# List of 7.62×54mmR firearms

**7.62×54mmR** is a rimmed rifle cartridge whose "R" designation denotes the protruding rim at the base of the case, which headspaces on the rim rather than the case mouth.<sup>[1](https://www.drzero.org/mosin/mosina.pdf)</sup> It was created for the Mosin Model 1891, the "three-line rifle" adopted by the Russian army in 1891.<sup>[4](https://muzeumwp.pl/mwpedia/karabin-mosin-wz-1891/)</sup> Its service loading fires a 9.5 g bullet at 845 m/s for 3,400 J of muzzle energy.<sup>[3](https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-WP23-cartridge-technologies.pdf)</sup> One of only two traditional full-power rifle cartridges still used in rifle-caliber machine guns in the world's major armies, alongside 7.62×51 NATO, it remains in current production in the Chukavin SVCh sniper rifle for the Russian military.<sup>[32](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1218)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://rostec.ru/media/news/kalashnikov-zavershil-kvalifikatsionnye-ispytaniya-svch-/)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| CIP dimensions | Case length 53.72 mm, overall length 77.16 mm, projectile diameter 7.92 mm<sup>[2](https://bobp.cip-bobp.org/uploads/tdcc/tab-ii/7-62-x-54-r-en.pdf)</sup> |
| Ballistics (service loading) | 24.0 g total weight, 9.5 g bullet, 845 m/s muzzle velocity, 3,400 J muzzle energy<sup>[3](https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-WP23-cartridge-technologies.pdf)</sup> |
| First rifle | Mosin Model 1891 ("three-line rifle"), adopted 1891<sup>[4](https://muzeumwp.pl/mwpedia/karabin-mosin-wz-1891/)</sup> |
| First machine gun | Maxim machine gun in 7.62 mm Mosin caliber, adopted 1895<sup>[5](https://www.vhu.cz/en/exhibit/03-rusky-kulomet-madsen-vzor-1902/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[33](https://smallarmsreview.com/feeding-the-tiger-ammunition-belts-for-russian-maxim-machine-guns/)</sup> |
| Longest-serving self-loader | SVD Dragunov, adopted 3 July 1963<sup>[6](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/11-vintovka-samozaryadnaya-sistemy-dragunova)</sup> |
| Current production | Chukavin SVCh sniper rifle, in serial production for the Russian military<sup>[7](https://rostec.ru/media/news/kalashnikov-zavershil-kvalifikatsionnye-ispytaniya-svch-/)</sup> |

## Bolt-action rifles

**Mosin Model 1891.** The rifle for which the cartridge was created was adopted by the Russian army in 1891 as the "three-line rifle, model 1891" (the "line" was 0.1 inch, making the bore .30 caliber). It had a box magazine holding four cartridges, with a fifth from the charger going directly into the chamber, a four-lug bolt, and sights graduated from 400 to 2,700 arshins (1 arshin = 0.71 m).<sup>[4](https://muzeumwp.pl/mwpedia/karabin-mosin-wz-1891/)</sup> The design combined Sergei Mosin's receiver and bolt with Émile Léon Nagant's clip-loaded magazine.<sup>[8](https://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/world-war-i-and-firearms-innovation/case-32-wwi-america-and-the-allies/mosin-nagant-model-1891-bolt-action-rifle.aspx)</sup> During the First World War, Russia contracted the American firms Remington and Westinghouse to manufacture over three million Mosin-Nagant rifles, of which nearly half a million reached Russia before the 1917 revolution halted production.<sup>[9](https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1992-08-177-1)</sup> The M91/30 became the standard Soviet rifle of the Second World War, and the cartridge's original 210-grain round-nose bullet was replaced in 1908 by a 147-grain spitzer ("light ball") after Germany introduced pointed projectiles in its 7.92×57 cartridge.<sup>[10](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2179)</sup>

**Berdan II conversion.** Before the Mosin entered production, Nagant developed a method of converting existing Russian Berdan II rifles to the newly adopted 7.62×54R smokeless cartridge, using a new bolt head with dual locking lugs at the front and a barrel with the same dimensions as an M1891 Mosin barrel.<sup>[11](https://www.mosinmuseum.com/models/berdan-ii-converted-to-7.62x54r)</sup>

**Modern precision rifles.** The SV-98, developed at Izhmash and produced by [Kalashnikov Concern](https://www.edgepedia.org/kalashnikov-concern), is a bolt-action rifle with a 10-round magazine, 6.2 kg weight, 650 mm barrel, and a sighted range of 1,000 m.<sup>[12](https://rosguard.gov.ru/ru/page/index/snajperskaya-vintovka-sv98)</sup> It has been in Russian military and law-enforcement service since about 2003 and can also be chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO.<sup>[13](https://mags.shephardmedia.com/legacy-handbooks/IEH2022.pdf)</sup>

