Tag: 5.45 x39mm

The 5.45 x 39mm, also known as the 5.45 Russian, is a rimless, steel-cased, bottleneck cartridge for rifles. In 1974, the 5.45 x 39mm was introduced in the Soviet Union to replace the 7.62 x 39mm rounds that were being used by the Russian army at the time. A group of engineers and designers under the helm of M. Sabelnikov designed this cartridge that was meant to compete with the 5.56 x 45mm NATO. This design was meant for military use and was not offered to civilians, which is why there are very few civilian weapons that are chambered with the 5.45 x 39mm. These are the Ssg 82 rifle, the CRS-98, the Saiga semi-automatic, and the S&W M&P15R.

The cartridge was designed to be small, lightweight, has high velocity, a relatively low bolt thrust and free recoil. The bullet’s diameter is nominally 5.45mm, and it fires with a pressure of 55,000 psi.

There are a lot of variants for the 5.45 x 39mm. In 1974, the Soviets introduced a variant called the 7N6, which are loaded with full metal jacket bullets. However, with the rise of body armor plating, this design was improved upon to increase penetration and resulted to the following variants: 7N6M, 7N10, 7N22 and 7N24.