Duh! Reese, you better learn to read. In the first place, the ammo was clearly German 7.62 NATO military surplus, not commercial .308 Winchester ammo. Secondly, as a handloader who has done some wild experiments with many calibres, rifle, pistol, and shotgun, over at least 35 years, there just ain't no way that a little headspace problem causes anything like that -- in fact, I've had a number of rifles with excess headspace and all that happens, even with hot loads, is you blow off the back of the case. I've had literally hundreds of case head separations -- they don't blow up the gun. In fact, there is almost nothing that could do that sort of damage except someone loading the shell with semtex or the like. And the article also makes that *very* clear. They theorize that possible that shell got loaded with .30 carbine powder which is a fast burning pistol powder, but I really doubt that would explain it either. Bullseye powder, possibly, but it had to be a deliberate thing. And it seems to me that I recall somewhere someone writing about that sort of sabotage being done at various times to make soldiers afraid to fire their weapons. Reese wrote:
Another quibble. This is a safety issue, so READ it.
One of our members wrote:
It was introduced in 7.62 mm NATO, very, very close to .308 Winchester. (Some say there are headspace differences, though I have used 7.62 mm NATO in my Remington 700 VSSF, ostensibly chambered for .308 Winchester, and I have used .308 Winchester in my Federal Arms FA-91/G3, ostensibly chambered for 7.62 mm NATO.
Here's a 7.62 NATO gun that blew up with .308 Win ammo not long ago: http://communities.prodigy.net/sportsrec/gz-762d.html
These two cartridges are NOT the same, more here: http://www.fulton-armory.com/308.htm
Reese