#5.8x42
Modern Personal Defense Weapon Calibers 012: The 5.8x21mm Chinese
It is not only the West that has developed small caliber, high-velocity pistol-compatible personal defense weapon ammunition; in the early 1990s, the People’s Republic of China also developed such a round. Called the 5.8x21mm DAP-92, it fires an 0.229″ caliber dual steel/lead cored bullet at a nominal 1,738 ft/s from the QCW-05 (Type 05) SMG, or 1,574 ft/s from the QSZ-92 handgun. It is shorter and less powerful than either the 5.7x28mm FN or the 4.6x30mm HK, making it a more suitable round for use in handguns than its Western counterparts.
Modern Intermediate Calibers 016: The 5.8x42mm Chinese
In the mid-1950s, the People’s Republic of China followed the Soviet Union’s example and adopted the intermediate 7.62x39mm round. This decision substantially helped to promote that cartridge’s ubiquity throughout the world, as millions of cheap Chinese-made SKS and AK rifles were exported to every corner of the globe. However, at the very end of Chairman Mao Zedong’s regime, an effort was started to develop a new, modernized caliber that would improve performance and conserve materials versus the 7.62×39. That program resulted in the 5.8x42mm caliber, standardized in the late 1980s with the DBP-87 and DBP-88 rounds. Unusually, the 5.8x42mm used a system with two different overall length standards, one of about 58mm for the DBP-87 rifle cartridge, and the other of about 62mm for the DBP-88 support round. This allowed the marksman’s rifle to shoot the DBP-87, if necessary, but also allowed for a longer, lower drag bullet to be put in the DBP-88 case, improving the ballistics of the QBU-88 marksman’s rifle and the QJY-88 general purpose machine gun.
More Photos of The Elusive QBZ-03 Rifle In Action
The QBZ-03 is the mysterious conventional-layout younger brother of the more well-known Chinese QBZ-95 rifle. While the QBZ-95 uses a novel hybrid mechanism, the 03 uses the mechanism of the older 7.62mm Type 81 and 5.8mm Type 87, but marries this to architecture similar to the QBZ-95. Kurtis sends along a whole whopping set of photos of the QBZ-03 in use with PLA troops, most of which I’ve never seen before (WARNING: PIC HEAVY):
