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7.62x39mm has always been the province of the AK. And most of the time, that means a 16-inch barrel. However, pistol-pattern and short-barreled AKs are nothing new. And with the proliferation of reliable ARs in 7.62×39, SBRs in this caliber are more common than ever.
So that naturally raises the question of how much performance we give up when 7.62×39 is fired from shorter barrels.
Test Procedure
To find out, we tested 13 different loads with three different barrels. There is not as much bullet variety for this caliber as there is with many other rifle cartridges. The vast majority are ~123 grain FMJ, with a handful of soft point and ballistic tip offerings. A few subsonic loads with heavier bullets have also made their way to the market in recent years, and we included two of those in our testing.
