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Originally Posted by Paul B.
According to an article I read when those guns came out, most were built on M93 Spanish Mausers. I have handled a couple chambered to the .308 Win.
s far as them being too weak, Kimber had them pressure tested by the H.P. White Laboratory and they were declared to be safe at 7.62NATO pressure which it how the barrels were stamped. 7.62 NATO/.308 Win. I hardly think Kimber would be selling unsafe firearms. It's not their weakness in strength that is the problem. It's their not so good way of handling esaping gases, something that was corrected in the 1898 Mauser.
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Man this horse has been beat to death several times and someone always brings it back up.
7.62X51 NATO and .308 Win do not operate at the same SAAMI pressure.
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.308 Win vs. 7.62x51--The Straight Scoop
Before we go much further, we want to address the oft-posed question "Are the .308 Winchester and 7.62x51 NATO one and the same?" The simple answer is no. There are differences in chamber specs and maximum pressures. The SAMMI/CIP maximum pressure for the .308 Win cartridge is 62,000 psi, while the 7.62x51 max is 50,000 psi. Also, the headspace is slightly different. The .308 Win "Go Gauge" is 1.630" vs. 1.635" for the 7.62x51. The .308's "No-Go" dimension is 1.634" vs. 1.6405" for a 7.62x51 "No Go" gauge. That said, it is normally fine to shoot quality 7.62x51 NATO ammo in a gun chambered for the .308 Winchester (though not all NATO ammo is identical). Clint McKee of Fulton Armory notes: "[N]obody makes 7.62mm (NATO) ammo that isn't to the .308 'headspace' dimension spec. So 7.62mm ammo fits nicely into .308 chambers, as a rule." You CAN encounter problems going the other way, however. A commercial .308 Win round can exceed the max rated pressure for the 7.62x51. So, you should avoid putting full-power .308 Win rounds into military surplus rifles that have been designed for 50,000 psi max. For more information on this interesting topic, read the following articles: Gun Zone's 30 Caliber FAQ; Cruffler.com Technical Trivia, June 2001; and last, but not least, Steve Redgwell's .308 vs 7.62x51 Analysis, which really provides a definitive explanation. Reloaders should also note that military ammo often is made with a thicker web. Consequently the case capacity of 7.62x51 brass is usually less than that of commercial .308 brass. You may need to reduce recommended .308 Winchester loads by as much as 2 full grains, if you reload with military 7.62x51 brass, such as Lake City or IMI.
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Complete story can be found at
6mmBR.com
Kimber of Oregon sporterized these rifles in a last ditch effort to keep from going bankrupt, it didn't work. There is no one left to go after if these rifles fail and injure or kill someone except the person who sold the rifle. AFAIK Kimber of Oregon only sporterized Swede M96 and M98, I could be wrong. M93 7.62 NATO rifles are more than likely arsenal rebarrels from South and Central America after they adopted the 7.62 NATO round, that got the .308 Win added to the stamp when they were imported to the U.S.
The thing is these rifles may never fail in a lifetime of service or one day they might blow up in your hand if running a modern cartridge like .243 or .308 Win through them. Best case scenario is you walk away with a new found perspective on life and a few scratches. Worse case loss of the use of a hand, fingers, or eye or combination there of. Worst case you catch a bolt that has sheared off the lugs and handle to the face and you die.
The thing is the small ring 93-96 Mauser actions were designed when smokeless propellants were in there infancy as well as modern metallurgy techniques for heat treating steel. Yes they lack the gas handling capabilities of a M98 as well as the third locking lug. These were designed into the M98 after one of the Mauser brothers lost an eye due to the weak gas handling capabilities of the previous small ring actions.
Most modern rifles are capable of operating in the 60,000 PSI range and modern cartridges are loaded to this level. However the 7X57 and 6.5X55 which were the most common chambers of the small ring Mausers only operate in the 50,000 PSI range. I shoot a Kimber of Oregon 6.5X55 and a rebarreled M93 Spanish Mauser in .300 Savage both of which operate in the 50K PSI range and I feel safe doing so, that said I would never try and load them up to 60K PSI and shoot them it isn't worth it to me to find out if they can handle the pressure or not.
Small ring failure
Sheared Bolt Lugs - Swedish Mauser