How often does this. A person fires an 30-06 cartridge down an 270win or 280 chamber/barrel? Or maybe an 308win down an 7-08?

This has had to have happened at some point? I'm curious about the obvious outcomes. I guess one should be extra vigilant when having similar cartridges based on similar cases. I've not thought of it much but now that I'm older it scares me a bit.

I once fired a 7X57 in a 270 Model 700. Had to knock the bolt open with a hammer, otherwise it didn't damage a thing. I would not want to do it again. I'll agree about the being older part, as we often overlook things that we shouldn't.

How are you going to get a cartridge with a .30 caliber bullet to go in a chamber that has a smaller neck?

The bullet doesn't reach the throat or is set back when closing bolt.

Know of a guy who fired a 308 in a 280.

No Idea how the loading went.


Gun wasn't ruined, caseing was though.😁

If it is set back that means you would have to push pretty damn hard, a 30-06 isn't going to chamber in a 270 regardless, case neck would have to be squeezed down as well, try that with a bullet in the neck, ain't happening. .031 difference in neck/bullet diameter.

If a bullet in a 30-06 doesn't reach the neck area of a 270 there are other issues.

Same case so even an empty 30-06 brass shouldn't allow for closing of a bolt in a 270 chambered rifle.

A 280 won't chamber in a 270, shoulder is farther forward on the 280.

I could possibly see an SA cartridge chambered in an LA gun but even then the bullet/neck diameter would have to be smaller than neck area of the LA chambering,, that is as long as the SA cartridge reaches the neck area which even a 2.8" 308 based cartridge should.

If this is confusing somebody they probably shouldn't be messing with firearms.

Bunch was zeroing rifles for deer season and some of his in-laws from Newport News was in and they were drinking heavy .
One of them picked up a 223 Savage 10 and apparently didn’t know any better or was to drunk to be handling firearms .
But he opened a box of 30 carbine and then couldn’t understand why the bolt wouldn’t open .
According to the owner it took a bit to figure out what happened .
Took him to a local gun smith after trying to rubber mallet the bolt open .
Smith ended up unscrewing the barrel to get the action open and the case was in the chamber in two pieces .
No bullet in the barrel or chamber , that Remington 110gr some how blew threw the barrel.
Must have been one fugged up bullet come out that barrel .
Smith examined barrel and chamber bolt functioned and put it back together .
He still had the rifle and still shooting it when I last saw him 20 or so yrs ago
Kenneth

I've picked 243 win brass out of the range bucket that was obviously fired in a larger bore. Most likely a 308, or 7mm-08. Case necks badly warped with the spent primers sticking out from the lack of pressure. 10 or so shells were so fired. Must have been a slow one to catch on

I once talked to a guy who asked what I was shooting. Told him 280. He then explained to me how I could fire 270 in a 280, because it's "smaller," but that I could never "go up" and fire a 280 in a 270. People are scary. (And no, this guy would have zero clue about interchangeable 32s, etc. He's just scary.)

I admittedly don't know all the case dimensions off the top of my head, so maybe they just couldn't chamber, but this seems like it would be an issue with the pairing of brand new shooters and lots of new 6.5s catching on.

That situation can be a problem and could be disastrous.

A gunsmith friend showed me a Ruger No. 1 .25-06 that his customer's college age son shot a .308 in while shooting prairie dogs. Not sure how he even got the cartridge in the gun, but it sounded as if alcohol may have been a part of that. All it did to the number was crack the forearm if I remember correctly. Gave me a new respect for that design.

Back in the day of being a Range Officer, we had a guest who wanted to try some lighter bullets.
He had a 30-06 to shoot (thank goodness) so besides having 30-06 ammo he acquired some lighter
loads----some 280 ammo and some 270 ammo. He said they are all made from 30-06 ammo you know.
Seeing he was having some trouble, found the situation as noted above. Sent him home immediately with some
very strong advice on calibers and ammo.

An acquaintance recently fired a 308 down a 270. The 165g GMX actually made out the muzzle. I think it's at the gunsmith now getting the bolt opened....

Probably not a good idea to shoot 7mm-08 and .308 at the same time very often. That is unless you like inaccuracy and newly fire formed .308 brass. Don’t ask me how I know. But absolutely no danger as that the pressures were actually a lot lower with that .280 bullet scraping down a .308 barrel.

That said, I don’t see any way that someone could accidentally chamber a 30-06 in a .270 or something like that. It just won’t fit.

