Good day, I just received a Spanish Mauser, FR-7, in great shape. It fires a 7.62 round as stamped on the firearm. I did some looking on the net and found that the FR-7 fired a CETME 7.62 round that the Spanish made for this rifle. Meaning the pressures were not as great as a .308 or 7.62 NATO rounds. So I am wondering if there is any of this CETME ammo out there or does everyone else fire the newer ammo in their FR-7's? Any info would be great. As always, thanks for your help.
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7.62 nato (cetme)
- Thread starter 440MOPAR
- Start date
Last summer, SFRC, a banner advertiser, was selling a bunch of CETME components. The powder used was very fast and pressures built up very quickly. The bullets were all about 112 grains in weight and quite long, as they had a plastic insert in the nose.
The bullets, were .3105 in diameter with a long tapered ogive. For such a light bullet, they had a lot of bearing surface as well.
I don't know the reason for the large diameter. Maybe to get the pressures up so the CETME rifles would operate reliably. Maybe it's a holdover from the much used 7.65x53 cartridge, which had similar diameters? The boat tail bullets are very similar in size and design to the bullets pulled from some South American 7.65x53 that I have. So close that it would be impossible to tell at a casual glance. Maybe they bought the swaging equipment surplus and weren't worried about the extra diameter in a generous chamber and maybe generous bore. My FR7, has a perfect .308 bore.
You might be able to find some of those components around but I think most people just loaded and shot them.
One fellow I know, loaded the bullets into a heavy barrel varmint rifle, with a tight bore. The bullets shot erratically. In milsurp rifles, FR7 and Isreaeli converted K98s, they shoot very nice tight groups. The varmint rifle has a slower twist rate than the standard 1-10 twist found in the mislurp rifles. The CETME bullets shoot OK in a 1-12 twist as well. In 1-14 twists and slower, they don't seem to perform well at all.
Loading the CETME bullets to higher pressures and velocities doesn't seem to effect accuracy either. I cut one of the bullets in half and was surprised at how much the bullets resemble Bench Rest, hand swaged match bullets in construction. When placed beside a normal 147 grain Nato bullet, they are slightly longer and have a much better low drag design. They have an open core base and the core, is roll crimped in place. There is also a letter B stamped into the bottom exposed lead core.
Overall, decent and very accurate bullets.
The ammunition used in these rifles, as made by Spain, was quite hot. I pulled one of the complete rounds that came with the components apart to duplicate the load used by Spain. Using standard primers and the same powder and charge in Nato brass, the bullets velocities were in the 2900 fps range. The primers were flattening as well but that doesn't indicate much as this batch of primers has a sticky put on it by me, indicating they seem to be soft.
The bullets, were .3105 in diameter with a long tapered ogive. For such a light bullet, they had a lot of bearing surface as well.
I don't know the reason for the large diameter. Maybe to get the pressures up so the CETME rifles would operate reliably. Maybe it's a holdover from the much used 7.65x53 cartridge, which had similar diameters? The boat tail bullets are very similar in size and design to the bullets pulled from some South American 7.65x53 that I have. So close that it would be impossible to tell at a casual glance. Maybe they bought the swaging equipment surplus and weren't worried about the extra diameter in a generous chamber and maybe generous bore. My FR7, has a perfect .308 bore.
You might be able to find some of those components around but I think most people just loaded and shot them.
One fellow I know, loaded the bullets into a heavy barrel varmint rifle, with a tight bore. The bullets shot erratically. In milsurp rifles, FR7 and Isreaeli converted K98s, they shoot very nice tight groups. The varmint rifle has a slower twist rate than the standard 1-10 twist found in the mislurp rifles. The CETME bullets shoot OK in a 1-12 twist as well. In 1-14 twists and slower, they don't seem to perform well at all.
Loading the CETME bullets to higher pressures and velocities doesn't seem to effect accuracy either. I cut one of the bullets in half and was surprised at how much the bullets resemble Bench Rest, hand swaged match bullets in construction. When placed beside a normal 147 grain Nato bullet, they are slightly longer and have a much better low drag design. They have an open core base and the core, is roll crimped in place. There is also a letter B stamped into the bottom exposed lead core.
Overall, decent and very accurate bullets.
The ammunition used in these rifles, as made by Spain, was quite hot. I pulled one of the complete rounds that came with the components apart to duplicate the load used by Spain. Using standard primers and the same powder and charge in Nato brass, the bullets velocities were in the 2900 fps range. The primers were flattening as well but that doesn't indicate much as this batch of primers has a sticky put on it by me, indicating they seem to be soft.
