Why do they advertise as this? 7.62 Nato

[ousooners1baby]

Here is the description. You can't shoot the Nato in .308 gun can you?
Remington Ammo L308W4 UMC 308 Win (7.62 NATO) Metal Case 150 GR

[Lonegun1894]

You can, and I have used both in either chamber, but there are some cautions involved, depending on who you listen to.  Basically, the external dimensions are identical, but the pressures they are loaded to are not.  Usually, commercial .308 Win is loaded to higher pressures than military 7.62x51NATO, and the NATO chambers are usually cut slightly larger (looser tolerances) than civilian .308 Win chambers.  Basically it's the same exact story as .223 Rem vs 5.56 NATO, if you're familiar with that one.  Then you get into variations with some countries loading theirs to different pressures than others, and all that stuff, so expect POIs to change just like when changing from any other load you're used to to a new one to you.  Where you may run into trouble is if you have a tigh-chambered match-type rifle that may not want to chamber some NATO loads.  Hope that helps answer your question without confusing the issue for you.  Now just sit back and watch the hornet's nest you just stirred up, cause this question often causes some, um, debate. 

[Sourdough]

I've shot 7.62 NATO rounds in my J. C. Penny Foremost .308 (Parker Haile 3200) since the day I bought it.  Fall 1971.  Far more military rounds have been put through it than commercial .308 rounds.  As a young  Airman I was able to pick up several cases of 7.62 ammo.  Still have some of it in the garage.  I pull the 150gr Hardball bullets and replace with 150gr Nosler Partitions.  That was the only hunting rifle I had for many years and I shot almost exclusively military rounds through it. 

[Bigeasy]

As per the SAAMI, both cartridges are interchangeable.  The only real differences are that NATO spec. ammo is loaded to very slightly less pressure then some commercial hunting ammo, and it has crimped primers, that usually have a harder cup then commercial ammo, for safe use in machine guns.  Case and bullet specs are the same.  Any reloading die set that works with .308 Win. also works with 7.62 NATO.
 
Larry

[ousooners1baby]

So are the measurables actually .310 compared the .308? Damage the gun barrel any? Of course there are some that do it, but, are they stupid as some may say? I have saw many people saying it will blow up on you!

[Lonegun1894]

The bullets for both are .308" as per spec.  Where the stories, and few incidents of blowups come from is when you use low quality trash ammo from a unreliable source (country) that has little to no concept of quality control and the resulting ammo is the same quality as what you would get if you let a class of kindergardners load your ammo for you with no supervision or instruction as to how to do it right.  I have seen ammo loaded with full cases of rifle powder, full cases of pistol powder, and even a few loaded with C-4.  Now those were all intended to be left behind for the enemy to find and hopefully use in their guns, and none of those were loaded into .308/7.62x51 brass, but there is a reason that you trust some sources of ammo and not others.  Now if this ammo is loaded, stamped, packaged, and sold by remington, I would have no problem using it in my personal guns.  However, I would NOT chamber a round I just found someplace in my deer rifle and put my face behind the bolt, cause I have seen what happens when those lugs shear off and the bolt velocity attempts to match the bullets muzzle velocity.

[petemi]

I shot two 400 round battle packs of Belgium manufactured Nato 7.62 with my Ruger .308.  Not a hich, glitch or problem.

Pete

[OSOK]

  Unless you are shooting a M1/M14/M1A, don't sweat it. It may or may not shoot accurately out of your rifle, but it will be fine.
  The primers on 7.62x51mm are supposed to be harder because the listed rifles have floating firing pins and can slam fire with soft commercial primers. Also, commercial .308 ammo can be loaded with slower burning powder that has the pressure spike at the wrong time for the listed actions, causing damage. 7.62x51mm ammo should be loaded with powder from a specific burn rate range that will cycle these actions without damaging them. Schuster and others sell special adjustable gas plugs for the M1 style actions that bleed off excess gas and allow the use of commercial ammo in these rifles.
  All of which is a long winded way of saying that if you are shooting it out of a Handi or a bolt gun drive on and get some trigger time!

[ousooners1baby]

So you are saying, shoot the heck out of em thru my handi?
What about that cheap Tulammo crap?

