These guns replaced the WWII-era bolt-actions of and, although in large part phased out by even more compact 5.56 NATO carbines, remain in military service around the world to one degree or another. These “battle rifles” developed along national lines and included the Spanish CETME 58, the FN FAL, the Swiss-made SIG SG 510-4, the West German HK G3, Italy’s Beretta BM59, as well as the already-mentioned M14 and AR-10.

Soon after the cartridge became NATO standard in 1952, the 7.62x51mm was widely adopted across Europe and North America for a new generation of autoloading rifles. 308 Win-chambered rifle or pistol, while the reverse cannot always be said due to the potentially higher pressure of commercial loadings. While SAAMI does not list the interchangeability between the two cartridges as being unsafe, it is best to remember to stick to the chambering written by the manufacturer on the barrel just to be sure.Īn alternative rule of thumb is that 7.62 NATO is safe to fire from a. 308 Win loads can run as high as 62,000 PSI, nearly 25 percent higher, and still be in spec.

While they are the same size and can utilize the same bullets, 7.62 is commonly loaded to a lower pressure, 50,000 PSI. 308 Win and 7.62 NATO are not entirely interchangeable. Is it 308 or 7.62 NATO?Īlthough they evolved on the same timeline, contrary to popular belief. There is a good reason why the round is still a NATO standard. This same flexibility carries over for its use in personal protection as well as by LE and military customers, able to “vibe check” most individual armor plate short of Level III SAPIs while remaining much more barrier blind than, say 5.56 NATO.įurther, innovative new bullet designs promise to keep it relevant for decades to come. 308 is a high-velocity round capable of taking everything from medium-sized predators such as coyotes out to the dream list of North American big game. With a myriad of factory bullet loads ranging from as light as 79- to as heavy as 200-grains, the. 308 offers performance akin to “God’s Caliber,” the. Weighing in at just 7.5-pounds, the magazine-fed T25 could rock and roll on its T65 cartridges at over 700 rounds per minute, blowing away anything else the Army had in the field or on the drawing board.Īs the Army originally intended in the 1940s when they started work on the design, as well as Savage Arms before it, the. The first gun designed specifically to fire the T65, the Army’s T25 trials rifle, was constructed in 1948.

30-06, which it approached ballistically. 300S it took cues from while still being shorter and more compact than the old. At 7.62x49mm, it was just slightly longer than the. With that, the experimental T65 “lightweight” cartridge was quickly designed by the Army at Frankford Arsenal in Pennsylvania. 300S was designed as a cartridge for lever-action rifles, such as Savage’s Model 99, and the Army decided to tweak it for use in autoloaders. 300 Savage (7.62x47mm) cartridge in the late 1930s. 30-caliber round that produced similar results but in a smaller action, the Army began experiments with the. 30-06 Springfield (7.62圆3mm) cartridge in 1906 (hence the “aught-six” part of the title), and it went on to be used in the M1903 and M1917 Enfield bolt-action rifles of WWI, the semi-auto M1 Garand of WWII and Korea, and the ubiquitous M1918 BAR and M1919 machine guns, that doesn’t mean Uncle Sam was entirely happy with it.

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