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Letter Re: Some Experience With 7.62mm NATO Battle Rifles

If one is planning to stock .308 Winchester or 7.62 mm NATO for SHTF [1], old West German 7.62 NATO ball ammo is the stuff to look for as warshot.  During the adoption phase of the M16 in Vietnam, West Germany and Sweden complained that the [55 grain] M193 round that shattered at the cannelure was inhumane and a violation of the Hague Conventions.  The US Army’s Natick Research Center did tests with Swede and German .308 to prove that it did the same thing.  Of course they stopped complaining.

US 7.62 mm NATO Ball is much tougher built and simply plows through the target.  But the West German ammo goes in a few inches, tumbles sideways, shatters into two pieces and a storm of lead and creates a massive wound channel, offering the best terminal effects of 5.56 NATO combined with the power of 7.62 NATO. – Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large [2])