M14 Forum

Trailrunner

I am looking for some factory loaded hunting ammo in 7.62x51, not 308.

I have had good luck with ballistic tips.

I have read so much on sticking with 7.62x51 and not 308 in my m14, PTR-91 rifles because of pressures, etc. I wanted to ask what folks opinion is on the subject.

Thanks.

nf1e@snet.net

You will certainly get a bunch of opinions here. No such animal as 7.62x51 hunting ammo. The ammo is all the same.308. Just keep it under 180gr and you should have no troubles. The difference is chamber size, not ammo. Do a search and you will have plenty of reading to do.
Semper Fi
Art

RAMMAC

Every time a question like this comes up I say two things;

First, there is no such thing as a 7.62x51mm cartridge as far as dimensions are concerned, the way the rifle's chamber is cut is slightly different but not to any great extent. The proof that there is no difference in the cartridges is the fact that no 7.62x51mm resizing die (the reloading die that forces the case to it's proper dimensions) exists, they aren't made...therefore, all cartridges used in these rifles have the same dimensions and those are the dimensions specified for a .308 Winchester cartridge.

Second, as far as pressures are concerned refer to this link

7.62 X 51 cartridge vs. .308 Winchester: the differences!

Larry Gibson used the same testing setup as specified by SAAMI and found that pressures of both, commercial and military surplus, will vary by quite a bit with the average being around 53,000 PSI or so, as opposed to the commonly assumed 50,000 PSI maximum pressure for these rifles.

jbrooks

+1. Yup, what they both said.

You can make 7.62mm NATO "hunting ammo" by reloading NATO brass with hunting ammo. But you will be using .308 dies 'cuz as they said, they are dimensionally identical. :) (SAAMI = CIP = NATO dimensions. Sometimes there is a "rounding error" due to conversion between metric and inch standards.)

JWB

win308

This is about as close as you get:
http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.as...Box&groupid=26



Notice in the lower left it says SOLD OUT.....but now you know what to hunt for.

RAMMAC

To be more to the point and a little clearer, there are no real differences between a so called 7.62x51mm cartridge and a .308 Winchester cartridge other than the names and normal manufacturing variations.

The only limitation that I would recommend is don't use magnum style ammunition and keep the bullet at less than 180 grains. Those limitations are due to the overall design limitations of the rifle itself, not because of the ammo.