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Is it safe to shoot 7.62 M80 ball out of my R700 AAC SD .308?

RossinFL

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Minuteman
Dec 28, 2004
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FL
I want to go shooting tomorrow (Saturday) and just want to make sure that the ammo I got will work. I have some m80 ball (it is all I could find). I thought for sure that the gun would work OK with a NATO 7.62 round but for the heck of it threw a 1.634 NATO 7.62x51 go gauge and a 1.638 NATO no go gauge. The bolt will not close on either. It will close on a SAAMI spec .308 1.630 go gauge. The bolt will close with the m80 bullet chambered in the gun. I am not able to find a manual for the gun online and can't call Remington. I see the gun advertised as 308/7.62 at some places on the internet but don't want to go by that. Does anyone know if is safe to shoot this ammo in the gun?
 
It is the exact opposite of 5.56 and .223.
 
Thanks for the info guys and confirming that it will work. I thought it would but the NATO headspace gauges not working kind of threw me a little bit. So is the rule that NATO 7.62 x 51 is loaded less hot than SAAMI so if the NATO round chambers then it will work?
 
There is PLENTY of safety margin to play around in with this particular situation... Of course, there's always the (pretty remote, really) possibility of an out of spec/hot round, but you've got that possibility with ANY ammo. Like another poster said, don't overthink it; go shoot. It'll be a'ight.

I *should* note, though... expect accuracy to suck. M80 is not renowned for its accuracy.
 
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A guy did an extensive destructive test on a different forum of 3 mauser actions, of which 2 were pre 98 models. He found that even with these old, non hardened actions, there was a safety margin of almost 100% built into the design. a few thousand PSI difference won't be a problem unless you have another factor added to it. This is why the 308/7.62 and especially the 223/5.56 debate on safety is so damn stupid.

Here is the thread. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?181256-Channeling-P-O-Mauser-blow-up-project

Read the below quote and notice the pressure put into a spanish 93 mauser action to cause it significant damage. The damage was merely lug setback and not catastrophic failure.

Tonight I got a reply from DCM who I PM'd about what Quick Load said about the last Maximo load and here are the results:

Dave, so the latest is that because I used some once fired cases I could get more powder in them for another admittedly crazy test. I was able to get 52.5 gr. in a case with all the same parameters. If you could, what says QL?

Mark[/QUOTE]

No problem!
52.5g ~108315 PSI
I am truly enjoying this Mythbusters thread, so many wives tales we have all heard through the years!
Dave Emary of Hornady once tried unsuccessfully to intentionally blow up one of those "weak Carcanos" only to find how strong his is.

Dave

So there you have it, maybe I could cram another 1/2 grain in a case but the results would be the same. To recap, we took a '93 Spanish mauser, an unknown origin bolt that was hard by the file test and had the upper locking lug and all cartidge head support removed, fitted with a unknown manufacture 8mm Turkish mauser barrel and subjected it to enormous chamber pressure and it did not fail. The action is ruined because of the resulting setback. No bolt through the head, no hand grenade no nothing, really.


He then crammed the 8mm case with enough 2400 powder to generate 126,000 PSI and that finally blew the action up.

There was also a guy (Hatcher's notebook, I think) who chambered a 6.5 Jap Arisaka with a 30-06 reamer and then sent a 30-06 round down the 6.5 pipe. The action held.
 
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Thanks again for the info guys. The good news is the gun worked fine. The bad news, that ammo is terribly inaccurate. I knew it wouldn't measure up to match ammo but didn't think it would be as bad as it is. My groups were 7 to 8" at 100. Another guy got the same result.