Almost everyone has heard at least with the edge of an ear that there are actually three mysterious numbers like "7.62" which are used to designate one of the most common calibers of ammunition for small arms on earth weapons. It's time to learn more about this designation in order to begin to understand: what, what for and why.
The TT pistol uses a 7.62 caliber cartridge, and the PPSh-41 uses a 7.62 caliber cartridge, and the Kalashnikov assault rifle in its first incarnation was loaded with a 7.62 caliber cartridge. It is also used by the SVD and the PKK. And even the American M134 Minigun uses the same caliber! It is quite obvious that with all this, all the listed types of weapons actually use different cartridges. What's the catch?
The thing is that the designation of most ammunition actually consists of two parts: the caliber itself and the length of the cartridge case. In this case, the second designation is much more important, which is assigned (as a rule) through "x" to the first three digits 7.62. Thus, the cartridge for the first Kalashnikov assault rifle is designated 7.62x39 mm, where 7.62 is the bullet diameter, and 39 is the length of the weapon sleeve. It is important to understand that the second figure is not a characteristic of the caliber of the ammunition, but the characteristic of the cartridge. For example, there are pistols with a caliber of 7.62x25 mm, by the way, this is exactly what the Tula Tokarev uses.
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Separately, it should be clarified that there are not only different calibers and different ways of designating them, but also different methods for measuring the caliber of weapons. The simplest example of the USSR and NATO. Each of the blocks had their own techniques in this regard. For example, in the USSR (and now in descendant countries) the caliber of a smooth-bore weapon is measured by the distance between opposite groove fields. At the same time in NATO the caliber of smoothbore weapons is the largest diameter of the notch fields.
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With rifled weapons, the situation between the blocks is easier, but in the United States, the use of the inch system is common. Therefore, we have the designations .45 Colt, .38 Super, .220 Russian and some others. As you might guess, this is the designation of a fractional number without writing zero. In this case, the main US army caliber - 5.56 is indicated in all the same millimeters due to the fact that almost all NATO countries still use the metric measurement system.
Continuing the topic, read about 9 popular pistols in the world that are perfect suitable for concealed carry.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/290220/53613/