Safety issue: 7.62 NATO == .308 Win NOT!!!

Harmon Seaver hseaver at harmon.arrowhead.lib.mn.us
Fri Jan 19 16:09:13 PST 2001


     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






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