[spruce]

Read a comment from a Colt employee in regards to foreign ammo - "If you can't drink their water, don't shoot their ammo"!
 
Maybe somewhat over cautious, but then again if they don't worry about having safe water to drink why would they be too concerned about the quality of their ammo?

[Lonegun1894]

I am going to have to remember that quote regarding ammo and water.  Makes perfect sense to me.  Thank you very much.

[Airsporter]

I've never weighed any empty cases to check but I have heard that 7.62 mil spec brass is a bit thicker than commercial brass.  Only a caution for reloaders due to reduced case capacity.

[Ranger99]

shoot whatever you want to.
you should be able to tell if
there is something wrong anytime
you shoot whatever brand ammo you use.
i've shot many a wolf and tula round
through a 60.00 sks, so i would think a well
built handi rifle would take some less
than optimum ammo once and awhile.
.310 diameter bullets are mostly used
in com-bloc chambered arms. most
american chamberings use .308 diameter.
we all take a chance any time we
drink from a water fountain or take a
pill or drive on a public road. . . . . .

[JohnnyMac007]

I've never weighed any empty cases to check but I have heard that 7.62 mil spec brass is a bit thicker than commercial brass.  Only a caution for reloaders due to reduced case capacity.

This is exactly right.

There is a warning listed in Hornady's 7th Ed. That references this.

I've filled commercial 308 and 7.62 NATO cases full of water and then measured the contents on a digital scale.

The water from the commercial brass consistently averaged about three grains heavier. 

If you shoot max loads using NATO brass, this could result in an over pressure situation.  Also, if you reload for a military style semi-auto, the increased pressure could become a problem.

[SHOOTALL]

With all due respect to those who have posted , Military brass in most cases is thicker but not always . newer ammo from off shore seems not as thick but harder . It must contain a pressure level and that is the spec that must be met . Primers , CCI 34 primers or equal are used in standard military ammo from the USA. Why ? because the M1's and M14's both have free floating fireing pins . When the bolt is released and a round is chambered the fireing pin strikes the primer and if the primer was of less thickness a slam fire could occure. Check it out if you or a frind has one just release the bolt and let it go forward under its own force or fire a couple shots then remove a round and in most cases there will be a slight mark where the fireing pin struck the primer. I got alot of brass that was military , Lake city and Winchester . It had been fired in a machine gun . After resizing several hundred , knocking out primers and removing the crimp I can assure it was way harder to size than commerical ammo.
 Good reloaded ammo can be shot in a M1-A or M1 with out damage if like mentioned it meets the spec for military ammo , I use 150 -165 weight bullets and try to match mil spec ammo in other respects. ( yep I use all CCI #34 primers and even on a AR 15 use #41 primers which are the small rifle arsenal primers and yes the AR has a free floating fireing pin ).
 I would note that in a military gun the rim on some commerical or off shore ammo may be soft and military guns can strip thru. the rim if the chamber is dirty or sticky. The militar rounds I loaded were supposed to have come from full auto fire , some M 60 other M 14 alot had bent rims , some would not go into shell holder . Once they were reloaded and fired the rim got stright , yes it was hard closing the bolt on some , a few were disguarded .
bullet jacket is a concern I have because I have a model 70 winchester in 3006  that had a bit of mil surp. ammo with steel jackets shot thru. it and the bore is showing alot of wear and group size is expanding. Some steel jackets are made of softer steel than barrel steel while I wonder about off shore ammo .
Some new ammo is steel cased not sure how that will work out.
 I tend to stay away from off shore ammo from places that don't sell quality commerical ammo. Back in the early 70's one of our biggest gun stores at the time had loads of surplus ammo for sale . I was poor so it looked like a deal . They had what was supposed to be 9mm ammo manfactured in the early 40's . It came from somewhere in the middle east ( at the time there was a book that showed head stamps and that is where the info came from) at about 3cent a round what could go wrong ? Well 1 in three might go off , it was non reloadable and if you waited over night to clean your gun it rusted. Fast forward to the late 90's same store , 7.62X39 from China great price ammo scarce due to Y2K. one in 5 failed to fire. There have been other examples where one round went bang, next one boom . I just hesitate to buy off shore ammo anymore.
As for advertising the NATO stuff it's so M1-A type rifle shooters can know it meets mil spec. That said there are lots of commerical ammo set up for match shooting with M1 , M1-A and other such rifles and I don't have a clue what primers they use . But in most cases the rifle will be level and pointed down range when the bolt goes home not pointed down allowing gravity to help. BTW I have been told military rifles don't have inhert fireing pins ( a return spring to avoid slam fires ) because it could break and cause the fireing pin to be blocked and not work.
 Now some will say the free floated fireing pin is BS but I have witnessed a SKS with packing grease around the fireing pin that was stored in a truck over night in one diget temp. that evidently when put in the truck with empty chamber and muzzle down froze with FP sticking out in front of bolt face . As the shooter released the bolt the gun fired all ten rounds . The shooter put two rounds in and it did the same thing a couple times more so he stripped the bolt cleaned out the grease and all was fixed. Keep in mind the trigger had not been pulled.
 I only mention this because so many people who have no training on military type weapons are buying them these days and they really need to know what they have and how it works and why it's built as it is.

