Russian 7.62x25mm Factory Ammunition with Backwards Loaded Bullets from 7.62x39mm

    Russian company TechCrim (known for designing the .366 TKM round) makes cartridges with very strange looking bullets. These are 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridges with backwards loaded bullets.

    It is possible that a single round could mistakenly be loaded backwards, but not entire lots, right? It turns out, that they’ve deliberately done so. Further research shows, that these are actually not 7.62x25mm bullets, but 7.62x39mm ones (both cartridges have the same bullet diameter). So they took 7.62x39mm bullets, partially deleted the ogive to have a flat surface and loaded them backwards into the 7.62x25mm cases. This is where the good old question “WHY?” comes to mind. I can’t find any explanation for this other than the possibility that they had a ton of 7.62x39mm bullets and ran out of 7.62x25mm ones, so they decided to make these frankenbullets.

    Image from forum.guns.ru

    The company also designates these bullets as FMJs. I think that is arguable and causes a lot of confusion. The bullet itself started as an FMJ indeed, but the way it is loaded (and intended so) with what used to be a tail now being the nose, makes me think that it is not quite correct to call it an FMJ. I supposed these are now JHPs!? What do you think would be a correct designation for these bullets?

    Hrachya H

    Managing Editor

    Being a lifelong firearms enthusiast, Hrachya always enjoys studying the history and design of guns and ammunition. He also writes for OvertDefense.com and SilahReport.com
    Should you need to contact him, feel free to shoot him a message at Hrachya@TheFirearmBlog.com


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