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Oblique view of a steel-cased 7.62×39mm FMJ cartridge.
7.62×39 shown along side other cartridges. From left to right: 30-06, 7.62×39, .454 Casull, .45 Colt, .357 Magnum, .38 Special, .45 ACP, 9mm, .380, .22 Long RifleThe original Soviet M43 bullets are boat-tail bullets with a copper-plated steel jacket, a large steel core, and some lead between the core and the jacket. The cartridge itself consists of a berdan-primed, highly tapered (usually steel) case which seats the bullet and contains the powder charge. The taper makes it very easy to feed and extract the round, since there is little contact with the chamber walls until the round is fully seated. This taper is what causes the AK-47 to have distinctively curved magazines (helping to distinguish AK-47s from AK-74s, which feed from a much straighter magazine). While the bullet design has gone through a few redesigns, the cartridge itself remains largely unchanged.
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