Military Ammo OK in Commercial rifles?

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TooTaxed

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I have heard somewhere that there can be problems with excess pressures in using military .223 and .308 ammo in commercial rifles under some conditions. Is there any truth to this? Mine seem to shoot just fine...:confused:
 
Guess it will depend on the action. I can only speak for 308 but my Remington 600 will eat anything you can chamber and not even burp. I can imagine you could cause cycling problems with a gas operated semi-auto action.
 
It just depends on the ammo rifle combination
7.62x51 NATO ammo in a .308 gun is never a problem but Vise versa can be for some older guns with less of a safety margin built in.

Just the opposite it true with 5.56x45 NATO ammo in a .223 gun this can cause pressure issues in certain cases
 
It really depends who made the ammunition. If their quality control is awful, then the ammunition is awful.

Just search for 303 pakistani and Indian ammunition problems. The ammunition made in these countries has been so poorly made that complaints are easy to find.

Generally speaking ammunition made in NATO countries is good, because in those countries people are expensive and things are cheap.

In second and third tier countries, people are cheap. So no one gives a hoot about defective equipment.
 
I saw a Savage .223 bolt gun that clearly stated not to use 5.56. I had some interest in it until I saw that. As stated prior it all depends on the rifle and ammo.
 
The 5.56x45 nato is loaded to higher chamber pressures than the .223 Rem, therefore you can shoot .223 in a gun chambered for 5.56, but not the other way around in semi-auto rifles, especially AR's. The .308 on the other hand is the exact opposite. There is a miniscule difference in case size between the commercial .308 and the 7.62x51 military rounds, the brass is thicker in the military brass, and the commercial ammo is loaded to higher chamber pressures. All these things combined "can" cause problems such as case rupture and head seperation in rifles with "fluted" chambers such as the CETME/HK clones. The higher pressures can cause other problems in other mil-surp auto rifles.

I hope this helps.

Don
 
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