Thread: 7.62x51, and what to do with it.

Originally Posted by gundoc

7.62x51 and .308 Winchester may be used interchangeably in correctly headspaced rifles with perfect safety. While there is a minute difference in the drawing specifications of both, those differences actually fall within the allowable manufacturing tolerances for the ammunition. Hundreds of thousands of deer were shot in 7.62x51 rifles (FN FAL's, SIG AMT's, H&K G3's, etc) using commercial .308 ammunition in NZ, and thousands of .308 sporting rifles around the World are regularly used with surplus 7.62x51 for targets and plinking, as well as those that have the FMJ bullets pulled and replaced with sporting projectiles. Never in my 55 years as a gunsmith have I seen a problem that is attributable to the interchange of such ammo. Such stories are spread by 'Sunday morning quarterbacks'.

About the only ones I would be wary of would be some of the Spanish small ring Mausers converted to 7.62x51 etc. I think there's a South American model or two converted with a really shitty sleeve done. I personally wouldn't shoot commercial 308 loads through those.