Commercial .308 in an Ishapore

[Ragenarok007]

Will an Ishapore Enfield stand up to commercial .308 ammo? I understand the differences with the NATO round but I was under the impression that the issue was with leade and pressures. So being a bolt action rifle I'm assuming that leade isn't an issue and that pressures will be higher but manageable. There will probably be an issue with faster barrel wear eventually.

 

[dhnorris]

Mine likes everything except wolf steel case, the empties are hard to extract.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I've only ever fired military through mine, but I've often wondered the same thing.

 

[sloughfoot]

"Commercial 308 ammo" is way too broad a question. My answer to that question is, no.

The only commercial ammo that yu should consider, is that which approximates ball ammo specs. Remington 150 grain FMC and Winchester 147 grain FMJ are the only two that I have experience with that meet 7.62X51 specs.

 

[redwingshooter]

I concur with sloughfoot, I would not run anything but surplus 7.62 NATO or the two other mentioned manufactures through your gun. Most other manufacturers do not follow specs and your older bolt action might not be able to handle the pressure, which could result in a bang you don't want! This is just what I've heard and I don't have any data to back it up, so take it for what it is. I'd play it safe and stick with surplus, it's cheaper anyway!

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Yeah, I don't have much proper .308, just one rifle for that, but I have cases of the 7.62x51. It goes bang, it travels in the general direction the muzzle is pointing, if there was a bad guy there, he wouldn't be having a good day. I wouldn't waste Sierra Match Kings on an old military surplus rifle

 

[2cool9031]

I ran commercial ammo through mine all the time and had no problems.

 

[mike8170]

Here is a good link on just what you are asking. The author is a Canadian competition SMLE shooter.

7.62 NATO versus 308 Winchester

In it, he does explain the pressure differences.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Here is a good link on just what you are asking. The author is a Canadian competition SMLE shooter.

7.62 NATO versus 308 Winchester

In it, he does explain the pressure differences.

So this guy's saying the commercial pressures are less than the military ones, which is the opposite of what I've understood, and you could fire commercial .308 in a 7.62 rifle but not vice versa, or am I just too farkin drunk to understand this right now? I'm so confused.

 

[mike8170]

Then I can really confuse you with this article. It shows the correlation (the authors work, mind you) between CUP and PSI!

 

[Ragenarok007]

"Commercial 308 ammo" is way too broad a question. My answer to that question is, no.

The only commercial ammo that yu should consider, is that which approximates ball ammo specs. Remington 150 grain FMC and Winchester 147 grain FMJ are the only two that I have experience with that meet 7.62X51 specs.

Lucky for me, all my .308 is Remington 150 grain. I'm not going to the range with it or anything but I will take a hog with it while I'm down here in Texas if I get a chance. Thanks for the info.

 

[jim7310]

I have an Ishy which I have modified to a scout rifle configuration. I have shot plenty of ball and standard .308 reloads through it with no problems and good accuracy. YMMV.