RadGreen 1993 Natos 7.62 x 51 in bolt 308?

[Devildawg2531]

I have a LOT of 1993 RadGreen NATO surplus 7.62 x 51 that I have shot for years in M1A, Saiga, PTR 91, various AR's with no issue. Its been about a 2 -3 MOA round but very reliable. Today I shot some in a bolt gun but had several primer strikes where nothing happened. I would load again and sometimes 2 or 3 times later it fired. The ammo has always been stored in doors in climate controlled (at least for the last 15 years or so that I've had it). Anyway is there something unique about a bolt gun that would make 7.62 x 51 unreliable or could the age of this ammo be causing it to not fire sometimes now (maybe 20% of the rounds had this issue today). The gun has been 100% previously and I switched to FGMM 308 after the issue today and the FGMM was fine. Thoughts?

[1slow]

I shot a lot (thousand +) of Radway Green through FALs no issues at all.

[Lester Polfus]

I am pretty sure it has a thicker primer. I was gifted a couple hundred rounds of that and had a few failures in my otherwise reliable M77mk2.

Bolt gun strikers don’t hit as hard as FALs.

[Suvorov]

I am pretty sure it has a thicker primer. I was gifted a couple hundred rounds of that and had a few failures in my otherwise reliable M77mk2.

Bolt gun strikers don’t hit as hard as FALs.

Yep. Mil surplus ammo not going bang when fired from a sporting firearm is a story as old as surplus ammo.

I would advise the OP to bring out that wonderful M1A of his and confirm the ammo’s reliability.

[Ed L]

I remember Radway Green in 5.56mm had notoriously hard primers--both by reputation and personal experience. It was worse than I have experienced with any other milsurp ammo.