![SSA 7](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/SSA_7.62mm_143gr_AP.png)
The 7.62 mm caliber is a nominal
caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...
used for a number of different
cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the
imperial unit
The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed thr ...
and
customary unit equivalent, and was most commonly used for indicating a class of full-power military main
battle rifle
A battle rifle is a service rifle chambered to fire a fully powered cartridge.
The term "battle rifle" is a retronym created largely out of a need to better differentiate the intermediate-powered assault rifles (e.g. the StG-44, AK-47, M16, ...
(MBR) cartridges. The measurement equals 0.30 inches or three
decimal lines, written ''.3″'' and read as ''three-line''.
The 7.62 mm designation refers to the internal diameter of the barrel at the lands (the raised helical ridges in rifled gun barrels). The actual bullet caliber is often , although Soviet weapons commonly use a bullet, as do older British (
.303 British) and Japanese (
7.7×58mm Arisaka) cartridges.
Pistol cartridges in 7.62 mm caliber
Many pistol cartridges are in this caliber; the most common are:
*
7.62×25mm Tokarev, also known as 7.62 mm TT, is used in the
Tokarev pistol, and many of the World War II Soviet
submachine guns
A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automa ...
*
7.63×25mm Mauser, which was the basis for, and has nearly identical dimensions to, the Tokarev, but has different loading specifications.
*
7.65×25mm Borchardt, from which both the Mauser and Parabellum cartridges were developed
*
7.65×21mm Parabellum
*
7.65×17mm Browning, also known as
.32 ACP
*
7.62mm SP-2, used only in the
TKB-506 cigar cutter pistol
Revolver cartridges in 7.62 mm caliber
Some of the
revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six ro ...
cartridges in this caliber are:
*
7.62×38mmR is used only in the
Nagant M1895
The Nagant M1895 Revolver is a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Léon Nagant for the Russian Empire.
The Nagant M1895 was chambered for a proprietary cartridge, 7.62×38mmR, and featured an unusual " ...
revolver.
*
.32 Long Colt
The .32 Long Colt (commonly called the .32 LC or simply .32 Colt) is an American centerfire revolver cartridge.
Description
Introduced by Colt's with the New Line revolver in 1873, the .32 Colt was inspired by the .320 Revolver. It original ...
– originally chambered for small-frame Colt revolvers and the Marlin model 1892 rifle, this cartridge uses a heeled bullet with a case the same diameter as the major diameter of the bullet. It shares dimensions with the .32 rimfire cartridge of the same length. It is not to be confused with the .32 Colt's New Police cartridge.
*
.32 S&W Long is also known as .32 Colt's New Police when chambered in Colt revolvers. The original loading for this cartridge used a round nose, or flattened round nose (in the case of the .32 Colt's N.P.) and was chambered widely in revolvers made in the US and Europe through World War II. This cartridge is used in several modern target pistols (not revolvers) with flush-seated wadcutters. The short version of this cartridge (.32 S&W) was chambered in many break-top revolvers at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in the US and Europe.
*
.32 H&R Magnum is the only revolver cartridge in this caliber in wide use today, mostly in small-frame revolvers. This is an extended version of the much earlier .32 S&W Long, which is an extended version of the .32 S&W.
*
.327 Federal Magnum is a new cartridge developed jointly by Ruger and Federal. This cartridge is an extended version of the .32 H&R Magnum.
Rifle cartridges in 7.62 mm caliber
The most common and historical rifle cartridges in this caliber are:
*
.30 Carbine, used in the
M1/M2/M3 carbines, is sometimes called the 7.62×33mm.
*
300 AAC Blackout (7.62×35mm), also known as 300 BLK, is designed for the
M4 carbine
The M4 carbine (officially Carbine, Caliber 5.56 mm, M4) is a 5.56×45mm NATO, gas-operated, magazine-fed carbine developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle.
The M4 is extensively ...
and
STANAG magazine.
* Soviet
7.62×39mm, also known as 7.62 mm Soviet, M43, or occasionally
.30 Short Combloc, is designed for the
SKS
The SKS (russian: Самозарядный карабин системы Симонова, Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945, self-loading carbine of (the) Simonov system, 1945) is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Soviet small arms ...
and used in the
AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms de ...
