7.62 mm caliber
There are many cartridges which use 7.62 mm caliber bullets. The measurement equals 0.30 inches. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, and was most commonly used for indicating a class of full power military Main Battle Rifle (MBR) cartridges.
7.62 mm refers to the diameter of the lands in the barrel (the raised helical grooves in rifled gun barrels). The actual bullet caliber is normally .308 in (7.82 mm), although Soviet weapons commonly use a .311 in (7.91 mm) bullet, as do older British (.303 British) and Japanese cartridges.
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Pistol cartridges in 7.62 mm caliber
There are many pistol cartridges in this calibre, but most common are:
- 7.62x25mm Tokarev also known as 7.62 mm TT
- 7.65x17mm Browning also known as the .32 ACP.
- 7.63x25mm Mauser, which has nearly identical dimensions to Tokarev, but different loading specifications and thus is not interchangeable
- 7.65x22mm Parabellum
Revolver cartridges in 7.62 mm caliber
Some of the revolver cartridges in this caliber are:
- 7.62x38mmR used only in the Nagant M1895 revolver
- .32 Long Colt, originally revolver cartridge today little used in revolvers, but used in large number of sport pistols in .32 LC WC form (WC stands for Wad Cutter, it means cylindrical bullet)(correction suggested ".32 LC" be changed to ".32 S & W Long" relative to use in sporting pistols.
- .32 H&R Magnum only revolver cartridge in this caliber which is in wider use today, mostly in smallframe revolvers.
Rifle cartridges in 7.62 mm caliber
Some of most common rifle cartridges in this caliber are:
- Soviet 7.62x39mm, also known as the 7.62 mm Soviet, M43, or occasionally .30 Short Combloc, designed for the SKS and used in the AK-47 and AKM assault rifles.
- 7.62x51mm NATO, and its civilian variant .308 Winchester, sometimes incorrectly described as .308 NATO by persons mixing English measurements used by some civilians with metric measurements used by the NATO organization.
- 7.62x54mmR another Russian cartridge that was first used in the Mosin-Nagant rifle since 1891. The modern versions of the catridges to this day are 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 US Army cartridge for both World Wars and Korea, known as the 7.62x63mm in metric measurement.
- .30 Carbine, used in the M1, M2 and M3 Carbines. Sometimes called the 7.62x33mm.
- .300 Winchester Magnum used by many hunting/sniper rifles, sometimes called the 7.62x67mm and is the largest of the 7.62mm caliber family.
