Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire shooting 308 out of 30-06 in emergency

In this case, you'd be that moron so pull your pants up. Who said the gun blew up?

Let's revisit the OP. So, you're going to spend the time to plan on how to use the wrong ammo in the wrong gun instead of planning out how to actually have the correct ammo for the correct gun available?

Thanks for the correction.

I actually saw a guy shoot a 308 round out of his Ruger 77V tanger chambered in 25-06. His son & him had just gone into his chicken coop converted into a shooting shack that had a wall knocked out so that he could shoot at targets out across his cow pasture. Their intentions were to sight in two Ruger 77's, a 77R in 308 & the 77V. As usual, they were arguing about load data, & not paying attention. The dad loaded a 308 round into the 77V & fired a round. I was behind him but off to the side. The flame came out the side port hole like he was shooting a flintlock, the barrel went upward, & the old man almost went over backwards. The whole rifle stayed together, but the stock was badly split at the tang area, the bolt had to be pounded open with an oak block & hammer. The empty case was removed in a hydraulic press using a hardened piece of drill rod and looked like a straight walled 308 with a huge primer pocket & the ejector plunger buried down inside of the bolt. He sent the 77V back to Ruger in pieces and they basically rebuilt the rifle using the same action (same serial #) which I thought was odd, & sent it back to him along with a stearn letter basically telling him how dumb & lucky he was. No idea where the bullet went but made it out of the barrel.

Really, in a neck sized fire formed case ok, but what about a Full length case with the shoulder bumped back several thou, what about factory ammo that most often has a min spec for head to datum measurement, what are these cases headspacing on when there is indeed a gap between the datum line and the chamber.

In the typical 30/06 chamber, the 308 case will wedge into the chamber somewhat and maintain zero head clearance. Not super tight but tight enough. Accuracy probably won't be awesome but may be adequate. As a gunsmith of many years experience, I have not seen it all, but I have seen a lot. I have seen a 308 fired in a 30/06 (no damage). I have seen 7x57 fired in two different .270 rifles; a Savage 110 (three shots fired with no damage) and a Colt Sauer (one shot fired. bolt damaged, stock split, magazine wrecked). A 303 British was fired in a Parker-Hale 7mm Mag. Extractor was blown out, stock split, magazine follower, spring, and floorplate were gone. Surprisingly, the receiver, bolt, and barrel were all fine, and I was able to put the rifle back in service.
I saw quite a few cases where 303 Savage was fired in a 303 British. The Savage name sounded more formidable, I guess!
One customer (an outfitter) had a client who had fired a 308 Norma round through a 7mm STW (I had put together two identical rifles for the outfitter, one in 308 Norma and the other in 7STW. The client had been carrying the 308 Norma but grabbed the STW rifle by mistake). The 180 Swift A-frame bullet swaged down OK and even killed the fairly large black bear at which he had shot. There was no second shot since the rifle seized up and the bolt handle was removed with a piece of 2x4!
I seriously doubt that the Army thought ahead and made the 308 so it was possible to shoot it in an '06. I think that was probably happenstance, but it happens to work. Nonetheless, it's a good story. GD

All I can say is that I don't plan on trying this. It might work to the extent that the rifle doesn't blow up, but shooting the wrong cartridge in a rifle not designed for it sounds pretty scary to me.

Well, seeing as how we’re discussing a potential live round stuck in the chamber of push feed rifle action, after the firing pin has dropped, the theoretical action obviously hasn’t blown up. You see, as there is no shoulder for the cartridge to headspace against, the extractor has not snapped over the extraction groove of the cartridge. So how is the firing pin going to contact the primer? Hence, a live round, possibly stuck in a still fully intact action.

Time for you to pull up your shorts…

what ya all are missing is that a 308 has less body taper and a slightly wider shoulder than an 06 , so the

cartridge will just not fall into the chamber all the way to the shoulder , it will wedge at some point as greydog mentioned . likely with the case head close up to the bolt face.....so the firing pin can reach the primer and fire it.

for this reason you cannot clean up a 308 chamber with an 06 reamer unless you set the barrel way back .


in addition the 06 chamber has way more volume than 308 so a normal 308 load is going to have way less pressure than usual when fired in the larger chamber.........I highly doubt an 06 in good condition was ever blown up by firing a 308

I guess we can shoot 7mm-08 out of 280’s

Why not just look and make sure you have the correct ammunition? If you're not illiterate it shouldn't be too difficult?

It's amazing what one can make work in and "emergency" situation. About 30 years ago, there was a local murder case where an abused wife finally got tired of being her husband's punching bag. He roughed her up one night and then passed out. She retrieved one of his rifles, put a bullet in his head, left with the gun and disposed of it. The recovered bullet was rather odd and it took the ballistics lab awhile to determine what she used. Eventually it was determined she used his Winchester 94 .30/30. She knew nothing about guns/ammo and went through a shoebox of loose assorted ammo until she found something that would chamber. Turns out she managed to chamber and fire a .38 wadcutter into his noggin. The soft lead bullet swaged down thru the .30 hole and did the deed. That bullet was probably 2" long...

I have accidentally fired 270 out of a 7mmRM at the range.
The bullet may exit the bore, but the brass split.

I would imagine so, though I have not tried. The same conditions apply. GD

If I'm not mistaken the neck of the 308 Win., is quite a bit thicker than that of the 30-06, and the case is so short that the neck doesn't even start into the neck chamber of the 30-06 barrel, and if it did it would be a force fit. Sounds like a good way to destroy a rifle and more. Ought to get the attention of the guy next to you though.

Phil

In that big of an emergency

Just grab the 870

If it's a 12 gauge, can I shoot 16 gauge shells in it?

sometimes. other times its not good....

OK, I'll go with 20 gauge then.

Just when I thought the “do you leave your gun in your stand overnight” thread was the stupidest thing I e read on here, this little gem of a topic gets posted.
Place never ceases to amaze……