7.62 Nato in Saiga .308

[calemmett 0]

Military ammo generates somewhat higher pressures than commercial ammo, which can be unhealthy for semi-autos in particular. Does anyone have any experience with Nato ammo? The gun would be useless in certain emergency situations in which only military ammo might be available.

Sorry if this is an old question, but I wore out after looking at 22 pages.

Thanks, Cal

[nalioth 405]

Actually, the commercial .308 generates more power than Nato spec 7.62x51.

 

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2006/3...2nato/index.asp

[SuAside 2]

most people get confused because 5.56x45mm NATO is stronger than .223 Rem, while 7.62x51mm NATO is lighter than .308 Win

[patriot 7,197]

Does the Saiga have the tight 308 Win chamber, or the slightly looser 7.62 Nato chamber. Hopefully, it's got the 7.62 chamber. If not, it's a simple matter of a few minutes with a 7.62 chamber reamer. It'd be good to be able to fire 7.62 surplus/pickup ammo in it.

[cma g21 3]

[nalioth 405]

Does the Saiga have the tight 308 Win chamber, or the slightly looser 7.62 Nato chamber. Hopefully, it's got the 7.62 chamber. If not, it's a simple matter of a few minutes with a 7.62 chamber reamer. It'd be good to be able to fire 7.62 surplus/pickup ammo in it.

The two cartridges are dimensionally the same.

 

Edited: The problems arise when the thicker case walls of the 7.62 Nato ammo swell up when fired. The 7.62x51 Nato chambers are "cut a little bigger" (on the big end of the .308 Winchester/7.62 Nato specs) to take this into account.

 

You can interchange the cartridges all you like in a modern firearm, but you might want to have a broken shell extractor along if you shoot the Nato stuff out of a .308 Wichester chamber.

 

P.S. This same rule of thumb goes for shooting 5.56x45 in a .223 Remington chamber.

Edited December 31, 2007 by nalioth

[1liter 20]

Check the side of your rifle. It says 7.62x51 and 308 win.

[cma g21 3]

[G O B 3,516]

My S-.308 eats whatever I feed it with no problems. There is nothing delicate about this design. It has 3 lug locking of the bolt, and a heavy, thick chamber. Robust is a good word for the design.

The chamber and barrell are chrome lined, so there should be no extraction issues,like some of the military weapons are prone to with civillian ammo.

[cedricxerxes 0]

My Kalashnikov-USA Saiga 308 only has 7,62x51 stamped on the receiver. The owner's manual says to use cartridges, cal. 7.62x51 (.308 WIN). I have only shot .308 Win through it. No problems.

[wally 2]

Some of the lake city ammo has a thicker case,I have some of the 118LR it has a thicker case standard LC brass is thinner,7.62 or 308 is fine I have a Springfeild M1A and wondered the same thing that you are and called Springfeild about it they said 308 or 7.62 is fine the twist rate of the M1a and saiga will shoot the 168 grain better than the 150 grain

[uglyrussian308 0]

No problem with either 308 or 7.62 X 51.

 

My Saiga 308, 16.5" actually has a tighter chamber than just about any 308 auto loader I've ever had, (inclusive of FALs and NM M1As). The fired cases from my Saiga will actually chamber in one of my 308 bolt guns with a factory 308 Barrel. The fired brass resizes in an RCBS small base sizer with very little effort. Despit the tight chamber, the brass shws no sign of sticking (ie. no extractor marks on the cartridge rim etc.). I don't know if this is unique to the rifle that I have but it's certainly very impressive. This weapon has exhibited flawless performance with everything, inculding LC M118 LR, Remigton, Federal and Winchester factory ammo, and hand loads with 125gr 308 bullets.