NATO involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has seen a resurgence in 7.62mm use including the low level sniper role by American forces, originally carried out with resurrected M21 sniper rifles or scoped M14s as seen here, more recently the M110 ‘SASS’ rifle. (Courtesy of US Army image archives.) to Swiss company RUAG Ammotec for this year’s supply finally providing competitors in the UK’s most prestigious TR event with ammunition of a quality long taken for granted in Europe and the USA. These cartridges are loaded with the original 155gn Sierra Palma MK (#2155) a mere quartercentury after its introduction. The downside is of course much increased cost, as you get what you pay for. Recent Developments The difference between .308 and 7.62mm bullet diameters has reduced, so recently built TR, and commercially produced tactical and sniper rifles have barrel specs that are only a little on the ‘tight’ side or use standard .308 dimensions. Measuring a sample 155gn bullet pulled from a ‘Bisley Match’ round produced a diameter precisely on 0.308” compared to 0.3077” for older 145gn bullets, and 0.3082-0.3083” for Lapua and Sierra match examples. Note too that while still heavily ‘gunged’ with sealant, it lacks a crimp-groove, and has a much longer bearing surface than the older type. Modern tactical rifles such as the Sako TRG and Accuracy International police and civilian models shoot very well with good .308W ammunition despite having ‘military’ chambers – one former Accuracy AE owner who did very well it did tell me however that it was important to fireform cases for the long chamber then ensure the resizing operation retained close headspace. American CLR (conventional prone long-range) shooters looked at our TR, liked what they saw and adopted it as ‘Fullbore Rifle’. In the USA, Fullbore and Palma are invariably shot using handloads and are run under two sets of ammunition rules at the organiser’s discretion – ‘International’ which sees bullet weight restricted to ‘less than 156gn’, 72 <strong>Target</strong> <strong>Shooter</strong> or unrestricted. F/TR is restricted to .223R and .308W but places no restrictions on bullet weights in the UK or USA (unlike British Commonwealth countries where the ‘less than 156gn’ rule applies), so there is an ongoing debate about the ideal bullet for 1,000yd F/TR matches – an important subject as having the optimal combination makes a difference to the cartridge’s performance at this range, especially on the small F-Class target in difficult conditions. (Keeping shots in the four-ring or higher needs 18” or less dispersion at this range, in practice 13” for a rifle that groups into a half-MOA.) Resurgent One cannot look at the cartridge without noting its rebirth as a military tool. With NATO’s blanket adoption of the improved 5.56mm during the 1980s, there were strong pressures from military bureaucrats to withdraw 7.62mm weapons, sniper rifles aside, in the cause of standardisation and ‘logistics’. However, the guys who actually put their lives on the line had a less than flattering view of the 5.56’s longer-range capabilities, especially the British ‘squaddie’ saddled with the unreliable L86A1 ‘LSW’ light machinegun version of the SA80 rifle. While 5.56 performed well – in obtaining hits and its terminal effectiveness – in short-range jungle wars, serious questions about its performance arose in the Balkans, even more so Iraq and Afghanistan where fighting ranges are much increased. The result has been retention, in fact much increased use, of 7.62mm ‘general-purpose’ MGs such as the US M60 and UK L7A1 ‘Gimpy’ alongside the newer 5.56mm FN ‘Minimi’ gun. Moreover, the Americans became concerned about the inability of the average GI or Marine to neutralise opponents with the 5.56mm M16 at any range above 300 metres resulting in the adoption of a new rifle – the Knights Armaments SR25 based M110 7.62mm semi-auto sniper rifle firing M118LR 175g bullet cartridges – issued to considerable numbers of selected and specially trained rifle-squad ‘marksmen’ who can hit targets at 500-600m as a supplement to the small numbers of highly specialised two-man scout / sniper teams. So the 7.62’s role and likely future have seen a huge turnaround in western armies, the outlook moving from poor to assured. Next month – brass and bullets.
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