level than 7.62x51mm NATO, the reality is that the contumely and chambers are the issues to empathise.
Here you must concentrate on the details. I put it that the 50,000 number is an accurate representation of copper units of pressure or Cup. It is a less precise style to measure pressure, equally the method relies on looking at how much little copper disks compress when you fire the gun.
As things are, there is no consistent mathematical formula that equates CUP to pounds per square inch (PSI). The difference, therefore, in this specific instance lies somewhere effectually 8,000. What this implies is that the maximum pressure for 7.62x51mm NATO is nigh 58,000 psi and not so far from 62,000 figures for the .308 Winchester.
If both loads are routinely proof tested at far higher levels, the iv,000 divergence will not change the trajectory.
7.62 NATO vs .308 Winchester – Case thickness
Measuring the thickness of the cartridge is quite challenging. I have developed a simpler fashion of doing it and information technology helps explain the difference. The process involves the representation of all sets of ammo. From my big bucket selection, I took both the .308 Winchester and vii.62x51mm NATO brass and weighed them. I farther picked several of each from different brands and averaged the weights. I could not measure the cases because I had non fired them however. And also considering it will non tell me much other than the general size of the chamber from which they were fired.
The Winchester .308 weighs 163.3 grains while the Lake City vii.62x51mm NATO weighs 183.v grains. Every bit you can meet this is a meaning difference. When the thicker walls combine with similar exterior dimensions this means less powder chapters and the outcome is a lower- meridian end. All else the same, the result is a lower velocity and pressure level.
The thicker brass of 7.62 cases is a significant factor and yous will empathise it better in what we discuss next.
7.62 NATO vs .308 Winchester – Headspace
The headspace is where we will become to the real difference. Military rifles for 7.62x51mm NATO commonly do have longer chambers. There is a need for reliable feeding and at that place can be slack if you consider firing a machine gun powered with ammo made from all over the world. The functioning needs to be smooth because all the force used between the feeding and ejection process.
The solution is making the chamber headspace a bit longer. The headspace is the distance from the bolt face to the point in the sleeping accommodation that stops the forward move of the cartridge instance. Therefore if headspace is besides pocket-size, the bolt volition non shut properly or will require backlog strength to close. And if the chamber headspace is too long for a cartridge, information technology will float back and along in the chamber.
The .308 Winchester chamber headspace is between 1.630 and 1.6340 inches. While that for 7.62x51mm NATO is between 1.6355 and ane.6405 inches. The slight difference in size might not seem like a big deal until you lot fire a thinner brass in a long-chambered burglarize. The disaster is that the contumely will stretch, perhaps enough to pb to a unsafe example rupture.
However, if you effort the same with a thicker military contumely, it is no large deal because of the style the system is designed. Using a thicker brass makes it handle the extra stretching into a longer chamber pharynx. The solution to the title question is to know your burglarize and what its headspace is. Once you lot know this info you lot will determine if information technology is safe to shoot a .308 Winchester ammo in a vii.62 sleeping room.
How Can I Know if My Headspace is Rubber?
To know if your headspace is rubber is not a challenging chore. Yous can use the fix of .308 Winchester Go / No-Get headspace gauges. Use the gauges to check the chamber size. The bolt should close easily on a Get gauge and not shut on a No-Get gauge. Also, the field gauge checks the maximum published bedchamber size. With some 7.62 rifles, yous might find that the bolt nevertheless closes on the No-Go gauge. As long as the commodities closes, you are still within maximum published limits.
The Technicalities
In terms of specifications, there are differences, more then in the chambers of rifles designed to fire each cartridge. For the 7.62 contumely is a chip thicker, and with the .308 is sometimes loaded to be slightly higher pressure. Other than that, the cartridges are pretty much the same.
One style to be entirely safe is to remain conservative and just fire seven.62x51m NATO in vii.62 chambered rifles and .308 Winchester in .308 rifles.
A final risk spectrum is merely a scenario. In the case of using 7.62x51mm NATO ammo in a .308 sleeping accommodation. In theory, y'all might run beyond especially long ammo. Such ammo might not sleeping accommodation or might require undue pressure to the sleeping room. The consequence could be dangerously loftier pressure. While such a scenario is highly unlikely as the seven.62 ammo to be significantly longer, is a pretty rare thing. Information technology is why not most people will consider information technology a big deal to use seven.62 ammo in a .308 chambered rifle.
The Contrary Is Not Truthful
However, y'all need to be careful while using .308 Winchester commercial ammo in a 7.62x51mm NATO chambered rifle. Even though the most modern vii.62 chambers tend to be cutting almost closer to match the .308 dimensions, information technology is ever rubber to know exactly what y'all accept in terms of headspace. If your burglarize has a long headspace, stick to 7.62 NATO ammo. Do not use the .308 Winchester.
Decision
If y'all put everything else into consideration then the actual pressure differences between the .308 Win. and 7.62 NATO is not that large. However, it is a point of concern. Nonetheless, a tight sleeping room or an overly dirty bedchamber could pose a pressure level issue. Y'all don't want to risk dissentious a firearm and certainly never wish to run into anyone injure from negligence. Information technology is why it is important to keep the golden rule in heed. A .308 Winchester chamber rifle can handle both .308 Win. and vii.62 NATO ammo safely, but a vii.62 rifle is only condom for a 7.62 NATO ammo.
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