The 7.62x54mmR is chambered primarily in the Russian SVD and the Mosin-Nagant Model 1891-30, which is a very popular sniper rifle in smaller countries around the world. I am fairly impressed with the 7.62R, it is roughly the equivalent to the .30-06, offering plenty of energy and good ballistics. I had the opportunity to spend a day on the 1000y range with an original SVD, while the rifle itself suffered in accuracy, the cartridge performed fairly good. There was no problem making 600m hits, even without any quality ammo.

Recommendations: This round is included because of its significance in Russian sniper rifles, there really isn’t any Law Enforcement applications for the 7.62R, but as a military round it performs well, but the availability of match grade ammo is limited, especially here in the USA.

Military Applications
Note: About the best ammo available is the surplus Russian/USSR 7N14 load which has a steel core and is armor piercing but is the ammo designed for Russian military snipers using the SVD. It shoots well in just about all the 7.62x54R rifles and is of decent quality, though packaging is “functional” at best.

Russian 7.62x54mmR 7N14 152gr Spitzer BT at 2750fps

Bullet Drop (Inches)

	100y 91m	200y 183m	300y 275m	400y 366m	500y 458m	600y 549m	700y 641m	800y 732m	900y 824m	1000y 915m
7N14	+15.0	+26.1	+31.3	+29.4	+19.4	Zero	-30.5	-74.0	-132.7	-209.4

Energy (Muzzle – 7N14 – 2552Ft-Lbs.)

7N14

2229

1939

1679

1448

1243

1062

904

769

654

561

Wind Drift (Inches) 10 mph Crosswind

7N14

0.7

2.7

6.3

11.7

19.0

28.4

40.2

54.6

71.8

92.0

Law Enforcement ApplicationsNote: There is no real Law Enforcement application for the 7.62x54mmR due to rifle and ammo limitations. But if it had to happen, the 7N14 is probably not a good choice of ammo because it is designed with a steel core for armor penetration which while it would work well for going through barriers, it tends to have excessive penetration.