Rechambered for 308 WIN

[paccw]

I have seen a few ads. for older guns rechambered for 308.
Has anyone ever bought a gun like this?
What was it and how did it shoot?
I think I would love a old gun rechambered for the 308 win round since I started to reload and 308 bass is everywhere this time of year.

[cyriaque]

I have the French MAS bolt action in .308. Shoots about the same as most military guns-4" at 100 yds. with a scope. Kicks and is loud.

[Lithgow]

I have seen some Spanish Mausers chambered in .308 There is also a version of the British Enfield (model 2a and 2a1) made in .308 - it was made in India in the 1960's. Hope this helps.

[den308]

I have an old Spanish Mauser carbine rechambered in .308. Shoots great, but I have problems with feeding occasionaly.

[FLIPPER 348]

I have a Styer Mauser that was re-barreled to NATO 7.62X51, most likely by Styer but who knows. The crest is overstamped with NATO and it shoots great.

[FLIPPER 348]

crest stamping

[kf4zra]

there were also some K98's redone to 308 post WWII. they had big jewish stars stamped over the nazi crests.

i think its funny, its kinda a slap in the face for the nazis. the people they hated now were using their former weapons

[FLIPPER 348]

it's fun to feed!

[mossy500camo]

I had two mil surplus in 308 Win. Spanish FR8 boltaction and a Lee Enfield made in India 308 Win boltaction. Both were very inaccurate that's why I used to have them. I hate inaccurate guns period.;c

[FLIPPER 348]

the rear sight on the FR-8 is a joke, but good enough to hit a man center mass in the chest @ 100m

[Bill Powell]

The Schmidt-Rubin straight pull bolt action in 7.65mm is the one I've most often seen converted to .308.

[kf4zra]

i would love to have one in 308, however, the schmidt-rubins were only made in 7.5x55, and i wonder how strong the 2 lug system is on them to handle the more powerful 308 round?

i know that our shop has talked about making a conversion, but we were worried about the strength of a 2 lug bolt.

[Bill Powell]

The years play hell with the memory. I remembered 7.65. I've fired a lot of rounds through one, no hot rod loads.

[deutscheglocker]

I just came back from the range about 2 hrs ago with my new 1956 Spanish FR-8 chambered in .308.

I shot about 70 rounds.

I sighted in the 200 meter rear peep to hit about 2 inches high at 100 yds. The front sight is a little different as it is positioned eccentrically on the base so adjustment not only raises and lowers the front sight but also moves it left and right.

The gun is VERY accurate. I used OFV (?) NATO ball ammo.

I started at 25 yds and had 4 or 5 5 round groups with 4 rounds touching and a flier which opened the group to 3/4 inch.

At 100 yds using the 200 meter aperture, I hit groups of 2 3/8 inches twice and one group of 2 1/4 inch ( these were 5 shot groups).

The 100 meter open rear sight was not as easy to use as the rear peep but I still grouped well with it.

Let me say that the front sight is a bit fuzzy with 56 year old eyes ( I shot the 100 yds with safety glasses) and with 2X magnifier glasses, the front sight comes back in but the target fuzzes out.

I am extremely happy with this rifle and will probably use it in Randy Cains Practical rifle class in Pittsburgh this summer.

The 2 lug bolt in a rifle like the Spanish FR-7 also in .308 is supposed to be safe to shoot with NATO ball but the higher pressure of commercial .308 shouldn't be used unless somewhat downloaded. ( this is info regurgitated from a site called surplusrifle.com)

DG

[deutscheglocker]

I'm trying to post a pic of the 25 and 100 yd targets with my FR-8
http://bb.clickatus.com/f0wdbd49v.jpg


DG

The lower group was aimed at the center and not at the bottom right diamond. Just posting the group size.

[Yamadad]

Originally posted by kf4zra
i would love to have one in 308, however, the schmidt-rubins were only made in 7.5x55, and i wonder how strong the 2 lug system is on them to handle the more powerful 308 round?

i know that our shop has talked about making a conversion, but we were worried about the strength of a 2 lug bolt.

Not well. The 7.5 has a substantially lower chamber pressures than the NATO. Supposedly, the newer Schmidts are stronger and can be rebarreled to NATO. I used to own an older Schmidt-Ruben and did shoot .308 in it by accident once. Other than a failure to extract, nothing bad happened.

I also have one of those Ishapore Enfields and it shoots great. Tight bore and pretty darn accurate for what it is.