AK 74 caliber?

Jack Roberts

Moderator - Deceased
I was recently in St. Petersburg, Russia and got to shoot an AK 74. Does anybody know what caliber it is? The range operator said it was not 5.56 but was 5.45 caliber. He was pretty insistent that it was not 5.56. The ammo we were shooting did not have the caliber on the case head. It was about the size of 223 ammo.

It was pretty neat getting to shoot a fully auto rifle in the city in a 200 meter indoor range. Of course full auto fire is not the way to hit your target, might scare it but unlikely to hit it. I also shot the 9mm Makarov pistol and was impressed with it. For an issue military pistol it was OK.

Jack
 
From what I've been told, I've always thought is was interesting that in an emergency, our US/Nato ammo could function in the Russian weapons, but theirs would not work in ours.

I think this was one of the tales that came out of Viet Nam from one of the guys that came back from over there.
 
The Russians also had a bolt-action sniper rifle chambered in that round. From what I was told, they were issued to guards at the "iron curtain". Very crude looking.
 
Quote:
From what I've been told, I've always thought is was interesting that in an emergency, our US/Nato ammo could function in the Russian weapons, but theirs would not work in ours. I think this was one of the tales that came out of Viet Nam from one of the guys that came back from over there.



Really ? The case dimensions are quite different.

cd556nato.jpg


cd545x39m74.jpg
 
Quote:
From what I've been told, I've always thought is was interesting that in an emergency, our US/Nato ammo could function in the Russian weapons, but theirs would not work in ours.

I think this was one of the tales that came out of Viet Nam from one of the guys that came back from over there.



Not one chance in a hundred years.

Same "rumors" came back in WW2... had no truth to those either.
 
Those rumors are based on mortar rounds. Theirs was an 82mm ours was an 81mm. Supposedly they could fire ours, we couldn't fire theirs. Add a few jokers that wanted to see just how much of a line of bull the new guys would believe and guess what you have.
 
This is a good predator round. I aquired an ak chambered in 5.45 while stationed in upstate NY. Made in and imported from romania it was identical to my same brand AK47 by appearance. I mounted a cheap 3x9 on its scout rail. My brother used it once on a stand as we didn't havew another rifle in small caliber available, he shot a female yote on the run at 180yds. having much less recoil than a 47 you can watch your rnds impact throught the scope. Eventually became his favorite; even over his M70 22-250 so i gave it to him. at the range only shoots 1 MOA at best but very consistant. Ammo hard to find, have to order from WOLF but cheap like 7.62x39. If you see one get it.
 
Quote:
From what I've been told, I've always thought is was interesting that in an emergency, our US/Nato ammo could function in the Russian weapons, but theirs would not work in ours.

I think this was one of the tales that came out of Viet Nam from one of the guys that came back from over there.



I'd hate to try to fire either round in the other rifle... The 5.56 would not chamber in the AK-74 due to length.

As for the Viet Nam era, we used the 5.56 but the AK-47 and the SKS that the VC and NVA used fired the 7.62X39 MM round, a 30 caliber round...

-BCB
 
"From what I've been told, I've always thought is was interesting that in an emergency, our US/Nato ammo could function in the Russian weapons, but theirs would not work in ours."

I think that was referring to the mortar rounds. We used 81mm mortars and they used 82mm mortars. Supposedly, our mortars could be fired from their tubes but not vice-versa. I have no idea if it was true.

Jack
 


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