7.62x39mm Bullets shot through .308 barrel

C

c1979

Member
Rating - 100%
30   0   0
Has anyone tried pulling the .310 bullets out of the surplus 7.62x39mm ammo and loaded them into a .308 rifle. Will this work even though they are a little tighter or will it hurt the barrel. I understand it is probably not recommended but will it work.
 
YUP, Works but they just about do somersaults down the bore, They shoot good out of most .303's. Regards .45-90:)
 
Those tighter bullets could very easily destroy your gun and whoever may be holding onto it .
Use the correct bullets !
This will not work safely plus I don't see how you will save money , the powder and case would be wasted for the cost of an odd weight projectile ?
A hundred 150 to 165 grain bullets are under $30.00 , 100 surplus rounds are $20.00 . So you are willing to smack apart all these bullets ( most are sealed , would be a b!tch to take apart I'm thinking ) to save 8 to ten bucks a hundred ?
 
If the bullets you plan on using in a .308 barrel are .310 then they are slightly over sized. I am assuming that the 7.62 bullets are .310. I have heard of some of them actually being .308.
Depending upon the composition of the jacket, they should squeeze down to .308 if they were fired.

But any deviation , and the increase in bullet size is a deviation, will increase the pressure. Perhaps dangerously so. Unless you have access to testing equipment you will not know how much the pressure goes up.

IMO, don't try it. It is not worth the risk.
 
This is a bad idea....BUT I did also think about doing it once too, then I smartened the #### up and didn't do it. SO The best thing is not to do it. But if you must do it take a fired brass form your 308 and try to insert the .310 bullet into it. If it slides in with room to spare your chambers' neck dimensions may be generous enough to fire the bullet. From what I understand, and I am no expert, the main danger in shooting over sized bullets is not the swaging in the bore but the tight neck which can pinch the bullet in the case not allowing it to release freely. Sounds ok right? Well what if your bullets have a steel core or some other weird-o core as some millsup do. Then the bullet cannot squeez easily and BOOM you blow your face off.

No matter what you do it's dangerous so don't do it.

It's your face, you can risk it however you see fit.
 
Last edited:
RUPZUK said:
Those tighter bullets could very easily destroy your gun and whoever may be holding onto it .
Use the correct bullets !
This will not work safely plus I don't see how you will save money , the powder and case would be wasted for the cost of an odd weight projectile ?
A hundred 150 to 165 grain bullets are under $30.00 , 100 surplus rounds are $20.00 . So you are willing to smack apart all these bullets ( most are sealed , would be a b!tch to take apart I'm thinking ) to save 8 to ten bucks a hundred ?
Click to expand...
When I started reloading 7.62 X 39 I checked out various bullet sizes and settled on .311 as it is the same for my .303 and also the rifle is a CZ so European built. Not sure where I read it but either with the RCBS dies or in the Sierra Load CD it stated that no ill effects pressure or otherwise were noted when firing the .311 in the .308 bore and only a drop off in accuraccy when reversed. This was done due to the Alleged manufacture of .308 Barrels for US made rifles in 7.62 X 39.
 
I wouldn't do it if I were you, pressures would rise and it's just not worth it.... .311" bullets are used in some .30 cals. but cast bullets only as they produce less pressure and swage down better. I use .310" bullets(cast) in my .308 as they are most accurate, and will try them in my Whisper. For jacketed I would avoid rocking the boat.
 
Shot hundreds of those stubby.310 bullets down .308 bores with no problems whatsoever. For years, a European manufacturer supplied bullets for match use in .308" or .309" (for use in .308 bores) Speer did the same many years ago, but I suspect they were European made bullets repackaged by Speer. I have a bunch of Remington 150 grain bullets that are in packages marked .308" but the bullets mike .3096" They shoot just fine in my 300 Savage, my 30-06 and a 308 that I worked with. I did drop the load 3 grains and worked back up, but could not detect any excess pressure signs with the slightly larger bullets. P.O. Ackley once did some experimenting with oversized bullets and his experiments, IIRC, showed that a bullet up to .005" would swage down and pass through the bore with little ill effects. I also was involved in some issues with a European manufactured rifle chambered in 243 Winchester. It would show minor pressure signs with some factory 100 grain ammo. When we finally slugged the barrel, we were amazed to find that the groove diameter was only .2385"!! That's a pretty fair squeeze for a small diameter, long bearing surface bullet at the normal pressures of a 243. Regards, Eagleye
 
ben hunchak said:
I wouldn't do it if I were you, pressures would rise and it's just not worth it.... .311" bullets are used in some .30 cals. but cast bullets only as they produce less pressure and swage down better. I use .310" bullets(cast) in my .308 as they are most accurate, and will try them in my Whisper. For jacketed I would avoid rocking the boat.
Click to expand...

Only quoting what the die/load table people said and being US they are more scared of litigation than us on this side of the pond.
Not that I need to but that was the book answer to the question.
 
Shot plenty of .357 jacketed out of a 9mm barrel, lots of .310 from a 308.

Ever measure a bullet after it has engaged the rifling? So what makes you think you can't swage the rest of the bullet a few thou?;)
 
Anyone want to guess what the bore diameter is on the Ruger Mini-30s and M77 in 7.62x39?


Or do you want to guess why RCBS dies for the 7.6x39 have both .308 & .311 expander balls?
 
Last edited:
typically, ruger is a .308- look at the reviews of the mini-30- or at least it says so in guns and ammo
 
"...the Alleged manufacture of .308 Barrels for US made rifles in 7.62 X 39..." Alleged nothing. The Ruger Mini-30 has a .308" barrel. Always has had a .308" barrel. When it was first made in 1986, there wasn't much 7.62 x 39 ammo available Stateside. So Ruger made the rifles and had ammo made with a 125 grain .308" bullet. Now they claim their over priced, inaccurate, piece of junk will shoot Warsaw Pact surplus with the wrong diameter bullet safely.
Use the right bullet diameter. The right bullet diameter for a .308 Win is .308", not .310" or .311".
 
hmmmm

Anyone else remember those fancy little chamber mates used to shoot cheep mil surp 7.62 x 39 in you 30-06 and 308????
 
So Ruger - who is SO lawsuit conscious that they stamp their entire safety booklets on their barrels - would knowingly advocate a practise that may blow up or damage a rifle?

Somhow I highly doubt it.
 
No not Ruger but the die and reloading data people. In fact RCBS put both .308 and .311 expander plugs in their die sets in case you need to load to a certain size but their comment was "No appreciable effects were shown beyond the loss of accuracy!"
 
I shouldn't really say this, but, it takes a real effort to blow up a rifle. We had a (sorta) 7mm Rem Mag come into the shop with some moderately severe bolt face damage. The owner had dropped a .303 Brit round into the chamber and fired it at a moose. Loud, unusual noise and no damage visible on outside of action. When they hammered open the bolt (NOT a Rem 700, obviously) extractor was sorta missing. Moose died.

The moral is that when playing around with pressures in the 50,000psi+ range, strange things can, and do happen.

Those that use the properly sized components and loads for their firearms don't have to replace them as often, and, generally, they live longer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom