what is the main difference between the two rounds.? i accidentally chambered a nato 7.62 in my .308 savage and it kind of stuck in the chamber. i didnt shoot it, but when i extracted it, there was a ring mark at the base of the neck of my casing.
There isn't any major difference between the specs of these cartridges.
There are some major differences between the specs for the firearm's chamber.
Milsurp cartridges are not reliable, they are sold because they didn't meet some sort of standard. Governments do not sell ammo to civilians because they want to give you a good deal.
Just ask yourself one question; where can I buy a 7.62x51mm set of reloading dies? The answer is that you can't. Therefor all .308/7.62x51mm ammo is reloaded, in general, to the same specs within specified tolerances.
Your Savage is probably designed with a tight .308 Winchester chamber; which means that the chamber was built to match the smaller side of all of the tolerances.
NATO ammo can be rejected for lots of reasons, manufacturing errors, storage errors, shipping errors, etc. If the lot you have was rejected for manufacturing errors then the reason for rejecting them might be related to case dimensions.
Military chambers are, in general, built with a little more clearance between the cartridge and the chamber walls; allowance for junk and crud while crawling around.
So the NATO ammo manufacturer can error on the large side of the cartridge tolerances. The equipment used to mass produce ammo wears pretty quickly compared to our home reloading equipment. As that equipment wears the cartridge dimensions will grow. So as the machine wears those cartridge will eventually exceed the max tolerances. At that point the lot number gets pulled and sold commercially as milsurp.
So chances are, you just happen to have a lot of NATO ammo that slightly exceeds the minimum SAAMI specs for a .308 chamber. That is why I'm very cautious about milsurp and don't usually use it. I don't think it's a bargain when you can damage the weapon or the ammo performs so poorly that I can't hit what I'm aiming at. I do however understand the desire to buy large quantities of ammo at reasonable prices so I'm not judging anybody for using milsurp, I just don't trust most of it.
you dont think i damaged my chamber by chambering that round do you? also, another thing i forgot to mention: i dont know if the ammo i used can be called "NATO" as it does not have the cross stamp. i think it came from Pakistan and it is just stamped "7.62 x 51 POF 06". it was advertised as non-corrisive but i dont know if warrants the name NATO or not.
I don't think that you damaged anything either, I was just commenting that it is a possibility any time you use milsurp ammo.
It doesn't matter if the ammo was NATO or not, if it was sold by a national government they sold it because it was of no use to them, and that is only true if it doesn't meet some kind of standard or they have had issues with the ammo. Governments don't explain why the ammo was sold as surplus, they just sell it.
Don't get get the wrong impression, I'm not saying that milsurp is bad I'm just saying that it isn't 100% reliable. Most times it works fine, but once in a while you get problems.
If ammo exeeds the given storage time it will be destroyed in a factory, usually in a big furnace. Its the expensive way to get rid of it. Or it will be sold as milsurp. Its similar as with the expiration date on your yoghurt. If the date is exeeded it doesn't mean that it is unhealthy to consume it.
Wolf
I sayed: GIVEN storage time and it is empericaly and mathematicaly calculated. If a failure rate exeeds an acceptable percentage its better to destroy the lot. Or sell it.
Wolf
If ammo exeeds the given storage time it will be destroyed in a factory, usually in a big furnace. Its the expensive way to get rid of it. Or it will be sold as milsurp. Its similar as with the expiration date on your yoghurt. If the date is exeeded it doesn't mean that it is unhealthy to consume it.
Wolf
Actually powder and primers degrade with time due to chemical and gas reactions. When the temperatures are higher than about 120 degrees F the decomposition is accelerated.
Most modern smokeless powders have a flame retardant coating. Heat can cause damage to that retardant and then the burn rate of the powder becomes unpredictable. Cold can cause the powder to become brittle and crack, that also causes the burn rate to become unpredictable.
These are issues that can't be reliably predicted and that is why manufactures recommend storing them in specific temperature and humidity ranges. Along with that, they use sealed containers to help reduce the possibility of reaction to gasses and other environmental conditions.
You can have fun with it. But fun and war is a different business, isn't it?
Wolf
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