Exactly the reason that I sold my .308 and every cartridge in the house with that head stamp. Taking both my .308 and 7mm-08 to the range with the same type SST bullet in each and not reading the correct head stamp on the .308 cartridge trying to go into the 7mm-08 chamber... Thankfully it doesn't go, but it sure made a memory. Those were both factory loads, but what worries me with so much handloading going on these days is all the guys making different caliber cartridges from different head stamped cases.

I was shooting my 7-08 once when my dad was shooting his 308 gas gun. He fired a 5 round magazine off then complained he wasn’t even hitting the target. Then I found I was missing 5 cartridges from my ammo box. It didn’t hurt anything, it just fire formed to 308 with lousy accuracy.

I once fired a .257 Roberts cartridge in a .270 (Model 760).
Smoke came out of the action, which was a pretty good clue that something was wrong.
Turned out the .257 case had been formed from a .270 and was in a box with .270 ammunition with the same headstamp. Upon further examination we found that the box held .270 factory loads, .257s that had been formed from the same brand of .270 brass and .257s that had been formed and loaded but had not been trimmed, i.e. cases left the same length as .270 cases. It is the most egregious example of handloading that I have ever seen.
The rifle and ammunition were recently purchased by a friend at an estate sale.

It's easy to chamber 270 in 3006 which I did by accident and all that happened was bad groups but it would be very hard to force 06 into 270, the bullet diameter of 308 would have to be crammed into .277 and you will know something is wrong.

Long time ago I didn't know I had factory 7mm Weatherby cartridges and didn't pay attention touching one off in an Rem 700 7 rem mag. If I recall it fired as I was camming the bolt closed. I do t think it closed completely as I got a rush of gasses but it really frightened me. No apparent damage but it made me realize I need to really pay attention to details.

I have heard of guys shooting 30-06 ammunition in Arisaka 7.7 rifles and 5.56mm in 300BO AR15 rifles

A gunsmith and I removed a barrel from a 110 Savage 270 to remove the 308 case. No rifle damage.

When the 308 was introduced, one magazine article said it could be fired in a 30-06 in an emergency. The straighter 308 case holds the case against the bolt face. When fired, it expands to a nearly straight case with what looks like a roll crimp on the end where it meets the 30-06 shoulder. Many years later I found some cases exactly like this at a shooting range.

Bruce

I don't believe any of those scenarios you described are possible based on cartridge and chamber dimensions. That said, there are a number of actually possible errors in putting the wrong cartridge in a chamber. And, like the proverbial infinite number of [bleep] in front of the infinite number of typewriters, every possible mismatch of cartridge to chamber will eventually happen. And get fired. Most of the time nobody will get hurt and the gun might still be ok. Most of the time...
Rex

Well I'll be darned. C H I M P S is an auto censored term. I wonder why. Here's an experiment.
[bleep]
[bleep]
monkey
That's all.
Rex

Why in the heck can a site with forums dedicated to African hunting not allow the posting of the words C H I M P or C H I M P A N Z E E and yet allow MONKEY? What on earth is the problem with that?

Rex

The only time I mixed up ammo was with 300 Savage and .308. Was alternating between rifles at the range, had boxes of both ammo open on bench. Fired a 300 Sav out of the .308. Case came out like bcp described above, the 300 Sav case fireformed into a straight wall with a roll in like a crimp at the mouth. It actually worked fairly well, hit 100 yd target about 6 inches lower than the correct .308 impacts. Didn't try again too see how it would group! Probably one of the safer ammo screwups. Make of point of not having different ammo open on bench since then.

I make sure to keep headstamp accurate brass in my supply. I have too many calibers and too much time between shooting certain guns to have ammo with inaccurate headstamps around. I could make .280ai out of 280, but dont, etc.

I’m calling bullscheit on the .30-06 / .270 scenario. First of all, the neck of the .30-06 will not allow it the chamber on a .270 without the aid of a sledgehammer. Secondly, the .270 Win shoulder and headspace datum is farther forward and won’t chamber in said .30-06. If you don’t believe that, check the SAAMI specs. They are online and free.

Forming .257 Roberts cases from .270 looks to be quite the chore with all the required trimming. That fellow’s stupidity probable earned a Darwin Award and a reason for the estate sale by his heirs.

Hint: Never buy unsealed powder or handloads at garage or estate sales unless you intend to pull the bullets and charges and just salvage the brass.

I've seen this too, or rather the fired cases but not the actual firing event. I was told that the extractor held the case against the bolt face - it was an ex-mil Mauser. Accuracy was reported as terrible.

