page_title: 7.62×51mm NATO
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: 7.62×51mm NATO / Development
caption_attribution_description: Rifle cartridges - L to R: .50 BMG, 300 Win Mag, .308 Winchester, 7.62x39mm, 5.56 NATO, .22 LR
context_page_description: The 7.62×51mm NATO is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge developed in the 1950s as a standard for small arms among NATO countries. It is sometimes confused with the similarly named Russian 7.62×54mmR cartridge, a slightly longer, rimmed cartridge.
  It was introduced in U.S. service in the M14 rifle and M60 machine gun in the late 1950s. The M14 was superseded in U.S. service as the infantry adopted the 5.56×45mm NATO M16 rifle. However, the M14 and many other firearms that use the 7.62×51mm NATO round remain in service, especially in the case of various marksman/sniper rifles, medium machine guns/general-purpose machine guns such as the M240, and various rifles in use by special operations forces. The cartridge is used both by infantry and on mounted and crew-served weapons mounted to vehicles, aircraft and ships.
  Although not identical, the 7.62×51mm NATO and the commercial .308 Winchester cartridges are similar enough that they can be loaded into rifles chambered for the other round, but the Winchester .308 cartridges are typically loaded to higher pressures than 7.62×51mm NATO service cartridges.
context_section_description: Work that would eventually develop the 7.62×51mm NATO started just after World War I when the large, powerful .30-06 Springfield cartridge proved difficult to adapt to semi-automatic rifles. A less powerful cartridge would allow a lighter firing mechanism. At the time the most promising design was the .276 Pedersen. When it was eventually demonstrated that the .30-06 Springfield was suitable for semi-automatic rifles, the .276 Pedersen was dropped.
  Thus when war appeared to be looming again, only a couple of decades later, the .30-06 Springfield was the only round available, and the M1 Garand provided U.S. troops with greater firepower than their bolt action-armed opponents. The Garand performed so well that the U.S. saw little need to replace it during World War II, and the .30-06 Springfield served well beyond the Korean War and into the mid-1950s. The .30-06 Springfield was officially replaced by the 7.62 NATO M14 in 1957.
  During the 1940s and early 1950s, several experiments were carried out to improve the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle. One of the most common complaints was the limited-capacity, eight-round en-bloc clip, and many experimental designs modified the weapon with a detachable box magazine. Springfield Armory's T20 rifle was a fully automatic version. Though not adopted, experience with a fully-automatic Garand laid the groundwork for its replacement. The test program continued for several years, including both the original .30-06 Springfield round and experimental cartridges.
caption: .50 BMG, .300 Winchester Magnum, .308 WIN (7.62 NATO), 7.62×39mm, 5.56 NATO, and .22 LR
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