## Self-loading rifles

**Fedorov and Simonov designs.** Vladimir Fedorov's first rifle, a 1906 proposal for a semi-automatic conversion of the Mosin-Nagant, fired the 7.62×54R cartridge, and his 1913 models existed in both 7.62×54R and his own 6.5mm chambering.<sup>[14](https://smallarmsreview.com/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-fedorov-avtomat/)</sup> The later Simonov AVS-36, a gas-operated selective-fire rifle with a 15-round magazine, also chambered the 7.62×54 round, but the rimmed cartridge battered the action and caused high parts breakage.<sup>[15](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2686)</sup>

**Tokarev SVT-40.** Fedor Tokarev's SVT-40, a short-stroke gas-operated semi-automatic rifle with a spring-loaded piston above the barrel, fired the 7.62×54mm cartridge from a 10-round detachable magazine.<sup>[16](https://www.memorialmuseum.org/images/newsletter/2021/2021-3_Newsletter-Russian-Weapons-F-4_Phantom_II_RW.pdf)</sup> Serial production began on 1 July 1940 at Tula and Izhevsk; together with the SVT-38 it reached almost 2,000,000 rifles by 3 January 1945, including 51,000 sniper versions with a 3.5× PU scope.<sup>[17](https://ebadatelnavhm.vhu.sk/item/3/26)</sup> An estimated 1.3 million were manufactured between 1940 and 1942, with production thought to have continued until 1945.<sup>[18](https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C246039)</sup> Captured SVT-40s served the Germans as the model for the [Gewehr 43](https://www.edgepedia.org/gewehr-43).<sup>[17](https://ebadatelnavhm.vhu.sk/item/3/26)</sup>

**SVD Dragunov.** In 1958, Izhevsk designer Yevgeny Dragunov entered the competition to design a semi-automatic sniper rifle; on 3 July 1963 his rifle with the PSO-1 telescopic sight was adopted by the [Soviet Army](https://www.edgepedia.org/soviet-army) as the SVD.<sup>[6](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/11-vintovka-samozaryadnaya-sistemy-dragunova)</sup> Its effective ranges are 300 m with a night sight, 800 m with open sights, and 1.3 km with the telescopic sight; in 1985 in Afghanistan, sniper Vladimir Ilyin of the 345th Guards Paratrooper Regiment hit a target at 1,350 m, described as an absolute record for all 7.62 mm rifles.<sup>[6](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/11-vintovka-samozaryadnaya-sistemy-dragunova)</sup> The folding-stock SVDS was redesigned by a team headed by Azariah Ivanovich Nesterov, a defense-industry designer of about 40 years' experience, because Dragunov himself was not available.<sup>[19](https://www.dragunov.net/svds)</sup> The [7.62×54mmR](https://www.edgepedia.org/7-62-54mmr) SVDM is the latest development of the SVD line.<sup>[13](https://mags.shephardmedia.com/legacy-handbooks/IEH2022.pdf)</sup>

**Chukavin SVCh.** The SVCh, designed at Kalashnikov Concern by a team under Andrey Chukavin and first shown publicly at the ARMY-2017 forum, is chambered in 7.62×54mmR (with 7.62×51mm NATO and .338 Lapua Magnum options).<sup>[20](https://www.dragunov.net/svch)</sup> It passed qualification testing in 2023 and entered serial production; the rifle weighs 4.8 kg without magazine, is 1,170 mm long overall with a 620 mm barrel, and is intended to engage personnel and unarmored vehicles at ranges up to 1,000 m.<sup>[7](https://rostec.ru/media/news/kalashnikov-zavershil-kvalifikatsionnye-ispytaniya-svch-/)</sup> In the 7.62×54R version it uses magazines compatible with the SVD.<sup>[21](https://almusallh.ly/ar/news/4704-2023-12-29-23-08-47)</sup>

