Pictured:7.62X51 NATO Tracer (Argentine Republic), 7.62X51 Armor-Piercing (Argentine Republic), 7.62X51 NATO Ball M/75 (Austria),
7.62X51mm NATO Ball L18A1 (Austria), 7.62X51mm Sniper Ball (Austria)
7.62X51mm NATO Tracer (Austria) and 7.62X51mm NATO Armor Piercing (Austria)
A Brief History of The 7.62X51mm NATO Cartridge
The 7.62X51mm cartridge saw as recent and dramatic increase in popularity with the Coalition troops both in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but it should have never been adopted. That it has turned out to be an excellent military round in sniper and machine gun applications is beside the point. If it had not been adopted, the 5.56X45mm NATO cartridge would not exist today.
In 1951, the U.S. Army released the following statement:
The Army is firmly opposed to the adoption of any less effective small caliber cartridge for use in either its present rifles, or in the new weapons being developed. Any new rifle cartridge must have wounding power, penetration performance, and ballistics at least equal to that in use today.
Battle experience has proven beyond question the effectiveness of the present rifle and ammunition, and there have been no changes in combat tactics to justify a reduction or rifle caliber and power.”
This statement is directly contrary to the German Wehrmacht experience in World War II. The German 7.92X33mm Kurz round was developed in 1934 and used to great effect in the latter part of the war in the MP44/StG44 assault rifle. Taking advantage of the latest propellents then available, the 7.92X33mm Kurz round produced excellent results in spite of its dramatic reduction in size and weight.
Because of its relatively low recoil, it permitted practical selective-fire capability from a shoulder mounted rifle. German combat experience clearly demonstrated that infantry rifle fire was rarely effective beyond 600 yards.
Based upon the German experience, the British developed the .280/30 cartridge with a projectile diameter of .276”. It was a true intermediate-size assault rifle cartridge. In this regard the .280/30 was comparable to the Soviet 7.62X39mm round that was developed independently of the German 7.92X33mm project. Both of these cartridges allowed the use of relatively lightweight rifles firing effective short full-auto bursts with acceptable hit probability.
But the .280/30 was not to be. Fabrique Nationale also developed an even superior cartridge known as the 7mm High Velocity, which was a T65 (the eventual 7.62X51mm NATO round) case necked-down to 7mm. Its bullet provided the outstanding ballistic coefficient of the 7mm projectile.
However, Colonel Rene R. Studler of U.S. Army Ordnance refused to compromise in any area and in February 1954, the five NATO powers adopted the T65E3 round as the 7.62X51mm NATO cartridge. None of the principle battle rifles eventually fielded for this round ( the M14, FN FAL and H&K G3) were really lightweight and none of them provided effective select-fire capability. The 7.62X51mm cartridge was very little more than the .30’06 in a shortened case permitted by improved propellant efficiency. Sixty-nine countries to date have manufactured the 7.62X51mm NATO military ball ammunition.
Traveling out of the muzzle at about 2750 fps. the wound ballistics performance of US M80 7.62X51mm ball ammunition is characteristic of most non-deforming FMJ military projectiles. For the first 6 to 7 inches of travel through living tissue, the bullet remains point-forward and the wound track is no larger than .30 caliber.
At 8-14 inches of penetration, the bullet yaws 180°, after which it passes through the body base-forward with total penetration of about 25 inches. Where the bullet yaw is at its maximum, 60° to 120°, a large temporary cavity will increase to 1.16 inches (the length of the 150-grain boat-tail projectile) maximum. This is substantially more effective than the 5.56X45mm NATO round and especially so at the long ranges so frequently encountered in the Middle East.