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- The 7.62x39mm is a small, stubby .30 caliber
- round developed by the Russians for use in
- assault rifles and light machineguns.
-
- The Kalashnikov AK-47 and AKM automatic
- rifles are most often encountered in 7.62x39mm.
- The cartridge has become popular among American
- shooters due to the abundance of inexpensive
- Russian SKS rifles (and Chinese copies) that have
- been imported. As the SKS is a semi-automatic
- ONLY design, it subject to fewer special BATF
- restrictions and is available readily.
-
- The cartridge is slightly less powerful than
- the .30-30 Winchester, but significantly more
- powerful than the .357 Magnum.
-
- The 7.62x39mm was the target of
- anti-2cnd-Amendment politics in 1993, when a
- California pistol manufacturer produced some
- experimental handguns in this caliber.
- Unfortunately, this allowed the BATF to
- technically classify the 7.62x39mm as a pistol
- cartridge, preventing importation of inexpensive
- steel-core ammunition (steel core infers "armor
- piercing" handguns). The result of this action
- was that the costs of 7.62x39mm ammunition to the
- sportsman and enthusiast tripled, with no
- positive crime-fighting result gleaned.
-