## Machine guns

**Early guns.** The Madsen light machine gun, named for Danish War Minister Vilhelm Hermann Oluf Madsen, was demonstrated to Russia's Chief Artillery Directorate in 1904; the GAU ordered 200 of the 7.62 mm Mosin-caliber guns for cavalry in September 1904, 50 more by year's end, and the largest pre-war order of 1,000 guns in July 1905.<sup>[5](https://www.vhu.cz/en/exhibit/03-rusky-kulomet-madsen-vzor-1902/)</sup> The Russian Maxim was adapted to the 7.62×54 caliber of the Mosin rifle and remained in service until the SG-43 Goryunov began replacing it in 1943.<sup>[22](https://ar.culture.ru/ru/subject/maket-pulemeta-maksim)</sup> The Degtyaryov DP-27, adopted by the [Red Army](https://www.edgepedia.org/red-army) in 1927, was chambered in 7.62×54mm and fed from a disc-shaped pan magazine; more than 660,000 DP light machine guns were made during the war years.<sup>[23](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/pulemet-nm-dyakonova)</sup>

**PK series.** The PK general-purpose machine gun and its 1969 modernization, the PKM, are chambered for the 7.62×54mmR cartridge.<sup>[24](https://www.excitapolonia.pl/pl/muzeum-techniki/bron-strzelecka/pk)</sup> The PKM is an open-bolt-fired, gas-operated, rotary-locked-bolt (Kalashnikov-type), belt-fed, fully automatic weapon.<sup>[25](https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PKM-Operators-manual-English-1979.pdf)</sup> In Soviet service the 7.62×54R cartridge was initially absent from the infantry squad, being retained at higher levels for heavier machine guns and sniper rifles; battlefield experience later led to the introduction of the squad-level PKM to give infantry longer-range firepower, and the PKM was retained even after 5.45×39 mm weapons replaced the 7.62×39 mm rifles.<sup>[3](https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-WP23-cartridge-technologies.pdf)</sup>

**Foreign machine guns.** [Czechoslovakia](https://www.edgepedia.org/czechoslovakia) developed the UK vz. 59 universal machine gun in 7.62×54R, with a heavy-barrel version produced for the OT-64 armored transporter and license-built T-55 tanks.<sup>[26](https://www.neopyro.cz/muzeum-zbrojovka-vsetin/5-vsetin-studena-valka-a-obdobi-socialistickeho-planovani-1950-1989/)</sup> Zastava Arms of Serbia manufactures the M84, M84 M, and M86 machine guns in 7.62×54R for infantry and vehicle mounting.<sup>[27](https://zastava-arms.rs/en/machineguns/)</sup> China produced the Type 80, a copy of the PK, which Iran has copied as the PKM-T80.<sup>[28](https://apnews.com/article/adae9dae4c48059d2a3c8e5d565daa30)</sup>

## Other chamberings and derivatives

**Winchester 1895.** In 1915, while awaiting Mosin-Nagant deliveries from Remington and New England Westinghouse, the Tsar's military ordered 300,000 [Winchester Model 1895](https://www.edgepedia.org/winchester-model-1895) lever-action rifles chambered in 7.62×54R, modified to accept standard Mosin-Nagant stripper clips; unlike the Mosin contracts, all of the [Winchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/winchester) rifles were delivered before the [Russian Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-revolution).<sup>[29](https://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/winchester-1895-russian/)</sup> The purchase was the largest military lever-action purchase ever made.<sup>[30](https://www.forgottenweapons.com/ria-russian-winchester-1895-in-7-62x54r/)</sup>

**Copies and national variants.** China produced unlicensed copies of the SVD as the Type 79 and Type 85, reverse-engineered from samples captured in the [Sino-Vietnamese War](https://www.edgepedia.org/sino-vietnamese-war), because the [Sino-Soviet split](https://www.edgepedia.org/sino-soviet-split) had already occurred when the SVD entered service.<sup>[31](https://odin.t2com.army.mil/WEG/Asset/SVD-63_Russian_7.62mm_Russian_Automatic_Sniper_Rifle)</sup>

## Why the cartridge outlived its rifles

The 7.62×54R is one of only two traditional full-power rifle cartridges still used in rifle-caliber machine guns in the world's major armies, alongside 7.62×51 NATO.<sup>[32](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1218)</sup> Its performance is close to that of the NATO round: 845 m/s and 3,400 J muzzle energy versus 838 m/s and 3,340 J for 7.62×51.<sup>[3](https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-WP23-cartridge-technologies.pdf)</sup> New designs such as the SVCh therefore keep the chambering while modernizing the rifle around it.<sup>[7](https://rostec.ru/media/news/kalashnikov-zavershil-kvalifikatsionnye-ispytaniya-svch-/)</sup>

