Evil Monkey
member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
- Messages
- 1,486
7.62x51 NATO or 7.62x54R?
7.62 NATO has been around since the 50's I believe. It served as a primary NATO round for around 30 years or so and was replaced with the 5.56mm as an organic cartridge but the 7.62 still served as a sniper and GPMG cartridge. Many countries over the years and into the 21st century have switched to NATO, even if these countries are not actually part of NATO. Many different weapons have emerged from these countries that use the 7.62 NATO round. G3, FAL, BM59, MG3, ss-77, m60, m240, you name it.
But...
The 54R soviet round has been around for more than 100 years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Soviets primarily used this round in SVT, SVD, PKM, Pecheneg, etc. In modern times along side the 7.62 NATO, the 54R was NEVER used as a primary rifle cartridge; that was what the 7.62x39 and 5.45mm were for. There has never been much of a choice of weaponry in the soviet 54R but the Warsaw Pact made MILLIONS and MILLIONS of these set weapons like the SVD and PKM. They're everywhere. Most are used in 3rd world hell holes, some are used by friendly nations. Either way, the 54R is seeing use.
NATO influenced nations continue to grow and start dumping soviet calibers to standardize on NATO munitions. NATO countries also have a more colorful array of weapons. The Soviet influenced countries pretty much all use the same weapons and when those weapons get old, they dump them in the conflict regions....and produce more weapons using Soviet munitions.
So which round is the most widely used in the entire world?
7.62 NATO has been around since the 50's I believe. It served as a primary NATO round for around 30 years or so and was replaced with the 5.56mm as an organic cartridge but the 7.62 still served as a sniper and GPMG cartridge. Many countries over the years and into the 21st century have switched to NATO, even if these countries are not actually part of NATO. Many different weapons have emerged from these countries that use the 7.62 NATO round. G3, FAL, BM59, MG3, ss-77, m60, m240, you name it.
But...
The 54R soviet round has been around for more than 100 years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Soviets primarily used this round in SVT, SVD, PKM, Pecheneg, etc. In modern times along side the 7.62 NATO, the 54R was NEVER used as a primary rifle cartridge; that was what the 7.62x39 and 5.45mm were for. There has never been much of a choice of weaponry in the soviet 54R but the Warsaw Pact made MILLIONS and MILLIONS of these set weapons like the SVD and PKM. They're everywhere. Most are used in 3rd world hell holes, some are used by friendly nations. Either way, the 54R is seeing use.
NATO influenced nations continue to grow and start dumping soviet calibers to standardize on NATO munitions. NATO countries also have a more colorful array of weapons. The Soviet influenced countries pretty much all use the same weapons and when those weapons get old, they dump them in the conflict regions....and produce more weapons using Soviet munitions.
So which round is the most widely used in the entire world?