The caliber .308 Winchester (Also known as 7.62mm NATO or 7.62 x 51 mm) Was developed by the North American army between 1940/1950 and in 1952 Winchester introduced in the civilian market under the name of .308 Winchester. In 1954 it was adopted by NATO.The development of this new caliber occurred after the World War II, trailing the 7.92 Kurz. This cartridge was developed in the German end of the 2nd War for the new weapon StG44. The 7.92 Kurz was developed after research of the German High Command concluded that the 7.92 Mauser in use was more powerful than necessary because the fighting of War 2 were very different from the First (to combat short distance and rapid movement of troops fighting versus long distance with entire armies entrenched ). So it was decided that a smaller cartridge with range of 800 meters , would be ideal for the " new " war. The 7.92 Kurz is basically a shortened Mauser 7.92 . Probably some copies of this cartridge German fell into the hands of the Allies and the Russians who , realizing the new possibilities of new ammunition , quickly developed their short : the 7.62 x51mm American, a 30-06 Springfield (cartridge used by the U.S. military America at the 2nd World War) and the shortened 7.62 x39mm Russian, a 7.62 x54mmR the Mosin -Nagant used by the Russians in the 2nd War shortened. The new cartridges were " mere " shortenings cartridge pre-existing because it facilitates the conversion of weapons of a caliber to another.
Soon after the adoption of a new cartridge after the war by the Americans , the cartridge was adopted as standard by NATO. The funny fact is that a .280 Enfield cartridge ran with the 7.62 x51mm for the standard to be eventually lost . Sixty years after the army - American (who strongly " encouraged " to adopt the 7.62 x51mm ) is testing a new cartridge of the same caliber of the .280 Enfield, the 6.8 Rem SPC mm .