7.62 mm caliber is a nominal caliber used for a number of different cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the imperial unit equivalent, and was most commonly used for indicating a class of full power military main battle rifle (MBR) cartridges. The measurement equals 0.30 inches or three decimal lines, written .3″ and read as three-line.
The Martini–Henry is a breech-loading single-shot lever-actuated rifle that was used by the British Army. It first entered service in 1871, eventually replacing the Snider–Enfield, a muzzle-loader converted to the cartridge system. Martini–Henry variants were used throughout the British Empire for 30 years. It combined the dropping-block action first developed by Henry O. Peabody and improved by the Swiss designer Friedrich von Martini, combined with the polygonal barrel rifling designed by Scotsman Alexander Henry.
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge, 7.62×63mm in metric notation and called ".30 Gov't '06" by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in use until the early 1980s. The ".30" refers to the caliber of the bullet in inches. The "06" refers to the year the cartridge was adopted—1906. It replaced the .30-03, 6mm Lee Navy, and .30-40 Krag cartridges. The .30-06 remained the U.S. Army's primary rifle and machine gun cartridge for nearly 50 years before being replaced by the 7.62×51mm NATO and 5.56×45mm NATO, both of which remain in current U.S. and NATO service. It remains a very popular sporting round, with ammunition produced by all major manufacturers.
The 7×57mm cartridge, also known as the 7mm Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, 7mm Spanish Mauser in the USA and .275 Rigby in the United Kingdom is a first-generation smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed by Paul Mauser of the Mauser company in 1892 and adopted as a military cartridge by Spain in 1893. It was subsequently adopted by several other countries as the standard military cartridge. It is recognised as a milestone in modern cartridge design, and although now obsolete as a military cartridge, it remains in widespread international use as a sporting round. The 7×57mm has been described as "a ballistician's delight". Many sporting rifles in this calibre were made by British riflemakers, among whom John Rigby was prominent; and, catering for the British preference for calibres to be designated in inches, Rigby called this chambering the .275 bore after the measurement of a 7 mm rifle's bore across the lands.
A service rifle or service weapon is a weapon which an armed force issues as standard to its service members. In modern forces, this is typically a versatile and rugged assault rifle, battle rifle or carbine suitable for use in nearly all environments. Most armies also have service pistols or side arms.
Also known as 11.43x60R (61R)
The Rifle, .303 Pattern 1914 was a British service rifle of the First World War period. A bolt action weapon with an integral 5-round magazine, it was principally contract manufactured by companies in the United States. It served as a sniper rifle and as second line and reserve issue until being declared obsolete in 1947. The Pattern 1914 Enfield was the successor to the Pattern 1913 Enfield experimental rifle and the predecessor of the U.S. Rifle M1917 Enfield.
The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. While a musket was largely inaccurate over 80 yards, due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheaper to produce and could be loaded quickly. The use in volley or in mass firing by troops meant that rate of fire took precedence over accuracy. A similar tactical preference would be a factor in considerations regarding rifle design in the late 19th century to early 20th century, when rate of fire would be a key design consideration for British bolt-action rifles.
Martini–Enfield rifles were, by and large, conversions of the Zulu War era .577/450 Martini–Henry, rechambering the rifle for use with the newly introduced .303 British cartridge. Whilst most Martini–Enfields were converted rifles, a number were newly manufactured as well.
The 7.7×58mm Arisaka cartridge, Type 99 rimless 7.7 mm or 7.7mm Japanese was a rifle cartridge which was used in the Imperial Japanese Army's Arisaka Type 99 rifle and machine guns, and was the standard light cartridge for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, such as the Type 89. The Imperial Japanese Navy never shared weapons or ammunition with the army, instead adopting the 7.7x56mmR, a direct copy of the .303 British round. The cartridge was designed to replace the aging 6.5×50mm Arisaka after seeing the effectiveness of the MG 34 GPMG in action in China during 1937. Due to a lack of materials, the plan to phase out the 6.5 mm Arisaka cartridge by the end of the war was not completed.
The .300 Savage cartridge is a rimless, .30 caliber rifle cartridge developed by the Savage Arms Company in 1920. It was designed to replace the less powerful .303 Savage in their popular Savage Model 99 hammerless lever-action rifle. Despite having a short case and a rather stumpy neck, the cartridge is capable of propelling a 150-grain (9.7 g) bullet at over 2,600 ft/s (790 m/s) with an effective range of over 300 yd (270 m).
The .303/22, sometimes known as the .22/303 is a wildcat centrefire rifle cartridge, based on the .303 British, necked down to fire a .224 projectile, originating in Australia in the 1930s as a cartridge for sporterised rifles, particularly on the Lee–Enfield action, similar versions also appeared in Canada around the same time.
The .276 Enfield (7×60mm) was an experimental rebated rim bottlenecked centerfire military rifle cartridge developed in conjunction with the Pattern 1913 Enfield (P'13) rifle. Development was discontinued by the onset of World War I.
The 7.35×51mm Carcano is an Italian rifle cartridge and a now obsolete caliber designed to replace the 6.5×52mm Carcano in the Carcano rifles of the Italian military. The 7.35 used Spitzer-style projectile to minimize the air resistance in flight.
The 6.5×53mmR or .256 Mannlicher is a late 19th-century rimmed centerfire military rifle cartridge similar to other early smokeless powder designs. It was the first of a series of 6.5-millimetre (0.26 in) Mannlicher cartridges and became the standard Romanian service rifle cartridge from 1893 to 1938, and the standard Dutch service rifle cartridge from 1895 to 1945. Dutch ammunition with cartridge cases made of brass (pre-occupation) or steel may be encountered on the American surplus market. In both instances, the primer pocket is berdan of an unusual type (Roth-patent) and features a central flash hole running through the center of the integral berdan anvil. When examining fired cases from the inside with a flashlight, this design gives the false impression of a boxer primed cartridge case.
The .303 Magnum is an obsolete medium bore rifle cartridge.
The .375/303 Westley Richards Accelerated Express, also known as the .375/303 Axite, is an obsolete medium bore rifle cartridge.
