.308 Winchester
Introduced 1952CIP standard
Also known as 7.62×51mm — the same cartridge under different names, all of which find this page.
Dimensions and pressure
Generated from the schema, like every specification table on this site, so a figure recorded on this entry cannot be missing from the table.
Identity
- Designed by
- not recorded
- Introduced
- 1952
- Production
- not recorded
- Standards body
- C.I.P.
- Case type
- Rimless
- Case shape
- Bottleneck
Dimensions
- Bullet diameter
- 7.85 mm0.3091 insource
C.I.P. G1, maximum bullet diameter.
- Bore diameter
- not recorded
- Case length
- 51.18 mm2.015 insource
C.I.P. L3, maximum case length.
- Overall length
- 71.12 mm2.800 insource
C.I.P. L6, maximum cartridge overall length.
- Rim diameter
- 12.01 mm0.4728 insource
C.I.P. R1.
- Neck diameter
- 8.72 mm0.3433 insource
C.I.P. H2.
- Base diameter
- 11.96 mm0.4709 insource
C.I.P. P1.
Pressure
- Maximum pressure
- 415 MPa60,191 psisource
C.I.P. Pmax 4150 bar; 1 bar = 0.1 MPa exactly.
- Pressure standard
- C.I.P.
SAAMI and C.I.P. measure pressure differently and their figures are not interchangeable, which is why the body is always named beside the figure.
Loads
Velocity is recorded per barrel length as published. A gun page interpolates between these points and never projects beyond them.
168 gr boat-tail hollow point
- Bullet mass
- 10.89 g168.1 grsource
Published as 168 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- BTHP
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 609.6 mm24.00 in | 807.7 m/s2,650 fps |
150 gr Nosler tip
- Bullet mass
- 9.72 g150.0 grsource
Published as 150 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- Polymer-tipped
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 609.6 mm24.00 in | 859.5 m/s2,820 fps |
Chambered in
Computed from every entry that lists this cartridge. Nothing here is hand-maintained.
No entry on the site is chambered in it yet.
Gallery
Image credit
- Title
- File:.308 Winchester FMJ.jpg
- Author
- Dr. Hans Landa(attribution required)
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Source
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:.308_Winchester_FMJ.jpg
Detail
Winchester released the commercial version two years before NATO adopted the military one, which is why a great many people who have never owned a service rifle nonetheless own something chambered for this case. It is short enough for a compact bolt action, efficient enough that a 24-inch barrel gives up little to the .30-06, and standardised by C.I.P. at 415 MPa — a limit the surplus military round is not held to.
That last point is the only thing about the pair worth remembering: the chambers accept each other’s ammunition, the pressure specifications differ, and rifles built to the looser one should not be fed the tighter one’s proof loads.
The load rows below come from the article’s own ballistics table, which states its test barrel. Where an ammunition maker publishes a velocity without saying what barrel produced it, this site records no velocity at all.
References
- C.I.P. TDCC datasheet — 308 Win. · 2008-09-23 · read 2026-08-31
- .308 Winchester · 1362890330 · read 2026-08-31
Last verified 2026-08-31 · review status: agent-populated