Quote:
Originally Posted by mkk41
Whoever says that rimmed cartridges don't work well in semi or full autos oughtta tell the Russians as they and their former Com-Bloc partners have been using the rimmed 7.62x54R in all manners of semi-auto rifles and machine guns forever.
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Machineguns are usually relatively tolerant of rimmed cartridges like 7.62x54Rmm, .303 British and 8mm Mannlicher because they generally don't use box magazines. Belt fed machineguns work reasonably well with rimmed cartridges, albeit not being conducive to "push through" feeding mechanisms and their belts. Pan magazines usually work alright as well, in the case of the Lewis, Vickers "K", and DP/DT. Box feeding of rimmed cartridges is usually less successful, although the Bren worked well.
The ONLY successful semi-auto 7.62x54Rmm rifle has been the SVD and it's developments and copies. It's not a general issue infantry weapon like the Garand or Kalashnikov. The Tokarev and Simonov were NOT very successful and ended up in a VERY secondary role, largely in the hands of Soviet Naval Infantry and as parade and drill rifles.