,
AKM
The AKM () is an assault rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1959. It is the most ubiquitous rifle of the Kalashnikov rifles. It was developed as a replacement to the AK-47 introduced a decade prior.
Introduce ...
,
RPK and
RPD light machine guns.
*
7.62×40mm Wilson Tactical
*
7.62×45mm vz. 52, made solely for the Czechoslovakian
vz. 52 rifle, was replaced by 7.62×39mm.
*
7.62×51mm NATO and its civilian variant
.308 Winchester
The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
, sometimes described as .308 NATO by people mixing Imperial and Customary measurements, is used by some civilians, with metric measurements used by NATO.
*
7.62×53mmR, Finnish design based on the Russian 7.62×54mmR round.
*
7.62×54mmR, another Russian cartridge, it was first used in the
Mosin–Nagant
The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891 and informally in Russia and former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle ( ru , винтовка Мосина, ISO 9: ...
rifle in 1891. The modern versions of the cartridges are now in wide use in numerous world armies as sniper rifles (particularly the
SVD family) and machine guns (numerous types, many developed from AK family, such as the
PKM).
*
.30-06 Springfield
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...
, is a US military cartridge used in World War I, World War II, the Korea War, and the Vietnam War, is known as the 7.62×63mm in metric measurement.
*
.303 British, used in
Lee–Metford and
Lee–Enfield
The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's st ...
rifles, is known as 7.7×56mmR in metric measurement.
*
7.7×58mm Arisaka is used in the
Type 99,
Type 2 and
Type 4 rifles.
*
7.65×53mm Argentine is used in various
Mauser bolt-action rifles, primarily in Belgium, Turkey, and Argentina.
*
.308 Norma Magnum
*
.300 Norma Magnum
*
.300 Winchester Magnum is used by many hunting and sniper rifles, sometimes called the 7.62×67mm.
*
.300 Winchester Short Magnum
*
.300 Lapua Magnum, 7.62×70mm
*
.30-30 Winchester, a popular deer hunting cartridge, is typically used in lever-action rifles, such as the
Winchester Model 1894
The Winchester Model 1894 rifle (also known as the Winchester 94 or Model 94) is a lever-action repeating rifle that became one of the most famous and popular hunting rifles of all time. It was designed by John Browning in 1894 and originally c ...
and
Marlin Model 336
The Marlin Model 336 is a lever-action rifle and carbine made by Marlin Firearms. Since its introduction in 1948, it has been offered in a number of different calibers and barrel lengths, but is commonly chambered in .30-30 Winchester or .35 Rem ...
, and is adapted to European sporting guns as 7.62×51mmR.
*
.30 R Blaser, used in break-action rifles for hunting medium to large game
*
.30 Thompson Center (.30 TC)30TC
{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924133718/http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/venture.php , date=2011-09-24
* .30-378 Weatherby Magnum
The .30-378 Weatherby Magnum is a .30 caliber, belted, bottle-necked rifle cartridge. The cartridge was developed in response to a US Army military contract in 1959. While still unreleased to the public, the cartridge went on to set world records ...
*30-40 Krag
The .30-40 Krag (also known as .30 U.S. and .30 Army) was a cartridge developed in the early 1890s to provide the U.S. armed forces with a smokeless powder cartridge suited for use with modern small-bore repeating rifles to be selected in the 1 ...
See also
* List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 HM2,2 .17 HMR, 2.5 .17 wsm, 3 .22LR, 4 .22 WMR, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm/35 SMc, 7 .22 Hornet, 8 .223 Remington, 9 .223 W ...
* 7 mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the caliber range.
*''Length'' refers to the cartridge case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a fi ...
* :7.62 mm firearms
* M14 rifle
The M14 rifle, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14, is an American selective fire battle rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO (.308 in) cartridge. It became the standard-issue rifle for the U.S. military in 1959, ...
* 30 (disambiguation)
References
Ammunition
Pistol and rifle cartridges
7.62 mm firearms