Shooting .308 out of an M44?

WeaponsCollector · Nov 23, 2009

A friend of mine knows some people who shoot .308 Nato out of their M44's chambered for 7.62x54r. He says it's a little hard to chamber the .308 cartridge but it fires. I told him it's not safe to use the wrong ammo and the gun could blow up but he swears it's fine. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Sounds very risky to me!

alucard0822 · Nov 23, 2009

65 year old rifle + completely wrong(and way more expensive) ammo is a good way to earn the nickname stubbs

WeaponsCollector · Nov 23, 2009

alucard0822 said:
65 year old rifle + completely wrong(and way more expensive) ammo is a good way to earn the nickname stubbs

I tried to tell him that, but he and his friends are convinced the M44's can take it no problem.
I wouldn't try it myself, that's for sure.

Garand1957 · Nov 23, 2009

Very , Very bad idea :sad20:

Just because there are people who have done it and lived to talk about it sure don't make it a good idea.
I have first hand knowledge of someone who fired an entire enbloc clip of .308 NATO out of a M1 Garand that was chambered for .30-06 :shocked:

The two people were shooting side by side with the rifles and got their clips mixed up.
The rifle held together but the fired .308 brass looked very odd and no longer had a neck :shocked4:

GNLaFrance · Nov 23, 2009

Ask your friend to point to those people if you're ever at the same range, then make sure you're as far from them as possible. Eedjits.

Superreverb · Nov 23, 2009

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes!!!

alucard0822 · Nov 23, 2009

Garand1957 said:
Very , Very bad idea
Just because there are people who have done it and lived to talk about it sure don't make it a good idea.
I have first hand knowledge of someone who fired an entire enbloc clip of .308 NATO out of a M1 Garand that was chambered for .30-06

The two people were shooting side by side with the rifles and got their clips mixed up.
The rifle held together but the fired .308 brass looked very odd and no longer had a neck

The best was a guy shooting a couple lanes over that couldn't figure out why his brand new savage deer rifle in 308 was shooting a foot low at 50 yards, in about a 10" group, and keyholing most shots. By the time this guy was about ready to throw the rifle down range, the guy walks up to the RO, huffing and puffing, turns out he grabbed a box of 243 ammo, threw the rifle in the case, and headed up to the range.

Back to the OP though, a 308 will chamber in a mosin, and the shoulder lengthof the cases are close enough I belive it would fire, but how the hell do they extract the bulged or split 308 cases, the extractor isn't even close to the 308 rim, do they hammer them out with cleaning rods?

Inigoes · Nov 23, 2009

recently:
http://www.wpxi.com/news/21564399/detail.html

there also was a thread a while ago, about a rifle blowing up on a police officer at the range.

SKIP · Nov 23, 2009

I knew a soldier who shot .308 in his Mosin. I warned him of the danger to no avail. He stated that the spent shell came out looking funny. Here is a 5.56MM which I policed up at the range. I believe it was shot in an AK. Now that's fire forming gone extreme.

Markp · Nov 23, 2009

WeaponsCollector said:
A friend of mine knows some people who shoot .308 Nato out of their M44's chambered for 7.62x54r. He says it's a little hard to chamber the .308 cartridge but it fires. I told him it's not safe to use the wrong ammo and the gun could blow up but he swears it's fine. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Sounds very risky to me!

Not real bright, but it looks like you could do it.... but why? As others have noticed, how would extraction work?

Mark

j8064 · Nov 23, 2009

Again...bad idea. :nono:

And again...why would someone want to do it in the first place?

I've read many places that Japanese soldiers jammed 30.06 rounds they captured into their Arisaka's during WWII. That was out of necessity. At a shooting range we have a choice. I'd choose the proper ammo for any firearm and the safety that goes with that choice.

Many years ago my son inadvertantly loaded one of my Enfields with some 30-30 cartridges. Looked correct to him and the first round chambered fine. From the next bench I heard his first shot and knew instantly something wasn't right. Before I could get a cease fire, he'd fired a couple more rounds. Fortunately in all three scenarios .30 cal bullets will go through M44, Arisaka and Enfield barrels. But still not a good idea.

