discussion at Walmart

[TedBeau]

OK, I am running into Walmart to pick up a few things. The wife is waiting in the car so I don't want to be there to long. I do make my usual detour to the ammo case to see what theu have.
One box of 38 Special. Not really looking to buy today so I am about to turn and leave when a guy ask me "Sir, can I ask you a question about ammo?"
He's in his early 20's I guess. With his wife/girlfriend.
So he ask me, "Can I use .308 caliber in a British .303 rifle?"
I tell him I really don't think so, but I can't say for sure. I also mention that the .303 is probably a much harder caliber to find.
He explains that they are buying a "Mint" WWII British .303 for his girlfriend. He goes on about what great shape it is, and a great deal at $200.
I tell him he needs to do some research concerning the caliber to see what it will shoot. I also tell him to look online for the correct ammo.

He seems like he really wants to purchase today. He said they were at a gun shop already but the ammo was much more expensive there.

I told him yes, it is, but at least they had the right ammo. I suggested another sporting goods store he could try to see if they had the .303 in stock.

Then I left, I hope he didn't try to make the .308 ammo work.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[dsee11789]

Uhhh.......... He should not be near guns.

.303 British -> .30-06 ->.308 Win -> .223 Rem

Notice the .303 is Rimmed

[Emrah]

Last time I went to the range I saw a guy and his buddy in the very far shooting bay lookng confused and looking around. Finally one of them becons me over and asks if I "...know anything about rifles?" I say, sure, what's the problem? He says they loaded this ammo into his gun and it won't fire.

Ok, what's the caliber? 30-06. Can I see the box of ammo? It's .308 Win. Oh boy. I inform him that he's using a totally different round than what his gun is. Luckily, his .308 is shorter than the 30-06 and somehow even when he closed the bolt, the firing pin didn't make contact and the round could not be fired.

I told him to zip-tie the action open (it was a semi-auto if I recall) and while pointing the gun downrange to try and pry that round out of there. He looked pretty embarassed.

Emrah

[PastorPack]

OK, this story wins today's "YIKES" award. I'm glad you were there to give him some good info, what he does with it is his choice. Hopefully we won't read about him in the news tomorrow.

[Tom G]

That should be common knowledge. I wonder if they had any 30/06 with them.

[TedBeau]

OK, I admit I am not an expert, but I did know enough to tell them to find out, don't just try whatever ammo you think might fit.
Out of curiousity, how do the ballistics of the .303 british compare to the .308?

[Cuda66]

My personal experience--

Had someone ask me for help at my range, saying he can't get the rounds to load in his pistol mag...

because he had a Makarov and was trying to load 9x19 into it...

It happens; folks think that .30 cal means that any .30 cartridge--from .30 carbine to .30-30 to .30-06 will work in their .30 firearm. Or, to use my example, that 9mm is 9mm..never mind if it's 9mm Mak (9x18), 9mm Parabellum/Luger (9x19), or 9x23, whatever...

FWIW, this one of the reasons I've always thought the Euro cartrdge naming convention (Y.YYxWW) is superior to the American (ie, 9x19 instead of 9mm Luger/Parabellum, for example).

[laguna0seca]

I went shooting out in the desert once with a few of my buddies. And one of my friends loaded all the rounds into my CW9....BACKWARDS
I couldnt figure out how he did that though. He grew up around guns, his entire family are LEO, and he is on track to becoming one as well. And if I am not mistaken he had his CFP at the time.

Needless to say, he has not yet heard the end of it.

[Mic]

I sure hope that guy don't hurt anyone

[Majorlk]

Even if he drops a .308 into a .303 chamber, the round will fall so far into the chamber it would take a nail set welded to the firing pin to hit the primer.

A .30-06 will not even fit in the chamber in the first place.

[mikeprekopa]

I am fairly new to guns. didn't grow up around them, only really started getting interested in them about 2 years ago. one thing I thought you were supposed to do was keep the numbers the same. you know, if your pistol says 9x19, buy and shoot 9x19... rifle says 30.06, buy and shoot 30.06... I know there are a few exceptions, like .223 and 5.56... but I personally would not want to risk it...

I hope his girlfriend knows more about guns and ammo than he does. and that they don't try something stupid and hurt someone.

[WHEC724]

This reminds me of an email that I got from Cabelas today. They wanted to know if it was okay to replace a back-order of Winchester 30-30 with a similar brand: Remington 30-06! I wonder if this kid works there...

[jjwestbrook]

we had a man bring a 410 bolt action shotgun into the shop , said he couldnt get the empty shell out. we pounded a 30/06 case out of the chamber. scary

[Stevew]

Fire forming 308 to 303. Good luck.

[Quicksabre]

Was at a friend's personal range some months back and a guy I know, who has been around firearms for a long time, accidentally loaded a .380 ACP into his Glock 19 (9x19). It fired, and didn't appear to damage the weapon.

He figured it out because it didn't have enough ooommph to rack the slide and chamber the next round, so he had a closer look at what was in the magazine.

In his defense, we're all getting into our upper 40's/early 50's and I don't think he had his reading glasses on...and the loading table had all sorts of boxes on it, .380, 9mm, .40, .45, etc.

We still tease him about it, of course.