Grandfather had a rem 742, the old "jamma-matic", but his never had any issues. His buddy had a 270 bolt action. sighting in the 742, my grandfather accidently loaded some 270 rounds and sent them through his 742. He was pissed, " this gun won't shoot for crap". It was on target then completely miss target. Then he realized what was happening and put a 30-06 round in and hit dead center. so its possible, at least for that gun.

I did it so yes it is possible. I was doing a velocity test between and Winchester M70 .308 and and FN commercial Mauser in 30-06. Bullet brand was the so boxes looked exactly alike. Some how I shot three rounds of .308 in that Mauser and the bullets all fell into the group the 06 had made. Accuracy was just fine. No damage to the rifle but some to my ego. Must have had my head in a warm dark place.
Test was between 180 gr. Winchester Power Point ammo with 180 gr. round nose bullets. Average velocity for the .308 was 263 2610 FPS.0 FPS. For the 06. Both rifles had 22" barrels. I can only speak for the loads mention. Results from other brand ammo and various bullet weights may vary considerably.
PJ

Most of the wrong ammo is obvious. Anyone old enough to remember all the warning about 8mm ammo in 30/06 rifles? A more modern example is the 300 BO will chamber and fire in many AR-15's. I have helped take several apart where the upper was trash. Also saw a TC contender in .223 after firing a 300BO with no apparent damage. I always wondered how long the bullet was when it exited the barrel. Guys, pay attention the old advice about only one caliber ammo on the bench at a time is good advice. In this time of shortages I often make brass for unobtainable cal. i.e 6mm ARC from 6.5 Grendel. When ever I do this I mark the extractor
groove with a sharpie. Reminds me when I pick up the case to load it to make sure it is what I think it is. The sharpie stays through several case cleaning and takes very little time to reapply.

WOW! +P+

300 BO/ enough said

My dad accidentally grabbed the wrong box and shot 7mm mag out of his 300 win mag. I think he did 3 rounds and knew something was not right and caught it.
I guess he fire Formed some brass on accident.

at the expense of pissing other folks off.... there are people on this web site, that shouldn't be messing with firearms or anything else that could go KaBoom....like handloading for starters...

Given the position of the shoulder and neck, a .308 in a .30-06 sounds like a bad idea to me. Because of lack of headspace, I wouldn't think it would align the bullet well at all.

What I wouldn't have any issue doing in a pinch would be firing a .300 Win Mag (or .300 H&H) in a .300 Weatherby chamber, but those three cartridges can headspace off the belt and have enough length to align the neck with the chamber.

I've never had to do it, but have always liked the .300 Weatherby for a traveling hunting rifle for this reason.

Something like this happened to a friend of mine a few years ago. I’ll text him tomorrow to confirm, and I’ll repost any correction if needed, but I believe this was the scenario…

Three rifles at the bench, trying to tune them in, and he ends up putting a .300 win mag into his 7 STW built on a Sako action and firing it! He said by the noise, and feel of the rifle, he knew something weird just happened. He needed a hammer to get the bolt open, case head came out with bolt, took the rifle back to our gunsmith buddy who built it, to get the rest of the case out. Talk about a quick bore lapping! He makes it a point now…1 gun, and it’s ammo on the bench at a time!

Doc_Holidude

Wasn't part of the OP that's using a 308 based or 30-06 based cartridge comparison.

Stick a 300 BO in something with a larger case head the cartridge stands a pretty good chance of not even going off as there is nothing holding it back to the bolt face.

Have always known this just being around other shooters.

Reading all this, I don't know how I've survived for 40 years shooting the 22-250, 243 Winchester, 257 Roberts, 25-06, 260 Remington, 7x57, 308 Winchester, 30-06, 8x57, and 35 Whelen cartridges.

The OP’s original post was about shooting something like a 30-06 in a .270. I just don’t see how that could happen as long as the ammo and rifle are inside specs. As for .308 in 30-06, it seems after some googling that might not be that big of a deal. Guys were talking about situations where people were shooting Garands with the old .308 chamber inserts back when they were in the Navy. The inserts came out and they fired whole strings of shots, sometimes as many as three or four clips, with no ill effect until the noticed the cases. The shots were a little low and to the left but not entirely inaccurate.

The .308 case is just slightly larger than the 30-06 and will allow the cartridge to center and hold enough for the pin to set it off.

I’ve never read it anywhere, but I could see that being purposely designed that way when they still had thousands and millions of 30-06 rifles in storage and were making the switch to .308.