#9.6x53mmLancaster

Russian ammunition manufacturing company  Techcrim has introduced a saboted buckshot load for the 9.6x53mm Lancaster cartridge which they co-designed with Molot Oruzhie. This cartridge is developed to be chambered in oval bore (a.k.a. Lancaster rifled) firearms to make them legally considered shotguns in Russia. However, despite the Lancaster rifling is considered smoothbore in Russia, it actually imparts a spin to the projectile, which means if these saboted buckshot loads work in 9.3x56mm Lancaster cartridge, they should work for rifle cartridges, too.

This new cartridge is designed by a Russian company called Techcrim – the co-developer of the .366 TKM and 9.6x53mm Lancaster cartridges. The .345 TK cartridge is based on the 5.45x39mm case that has been shortened to 22mm (.866″) and loaded with rather odd .345 caliber (8.76mm) bullets.

As predicted by many Russian experts, the .366 TKM and 9.6x53mm Lancaster cartridges quickly became highly popular in Russian civilian market. This success led Russian companies to develop new guns chambered in these calibers. In this article, we will take a look at three new Russian rifles chambered in .366 TKM or 9.6x53mm Lancaster.

Molot has introduced four new rifles during the Arms & Hunting 2017 exhibition. All the new rifles are chambered in recently introduced 9.6x53mm Lancaster caliber and have oval bore rifling. According to Molot officials, these rifles are neither concept guns nor ones being developed but finished models which are already in production and will become available in the Russian market by the end of the year.

Earlier we reported about the first leaked images of the new Russian 9.6x53mm Lancaster cartridge. Recently, Molot published a video explaining the features and showing the details concerning this new cartridge.

The idea of .366 TKM cartridge was accepted really well in the Russian shooting community. What makes it unique for them is that firearms chambered in this caliber have partially rifled barrels which qualify as a shotgun in Russia and don’t require 5 year wait period for the first-time gun owners to obtain a rifled firearm. That rifled portion (about 135mm or so) is considered a built-in rifled choke (a.k.a. Paradox choke). In other words, they can buy these sort of small caliber slug cartridges and guns right off the shelf and still have somewhat rifle grade accuracy and power at moderate ranges (100 to 300 meters). In the video below a camera travels down the .366 TKM barrel (starting from the muzzle). Note how riflings start to disappear at some point and the bore becomes completely smooth.