Preface
Every shooting range and hillside is littered with countless different shell casings of nearly every kind. But what gives a cartridge staying power in the market? Among the primary reasons a cartridge becomes prominent is military adoption. And today we will discuss one of those, the short and sweet 7.62×39 Soviet.
Developed in the early 1940’s, the Soviet cartridge was used in both the SKS and AK-47 infantry rifles. The short cartridge shoots a 30-caliber bullet at velocities comparable to something like a 30-30. While not as impressive as cartridges like the 30-06 Springfield or the 8×57 Mauser, I certainly wouldn’t want to be shot at with one.
The adoption by both Soviet nations and whoever they could sell the rifles and ammunition to have made the 7.62×39 cartridge one of the most common available. Communism helped spread both 7.62×39 and its casualties across the globe. I’d hate to try and find a positive result from that, but if there is one, it’s that you and I have an inexpensive and fun ammo supply. At least we did until some ol’ boy started hanging up iron-curtains in eastern Europe.
Finish Reading here
Good write up on the 7.62×39 cartridge. I own several in different platforms and itās a lethal feral swine removal tool. It performs better than the 5.56 at that task. Iād like it even more if there was a steady supply of brass-cased, copper jacketed, soft point ammunition commercially produced. The steel jacketed bullets in combloc ammunition have a high tendency to ricochet.
For sure, I wish we could go back to the days when there was a steady flow of inexpensive import ammo supply