The 7.62x39mm

Ah yes the 7.62 x 39mm the cartridge that the Soviets made famous in their ever aging legendary AK-47. This was actually considered a compact cartridge, and was developed in response to the German 8x33mm light assault rifle cartridge. Even though the 8x33mm was Ballistically inferior to the standard 8x57mm German service rifle cartridge, the 8x33mm was significantly better than the 9mm Luger used in the sub machine guns and pistols. Between the high rate of fire and effective range of the shorter cartridges, around 400 meter, the Russians soon after copied the cartridge in their Model 43. The Russian version was first designed to be used in the semi automatic SKS rifle and quickly was chambered in the Automat Kalashnikov Model 47 or AK-47. The 7.62x39mm soon became the primary service cartridge for most of the Eastern bloc countries.

Even with the 7.62x39mm cartridge's success in the Eastern bloc countries, the cartridge was little known in the U.S.A. until the Vietnam War (I mean conflict!). During the last decade a large number or rifles chambered in the 7.62x39mm cartridge have been imported into the U.S.A., as a direct result the reloading of the 7.62x39mm has gained large attention in media and in the reloading area of the sport. The AK-47 has more popularity than the cartridge and that is a simple fact, the AK-47 seems to have taken on a "sinister" side especially with the media, it is used by video game terrorists and other "bad guys" in many movies and video game. Sadly this is only one side of the story and of course the real story is the history of a cartridge put into service to defend a homeland, not to terrorize people. It seems only too sad that media gets so stuck on the bad news but it is how the situation has unfolded in the years. But the not so close minded reloaders of the world have taken grip of the 7.62x39mm cartridge and I feel they will never let it go. Of course there is also a strong following of the shooting sports that does not reload that also keeps close tbs on the 7.6239mm cartridge, AK-47's, and Russian cartridge lovers.

Once it was an issue to obtain Boxer primed cases for reloading, since Berdan primer cases are near impossible to reload, but ever since the 7.62x39mm cartridge's popularity has been gaining there are now multiple sources for Boxer primed cases, thankfully. Performance wise the 7.62x39mm cartridge is only slightly behind the 30-30 Winchester cartridge, and many surplus service rifles have proven impressive accuracy. unfortunately million of the foreign steel cased 7.62x3mm cartridges have been imported in recent years, and since reloading steel cases is near impossible, checking you loads of spent or new cases for steel cases with a magnet should be considered. While the road has recently been rocky for the AK-47 the road of the 7.62x39mm seems to have found a place in society, and with its history and proven performance close to the 30-30 Winchester, the 7.62x39mm cartridge is far from dead in America or elsewhere in the world.