Can a rem 700 varmint chambered 4 .308WIN use 7.62x39 amo

[james2562]

I have an oppertunity to buy cheap eastern block ammo 7.62x39. I was thinking of picking up some for range day, just to play with. I want to make sure it will actualy work. Does any one know?

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[BillM]

I have an oppertunity to buy cheap eastern block ammo 7.62x39. I was thinking of picking up some for range day, just to play with. I want to make sure it will actualy work. Does any one know?

Why would you think that it WOULD WORK? The answer is NO.

.308 Winchester is very very close to but not identical to 7.62x51 NATO.
Close enough to be interchangeable in almost all situations.

7.62 x 39 is 12 mm shorter, uses (usually) a bullet .003-.004 larger in
diameter, and is a smaller diameter case. Not even close. If someone told
you they are the same, I would be really careful about believing what they
told you--about ANYTHING.

 

[james2562]

Much appreciated. At the rist of sounding stupider than i am what about a 7.62x54r?

 

[odiesplace97301]

A barrel thats chambered for 308 is for 308, that being said it's possible to chamber and fire a 243 in that rifle. It's not a good thing but you could do it. As for 762x54 it,s longer than a 308 so no... Shoot 308 in your 308 and avoid the bad things that can happen

 

[Grizzly_A]

You should google each of those cartridges to see what they look like or take a .308 round with you to the store and look at each of those cartridges side by side. The 7.62x54r is rimmed hence the "R" and generally chambered in the mosin nagant rifles. The 7.62x25 is a pistol round, but there's no way I'd fire it in a 308 chamber.

If you look at the NATO specs, 308 is referred to as 7.62x51. The 7.62 is the size of the bullet so in this case a .30cal and the number following the "x" is the length of the case, like 25, 39, 54.

Don't ruin your Varmint 700 by buying ammo for AK and Mosin rifles and trying to shoot it. Buy some South African 308 or surplus NATO 7.62x51 and keep your chamber and barrel booger free.

 

[james2562]

Much appreciated all.

 

[NWPilgrim]

Much appreciated. At the rist of sounding stupider than i am what about a 7.62x54r?

James, the answer is another NO.

7.62x54R is a Russian cartridge that is 3mm longer than the .308 (7.62x51), AND it has a case rim larger diameter than the case body (thus the "R"). So the case rim would not even fit in the bolt face/extractor of the .308, besides the case being to long for the chamber.

There is some lower cost .308 or 7.62x51 ammo available from Wolf (steel cases, Berdan primed) from Midway or somewhere, but nothing as cheap as the Russian design cartridges.

 

[therifleman]

If you want good performance from your 308 without reloading go to wal mart and buy some remington corelokt ammo and save the empty brass for future reloading. I think the price is around 27 bucks a box and here in kennewick they are available. Great accuracy.

 

[Gunner3456]

A barrel thats chambered for 308 is for 308, that being said it's possible to chamber and fire a 243 in that rifle. It's not a good thing but you could do it. As for 762x54 it,s longer than a 308 so no... Shoot 308 in your 308 and avoid the bad things that can happen

That's a typo, right???

 

[johnsjus]

That's a typo, right???

Nope, it is possible because the 243 is a necked down 308. same way a 25-06 and 270 can be chambered in a 30-06. they are all based on the same case. but please dont confuse this as me saying you should.

 

[PhysicsGuy]

As far as I know, there are NO interchangeable bottleneck cartridges (with exceptions of .308-7.62x51 and .223-5.56, since they are essentially the same).

The only time a cartridge is interchangeable is when it head spaces on the rim, you never want to interchange a different length cartridge that head spaces on the mouth (example, auto pistol cartridges). There are a few tiny exceptions that I won't go into detail about (shooting auto cartridges in a revolver, and exact dimension cartridges such as .45 super)

You still will want to research to see if its compatible even if it fits these rules, because there are always little things that you don't think of, like why a .45-70 cannot use .45 colt. (tapered)

The major compatible cartridges that you will encounter in normal gun ownership are;

.38 special in a .357 magnum
.44 special in a .44 magnum
.45 colt in a .454/.460
.32 S&W/long in a .32 H&R, and all 3 in a .327 magnum
.22 cb/bb/short/long in a .22lr (you cannot use ANY of these in a .22 magnum)

Those are the common ones I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[torpedoman]

Guys there is a great little site www.ammoguide.com that gives in depth info on most every round and allows a side by side visual comparison of rounds and has tons of reloading info.

 

[Scott]

No don't shoot 7.62 out of a .308. The details are long. Just call any manufacture and talk with them about and they will explain.

 

[mikehaas]

torpedoman is right - AmmoGuide.com makes it obvious - why these rounds are NOT interchangeable...



Compare ballistics for these 2 rounds here:
http://ammoguide.com/?tool=bcompare&it=18|92
(You can 'roll your own' ballistic comparisons there too.)

 

[dolphins84te]

Okay, call me stupid (go ahead), but I used to have a 22 mag revolver and didn't know that shooting .22 LR out of it was a NO-NO. I shot a couple hundred out of it. Oftentimes, it split the case (but they can't be reloaded anyway, so who cared?) and they would get a bit stuck, but I could smack them out with my palm. They were even fairly accurate.

 

[Tilos]

Shoot all day long for $25-$50 and leave the brass on the ground.

Torpedoman: thanks for the link, techno overload, I love it.

Tilos

 

[best defense]

7.62X54R is a rimed cartridge and will not fit in 7.62NATO/308 Winchester.