Question for the Bravos ....

[Sdiver]

Now don't all stampede over yourselves answering this question .. "Oh, I know, I know, I know !!!!", so here goes ....

Have a friend who found an M1 Garand for a nice price, but it's a .308
I told him to get it, but if he does, we wouldn't be able to share clips (mine's a 30.06)
He said that, that shouldn't be a problem. That a 30.06 should be able to fire down a .308.

Now I'm only a medic and don't really know bang-bang stuff, but with my limited thinking on this, I would think that it wouldn't be possible. The .308 if fired down a 30.06 would be too big and get stuck, causing a "weapon malfunction", where as a 30.06 fired down a .308 would be too loose and not fly straight and narrow.

So, answer away. Is it possible to fire the different calibers down the different weapons, or is it a recipe for disaster?

[Bettendorf]

.308 (7.62mmX51mm)

30.06 (7.62mmX64mm)

Both are .30 cals. 30.06 gets its name because it's .30cal and it was made it 1906, hence the "06".

[craigepo]

Same bullet, 30-06 has much longer brass.

No workie

[Toaster]

The En Bloc clips can be interchanged, the cartridges can't...IIRC the .30-06 is the parent case of the .308.

I'm away from my Garand, though I wouldn't try feeding a 308 into a 30-06.

It's best to use hard primers or mil-surp ammo in Garands, they can sometimes set off commercial ammo when driving the round into the chamber. I've heard of out of battery accidents and shooting in auto due to inappropriate ammo.

Some manufacturers make ammo for the M1/M1A rifles due to that issue.

[JJ_BPK]

Size matters..

The 30.06 is longer. There is little change that the properly loaded cartridge will load into the ammo well, let alone the chamber.

Here is the story about conversion of the 30.06 rifles to 7.62 for the Navy..

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2013/12/23/762x51-mm-nato-us-navy-garand-rifles/

If your friend's rifle is one of the converted rifles,, it is a collector and should not be diddled with. Read the fine print,, they used chamber sleeves to accommodate the shorter 7.62, changed the slide follower-bullet guide, and altered the gas post.

If your friends rifle has Italian markings, it may have been re-engineered by Beretta.

Nice find in either case..

Size comparisons:

[The Reaper]

The En Bloc clips can be interchanged, the cartridges can't...IIRC the .30-06 is the parent case of the .308.

I'm away from my Garand, though I wouldn't try feeding a 308 into a 30-06.

Correct.

The bullets are exactly the same, but the .308 case (7.62x51mm) is a different length than the .30-'06 (7.62x63mm).

The .30-'06 will not chamber in a .308 rifle and it is unsafe to try to fire a .308 in a rifle chambered for .30-'06.

IIRC, the en-bloc clips are the same as they depend on case diameter to load.

The modern .308 conversions use a barrel chambered for .308 (or 7.62x51, depending on the reamer), the old Navy conversions generally used a chamber insert which would occasionally eject with the fired case.

Hope that helps.

TR

[Sdiver]

Thanks all for the responses.

I'll pass along the info.

[BKKMAN]

I was on a foreign and US weapons familiarization range where .308 ammo was mistakenly loaded into a .30-06 weapon.

Luckily, no harm came to humans or weapons.

The .308 brass came out of the weapon looking like overly long .45 brass, because the shorter round wasn't able to seat fully forward so the cartridge case neck was getting distended/blown out by the pressure in the chamber...picture attached that I grabbed from Google...amazing how many "oops" images of this exact fxxx up are out on the internet

[Peregrino]

Tell your friend to research his rifle. He needs to know more about it than just caliber. If he's fortunate enough to have stumbled across a collector gun (highly unlikely but possible) he needs to treat it accordingly. If it's one that has been converted "aftermarket" he needs to have it inspected by a specialist who understands the quirks related to the conversion. If it's complete and correct, tell him to have fun but exercise good judgement. In today's world, Garands require a little more care and feeding than they did when they went to war and the only ammo they got was issued by Uncle Sam. FWIW - I have several M1Gs. One is a .308. A little ATD and some basic segregation discipline goes a long way towards preventing KABOOMs.

If it doesn't already have one (it should!) tell him to get a spacer block - http://www.fulton-armory.com/spacerblockf308cal.aspx. That'll help keep 30-06 ammo out of his action. And don't shoot his ammo in your rifle. Problem solved. No rocket science involved.

[x SF med]

Use the specified ammo for the rifle/pistol/revolver/rocket launcher... common sense.