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ARMAG

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7.62×51mm NATO

Introduced 1954NATO standard

Also known as 7.62 NATO, T65 — 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
1954
Production
not recorded
Standards body
NATO
Case type
Rimless
Case shape
Bottleneck
Dimensions
Bullet diameter
7.85 mm0.3091 inestimatedsource

No free dimensional standard publishes the NATO round under that name. Borrowed from the C.I.P. datasheet for the commercial .308 Winchester (G1), which shares the chamber; the two are not interchangeable at the pressure limit.

Bore diameter
not recorded
Case length
51.18 mm2.015 inestimatedsource

No free dimensional standard publishes the NATO round under that name. Borrowed from the C.I.P. datasheet for the commercial .308 Winchester (L3), which shares the chamber; the two are not interchangeable at the pressure limit.

Overall length
71.12 mm2.800 inestimatedsource

No free dimensional standard publishes the NATO round under that name. Borrowed from the C.I.P. datasheet for the commercial .308 Winchester (L6), which shares the chamber; the two are not interchangeable at the pressure limit.

Rim diameter
12.01 mm0.4728 inestimatedsource

No free dimensional standard publishes the NATO round under that name. Borrowed from the C.I.P. datasheet for the commercial .308 Winchester (R1), which shares the chamber; the two are not interchangeable at the pressure limit.

Neck diameter
8.72 mm0.3433 inestimatedsource

No free dimensional standard publishes the NATO round under that name. Borrowed from the C.I.P. datasheet for the commercial .308 Winchester (H2), which shares the chamber; the two are not interchangeable at the pressure limit.

Base diameter
11.96 mm0.4709 inestimatedsource

No free dimensional standard publishes the NATO round under that name. Borrowed from the C.I.P. datasheet for the commercial .308 Winchester (P1), which shares the chamber; the two are not interchangeable at the pressure limit.

Pressure
Maximum pressure
415 MPa60,191 psiestimatedsource

The cited article gives 60,191 psi by NATO EPVAT, which is 415.0 MPa — exactly the C.I.P. figure for the .308 Winchester, so the number appears to be a conversion of it rather than an independent measurement. STANAG 2310 is not free.

Pressure standard
NATO

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.

M80 ball

Bullet mass
9.525 g147.0 grsource

Published as 147 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.

Cartridge mass
not recorded
Bullet type
FMJ
G1 BC
not recorded
G7 BC
not recorded
Sourced velocity by barrel length
BarrelVelocity
558.8 mm22.00 in853 m/s2,799 fps

M80A1 enhanced performance round

Bullet mass
8.424 g130.0 grsource

Published as 130 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.

Cartridge mass
not recorded
Bullet type
EPR
G1 BC
not recorded
G7 BC
not recorded
Sourced velocity by barrel length
BarrelVelocity
558.8 mm22.00 in930 m/s3,051 fps

M118LR long range

Bullet mass
11.34 g175.0 grsource

Published as 175 gr; 1 gr = 0.06479891 g exactly.

Cartridge mass
not recorded
Bullet type
BTHP
G1 BC
not recorded
G7 BC
not recorded
Sourced velocity by barrel length
BarrelVelocity
558.8 mm22.00 in792 m/s2,598 fps

Chambered in

Computed from every entry that lists this cartridge. Nothing here is hand-maintained.

Gallery

A 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge on orange graph paper, bottlenecked with a long pointed full metal jacket bullet.

Image credit

Title
File:Cartridge 7.62x51mm NATO CC BY-SA 4.0 by Grasyl.jpg
Author
Grasyl(attribution required)
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Source
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartridge_7.62x51mm_NATO_CC_BY-SA_4.0_by_Grasyl.jpg
A 7.62×51mm NATO round on graph paper.

Detail

The round that lost the argument it was created to win. The United States spent the decade after 1944 shortening the .30-06 case while insisting the result was a genuinely new cartridge, and pushed it through NATO standardisation in 1954 against British work on a lighter .280. Within fifteen years every army that adopted it had concluded the recoil was too much for controllable automatic fire from a shoulder weapon, and the intermediate cartridge they had rejected won anyway.

What it left behind is a superb machine-gun and marksman round. The FN FAL, the M14, the MAG and the SVD’s Western equivalents all live on the fact that a 9.5 g bullet at 850 m/s still carries useful energy past 800 m.

Its dimensions here are the .308 Winchester’s, because no free standard publishes the military round. That substitution is stated on every affected figure rather than hidden; the two chambers accept each other’s ammunition but are not specified to the same pressure.

References

  1. 7.62×51mm NATO · 1372335181 · read 2026-08-31
  2. C.I.P. TDCC datasheet — 308 Win. · 2008-09-23 · read 2026-08-31

Last verified 2026-08-31 · review status: agent-populated