Briman

The 7.62x54R has a much wider case body than the .308- nothing like having a casehead seperation with every shot. I kind of doubt that the .308 would headspace anywhere near close enough for the firing pin to strike it either. To top itoff, the russian cartridge is 60 years older than the .308- the Russians would have had to be psychic to have design the rifles to fire .308.

It would be fun if these 'experts' can be called on their BS by making them try to fire said cartridge in the rifle they say its capable of firing in

7.62x39 = 7.62 Rooski Shortski[8D]

eldeguello

Gosh, Briman! I was about to agree with everything you said, but decided to check some case dimensions first. Amazingly, at least according to Steve Ricciardelli's case dimension chart, the head-to shoulder length of the two rounds is the same, at 1.56" !! (Maybe the Czar DID have a chrystal ball!!) And there's only .002 difference in shoulder diameters-the .308 is .454", and the 7.62.X54R is .452"!! So is is quite possible that yoy could fire the .308 in a Russian chamber. I am sure those Russian chambers are sloppy enough to let you close the bolt. Now as to whether the .308 would remain centered enough in the chamber to let the striker hit the primer, is anybody's guess. It COULD happen!! And, as we both have mentioned already, the rear end of the .308 case would be just hanging out there in the air unsupported by the chamber wall subject to rupture, as the head diameter of the Russky round is a lot fatter than the .308 - .485" for the Russian vs .470" for the .308......

Obviously, the BOTTOM cartridge is the Russian one. These drawings are courtesty of Steve Ricciardelli!

Briman

El- that's very interesting. I just took a 7.62 NATO round and eyeballed it against a 7.62 russian, and they appear to have almost identical shoulders. I did not know that. Then I tried chambering a 7.62 nato in a mosin nagant, and it closed on the round. The case head diameters were +/- .002" from what is on the drawings. I'm not about to take any further experiments, though I do have a junk M44 carbine that I'm looking for something to do with[:-]

Briman

5th from the left
is 7.62 russian, 7th is 7.62 NATO, 8th is 7.62x39

Briman

I'm now thinking that if the headspace is pretty similar, the thrust of the bolt pushing the shoulder into the chamber should align it enough to fire. I would think that bullet alignment with the bore would be pretty inconsistant.

eldeguello

Briman, what is that one between the Russian case and the NATO round? (No. 6 from left??)

Duckbutter48

Guys I disagree,I think the Sargent is closer to right. Thequestion is what kind of BULLET does the Ak fire, not whatround does it fireandit would bea 308 bullet if that was the only component you werespeaking aboutfor the round.

I..E.. if you order bullets for the AK(in 7.62x39) you would be ordering .308s

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Duckbutter48

True but I think the Sergeant asking the civalian name of the bullet wouldbe considered a 308 caliber. Technically I agree with you on the 311 but I think most people(general hunting public)would consider a 7.62 measurementas a 308 bullet.

I guess I think a simple question like that would havemore of a simple answer in non-hyper superduper handloader terms. I can only imagine if eldeguello stood up and gave his answer to that question andthe look on the sergeant's face would be. Thats why I think the Sergeant is closer to being correct its just thename the bullet is called.

Briman

Not .308. .30 caliber would be a more appropriate description of the bullet an AK fired.

6.5 swede

From left to right: 30-06, 8x57, 7.5x55 swiss, .303 brit,.....