## References

1. [Mosin-Nagant Rifles (drzero.org)](https://www.drzero.org/mosin/mosina.pdf)
2. [C.I.P. TDCC Table II: 7,62 x 54 R](https://bobp.cip-bobp.org/uploads/tdcc/tab-ii/7-62-x-54-r-en.pdf)
3. [Chambering the Next Round, Small Arms Survey Working Paper 23](https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-WP23-cartridge-technologies.pdf)
4. [Karabin Mosin wz. 1891, Muzeum Wojska Polskiego](https://muzeumwp.pl/mwpedia/karabin-mosin-wz-1891/)
5. [Russian light machine gun 1902 Madsen model, VHU Praha](https://www.vhu.cz/en/exhibit/03-rusky-kulomet-madsen-vzor-1902/)
6. [Dragunov semi-automatic sniper rifle, Culture.ru](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/11-vintovka-samozaryadnaya-sistemy-dragunova)
7. [«Калашников» завершил квалификационные испытания СВЧ, Ростех](https://rostec.ru/media/news/kalashnikov-zavershil-kvalifikatsionnye-ispytaniya-svch-/)
8. [Mosin Nagant Model 1891 Bolt Action Rifle, NRA Museums](https://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/world-war-i-and-firearms-innovation/case-32-wwi-america-and-the-allies/mosin-nagant-model-1891-bolt-action-rifle.aspx)
9. [Russian Mosin-Nagant M1891 rifle, National Army Museum](https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1992-08-177-1)
10. [The Soviet M44 Carbine, Small Arms Review](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2179)
11. [Berdan II converted to 7.62x54r, Mosin Museum](https://www.mosinmuseum.com/models/berdan-ii-converted-to-7.62x54r)
12. [Снайперская винтовка СВ-98, Росгвардия](https://rosguard.gov.ru/ru/page/index/snajperskaya-vintovka-sv98)
13. [Sniper Rifles, Shephard IEH 2022](https://mags.shephardmedia.com/legacy-handbooks/IEH2022.pdf)
14. [Setting the Record Straight on the Fedorov Avtomat, Small Arms Review](https://smallarmsreview.com/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-fedorov-avtomat/)
15. [The Friendly Russian, Small Arms Review](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2686)
16. [Russian Weapons Display newsletter, Memorial Museum](https://www.memorialmuseum.org/images/newsletter/2021/2021-3_Newsletter-Russian-Weapons-F-4_Phantom_II_RW.pdf)
17. [Puška SVT-40, Vojenské historické múzeum](https://ebadatelnavhm.vhu.sk/item/3/26)
18. [Tokarev SVT40 Rifle, Australian War Memorial](https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C246039)
19. [Russian Izhmash Dragunov SVDS Guide, dragunov.net](https://www.dragunov.net/svds)
20. [SVCh — the Chukavin rifle, dragunov.net](https://www.dragunov.net/svch)
21. [Kalashnikov delivers first Chukavin SVCh rifles, Al-Musallh](https://almusallh.ly/ar/news/4704-2023-12-29-23-08-47)
22. [Макет пулемета «Максим», Culture.ru](https://ar.culture.ru/ru/subject/maket-pulemeta-maksim)
23. [DP-27 light machine gun, Culture.ru](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/pulemet-nm-dyakonova)
24. [PK — Uniwersalny karabin maszynowy, Podlaskie Muzeum Techniki](https://www.excitapolonia.pl/pl/muzeum-techniki/bron-strzelecka/pk)
25. [PKM Operators Manual (1979), Forgotten Weapons](https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PKM-Operators-manual-English-1979.pdf)
26. [Vsetín 1950–1989, Neopyro](https://www.neopyro.cz/muzeum-zbrojovka-vsetin/5-vsetin-studena-valka-a-obdobi-socialistickeho-planovani-1950-1989/)
27. [Machineguns, Zastava Arms](https://zastava-arms.rs/en/machineguns/)
28. [Hamas weapons report, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/adae9dae4c48059d2a3c8e5d565daa30)
29. [Russian Winchester model 1895, Forgotten Weapons](https://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/winchester-1895-russian/)
30. [RIA: Russian Winchester 1895 in 7.62x54R, Forgotten Weapons](https://www.forgottenweapons.com/ria-russian-winchester-1895-in-7-62x54r/)
31. [SVD-63, OE Data Integration Network](https://odin.t2com.army.mil/WEG/Asset/SVD-63_Russian_7.62mm_Russian_Automatic_Sniper_Rifle)
32. [Historic Machine Gun Cartridges, Small Arms Review](https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1218)
33. [FEEDING THE TIGER: AMMUNITION BELTS FOR RUSSIAN MAXIM MACHINE GUNS - Small Arms Review](https://smallarmsreview.com/feeding-the-tiger-ammunition-belts-for-russian-maxim-machine-guns/)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Engineering and manufacturing › Firearms and ammunition › Firearms lists and inventories*

*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*

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