I saved one of the 30-30 cases fire formed into a 303B as a reminder to ALWAYS chamber the correct ammo. Bet you can't tell which one it is. :rolleyes:

hole punch · Nov 24, 2009

I like where this thread is going.

Found on a hiking trip earlier this year.

I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like some genius managed to ram some .22 mag down a .22 lr chamber. :cool:

Very cool, guys. Next time complete the job and blow yourselves up.

I wonder how hard that was to feed/extract?

GNLaFrance · Nov 24, 2009

Hole Punch, that's a star-crimped .22 Magnum shot shell. Federal and Winchester make them.

There's no way you can get a .22 Magnum into a .22 LR chamber, it's too thick and too long. I know, I have a Ruger Single Six with LR and Magnum cylinders. OTOH, you can get a LR into a Magnum chamber, where it will split on firing and be hard to extract.

hole punch · Nov 24, 2009

GNLaFrance said:
Hole Punch, that's a star-crimped .22 Magnum shot shell. Federal and Winchester make them.

There's no way you can get a .22 Magnum into a .22 LR chamber, it's too thick and too long. I know, I have a Ruger Single Six with LR and Magnum cylinders. OTOH, you can get a LR into a Magnum chamber, where it will split on firing and be hard to extract.

oooh! lol, whoops

thanks for clearing that up.

i see the crimps at the very end now, but what about the rifling marks that go so much deeper (see first pic)? I still think someone rammed this one down the wrong chamber.

GNLaFrance · Nov 24, 2009

hole punch said:
i see the crimps at the very end now, but what about the rifling marks that go so much deeper (see first pic)? I still think someone rammed this one down the wrong chamber.

On second thought it might be a Long Rifle, I can't tell from the pic. Measure it for me.

If those are rifling marks, maybe the gun has an extremely short leade, the distance before the bullet touches the rifling. It could be the gun was originally chambered for .22 Short and someone drilled it out for LR. Just guessing now. :shrug:

hole punch · Nov 24, 2009

GNLaFrance said:
On second thought it might be a Long Rifle, I can't tell from the pic. Measure it for me.

If those are rifling marks, maybe the gun has an extremely short leade, the distance before the bullet touches the rifling. It could be the gun was originally chambered for .22 Short and someone drilled it out for LR. Just guessing now.

OAL is exactly 1"

GNLaFrance · Nov 24, 2009

hole punch said:
OAL is exactly 1"

Long Rifle.

Wait a second, .22 Short, Long and LR are all "heeled" bullets and the case diameter is the same as the bullet diameter, .222". Now I think it was fired in a LR chamber with a real short leade.

boule · Nov 24, 2009

GNLaFrance said:
Now I think it was fired in a LR chamber with a real short leade.

Doesn't really look like rifling marks at all but more like the remainder of the crimp without enough gas pressure behind it to really anneal it w/o any trace of its original configuration.

hole punch · Nov 24, 2009

boule said:
Doesn't really look like rifling marks at all but more like the remainder of the crimp without enough gas pressure behind it to really anneal it w/o any trace of its original configuration.

sorry for the crappy pics. there's definitely two separate markings, but i couldn't figure out what the shorter ones were until Guy pointed out they were crimps. the longers ones that are visible in the first photo are definitely rifling, but i realize now that it's probably normal for this type of ammo.

the longer ones are the right size and shape to be rifling. there is exactly six and they are evenly spaced around the case. they are fresher looking and have a 'scraped' appearance not unlike the marks left in a bullet that has been fired.

JKrew · Nov 24, 2009

At the night shoot my friend was shooting my Mauser K98k (8mm). We also had a friend's Mosin there, and one of the 7.62x54R rounds fell into a pile of 8mm ammo. My friend accidentally grabbed the 7.62x54R and loaded it (it was dark, and he had only shot those rifles once before). When he tried chambering it, it in partially sideways, and the bolt thankfully did not close. It took me probably 5 minutes to get that cartrige out, but that's better than if it were fired.

About the original topic, Mosins are pretty tough, so I am not surprised that .308s can be fired out of them. I wouldn't even think of doing it though, it's way too risky! Besides 7.62x54R is a lot cheaper.

Shooting .308 out of an M44?

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