[Sourdough]

I have shot 7.60 NATO ammo made in the USA since the early 70s, in an English made .308.  I sometimes shoot the ball ammo, but usually pull the 150gr bullets and replace with Nosler 150gr Partitions.  In 42 years have had no issues.  Killed a lot of Caribou, Mulies, Whitetail, Black Bears, Coyotes, and One Musk-Ox.  Still have a few hundred rounds left, they will probably outlast me.

[SHOOTALL]

It must be that alot of people think that the differences between 556 and 223 ammo (can be 10000 psi more for 556 ammo) is somehow the same for 7.62 and 308 . which it ain't that I know of.

[AtlLaw]

It must be that alot of people think that the differences between 556 and 223 ammo (can be 10000 psi more for 556 ammo) is somehow the same for 7.62 and 308 . which it ain't that I know of.

Exactly!!   

[45-70.gov]

i have  one rifle that is hard to extract  NATO ammo

[BAGTIC]

A lot of the difference between published NATO pressure and published SAAMI pressures is due to differences in the way the pressure is measured. The same ammo can give different nominal pressure ratings according to how it is tested just like c.u.p.  gives different results than p.s.i.

[tom548]

I was given a full battle pack. When I shot it in my Ruger UL 308 it seemed hot and the bolt stuck on the first round and it ejected hard. I cleaned chamber and pulled 147 gr. head. It had a ball powder and weighted 47 Gr. Per the book seemed with in the range it should be.  But only a guess as powder was not known. Fired 2 more rounds same thing.  I then started reducing powder. At 40 grains it shot well and the bolt opened easily case ejected.
This ammo had all English writing on the box and battle pack.   This was very hot ammo and over loaded. All 100 rounds had the same weight powder. The case had 88  12 on the head. I can not find the battle pack it was tan plastic. The writing on the ammo box was 20 Rd   7.62 X 51mm  M1A2.  I think in some guns they could have been a problem. They were fine once I removed 7 grains, at 44 grains they still were sticking 42 gr seemed ok but a little hot. Just be careful.

[JB White]

So far, the only case head failures I have seen involved reloads. Commercial brass which had been fired in a military chamber. The thinner commercial brass expanding in the more generous chamber allowed the case to expand to the maximum of its intended working limits. Do that a time or two and something has to give. I have yet to see a commercially loaded case show signs of incipient failure on its first firing.
As far as foreign loaded 7.62 goes, we once picked up a case of Portuguese surplus that prefered to show up on target naked. Shed its jacket inside 50 yards where we found the copper clothing strewn about on the ground. SA M1A NM that was a proven performer prior. The other was a Ruger 77.
I too had an SKS slamfire. That was with a well maintained rifle. Doesn't take but the right drop of oil on the FP along with the right conditions to make it happen. Never fully trusted the SKS after that and eventually sold off every version I owned. Built my own 7.62x39 on a Mauser action. No slam fires there.
 
 In single shots I never experienced a problem with any 223/5.56 either. In the AR I never reloaded any commercial brass fired in it as I chose to simply avoid any potential problems there. The brass scroungers didn't seem to mind though.