AK Wildcats in 7.62x39 parent case, Thoughts?

[FickleThings]

I am tossing around the idea of a custom built AK in a caliber other than 7.62 or 5.45. How is the 22-Grendel and the .220 Russian in terms of feeding, reloading feasibility, etc. ?

[Sig556r]

9x39

[truckjohn]

Honestly, I'd do a 308 barrel + a carefully spec'd chamber neck and throat on the 7.62x39 cartridge. The military throat is very long and roomy. The bullet spec is 0.309" and the groove diameter spec is 0.312" minimum. Go with a 308 barrel + a nice tight throat and chamber neck and see how she does.

Then, you can reload all the bullets you want...

AK's sling brass a LONG way... and they ding it up pretty good. Yes, I'd absolutely do a 7.62x39 wildcat on a CZ527 bolt action platform... Custom brass is expensive and wildcats require a ton of and prep, hand loading, etc... No way I'm going to go sling my $2.00/shell custom brass 30-feet into the weeds.

[Moleman-]

Look over at gunco in the "converting AK's to other calibers" section and the BIY section. Not all of them are in that area but a good number are. Few I liked the most over the years are, 300 savage, 6mmBRX, 458 socom, 444 Marlin. I also have made most of my AK's in a 308 bore. I have two more ss 308 blanks that will end up as M64 barrels and when they're done I'll get two more 308 blanks for a couple more M70's.

[truckjohn]

The only downside of a custom chambered 308 barrel 308x39 is that it would blow primers like mad when somebody feeds it 7.62x39... Russian ammo already runs on the hot side anyway - and a tight throat would make this 100x worse.

That's the devil of it. I sorta think you'd have to do it just different enough so it wouldn't chamber factory 7.62x39... That's a problem, because many AK builds don't use disconnectors. Some will fire out of battery if the bolt isn't all the way locked.

That might push me towards a 308x39 AI with the sharper shoulder so somebody shooting factory 7.62x39 would just "fire form" a bunch of odd looking brass without blowing primers or firing out of battery.

[Geezer in NH]

Doubt that Ruger's mini thirty has a 308 barrel and shoots the bigger bulleted rounds no problem. I think you are worrying for nothing

[Moleman-]

I hear what you're saying about using a tight 308x39 neck for accuracy but I like the versatility of being able to shoot both out of it. About 10-12 years ago I chambered a demilled 1903 Springfield barrel (chamber cut off) in 7.62x39 with a standard reamer with a 308 pilot and put an AR15 extension on it. Opened up a 223 bolt and have been shooting it. Did a M70 Yugo barrel at the same time using a 308 Howa barrel and the same Clymer reamer. Ruger found that combination does raise the chamber pressure about 5Kpsi IIRC when using 7.62x39 ammo. I've had no issues running Wolf or 308x39 loads through it. Really expected the AR bolt to fail since it was already used, but so far so good.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Not a wildcat but the 6.5 Grendel should work well.

[Kegcaissy]

Not a wildcat but the 6.5 Grendel should work well.

I was about to say 6.5X39...