I think that if I owned one of these rifles, I would try to keep it to ammo using the ORIGINAL specs for the .308W round.
These were VERY close to the original MILITARY specs, which have been maintained intact because there were a lot of different weapons made to use the stuff, interchangeably.
The situation is completely different when you get to COMMERCIAL ammunition, and the tendency here is to load the thing hotter ever year, if at all possible.
And it get even worse when some of the fringe handloaders get to work; there are loads out there, published, which give the .308W an extra FIVE HUNDRED ft/sec over original spec and there is factory ammo available that is very nearly this hot. Nobody can tell me that this is safe in a 95-year-old rifle. I would have serious doubts about some of these loads in new commercial rifles, for that matter.
I think I would stick with the original specs for the 7.62NATO round: 2750 ft/sec with a bullet in the 145 - 150-grain range.
That's hot enough.
Anything else is plain disrespect of a FINE piece of engineering and manufacturing.
BTW, the Swiss made some of the NICEST darned rifle-cleaning kits you have ever seen. Even the jointed Rod has BRASS bore-riders so you cannot possibly damage that wonderful barrel. Trade-Ex has some in a tool roll, $15 plus shipping, item SKU 2974. It includes a couple of tubes of some awful black grease that doesn't want to freeze up. Waffenfett? I'm ordering a couple more, just to be on the safe side.
These were VERY close to the original MILITARY specs, which have been maintained intact because there were a lot of different weapons made to use the stuff, interchangeably.
The situation is completely different when you get to COMMERCIAL ammunition, and the tendency here is to load the thing hotter ever year, if at all possible.
And it get even worse when some of the fringe handloaders get to work; there are loads out there, published, which give the .308W an extra FIVE HUNDRED ft/sec over original spec and there is factory ammo available that is very nearly this hot. Nobody can tell me that this is safe in a 95-year-old rifle. I would have serious doubts about some of these loads in new commercial rifles, for that matter.
I think I would stick with the original specs for the 7.62NATO round: 2750 ft/sec with a bullet in the 145 - 150-grain range.
That's hot enough.
Anything else is plain disrespect of a FINE piece of engineering and manufacturing.
BTW, the Swiss made some of the NICEST darned rifle-cleaning kits you have ever seen. Even the jointed Rod has BRASS bore-riders so you cannot possibly damage that wonderful barrel. Trade-Ex has some in a tool roll, $15 plus shipping, item SKU 2974. It includes a couple of tubes of some awful black grease that doesn't want to freeze up. Waffenfett? I'm ordering a couple more, just to be on the safe side.
