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Posted: 2/11/2026 7:14:15 PM EDT
Anybody had any problems? The bore in question is non-chromed. The 16" carbine shoots great with the .311 bullets and is a lot more accurate for me than my previous AK. 
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Originally Posted By 1saxman: Anybody had any problems? The bore in question is non-chromed. The 16" carbine shoots great with the .311 bullets and is a lot more accurate for me than my previous AK. https://i.imgur.com/8JEHGpu.jpg My experience mirrors yours. My 16” BCA barrel with carbine length gas that I bought for $60 works just fine. About 2.5” MOA with steel case, and I have perhaps 1k rounds down the barrel with no issues. Still running the first bolt I bought when I bought the barrel. I bought the BCG for $80 from Classic Firearms in 2018. I don’t recall if it’s a house brand or some other manufacturer. |
Knight of Blunder - Fogo '21
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Mine is a 'Radical Firearms'. They did not specify bore size. I called them and they said the barrels were .308. However, I readily understand the possibility of error from an office person particularly on this subject which can be very confusing to non-mechanical people. I have a Gamma brake on it and a padded butt plate - it shoots sweet, and I think its my favorite rifle right now. I also bought one of their 5.56 pistols which also shoots great. Later, I bought a Bear Creek 7.62x39 upper for it to share the special mags with the carbine. Now this one broke a firing pin right away - I replaced it with an 'enhanced' firing pin and all's good. Each upper for the pistol has its own dot sight. I think I'll find a .308 bullet and see how tight it is in both of those barrels. Tight will mean a .308, able to push it will be a .310. |
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Originally Posted By 1saxman: Mine is a 'Radical Firearms'. They did not specify bore size. I called them and they said the barrels were .308. However, I readily understand the possibility of error from an office person particularly on this subject which can be very confusing to non-mechanical people. I have a Gamma brake on it and a padded butt plate - it shoots sweet, and I think its my favorite rifle right now. I also bought one of their 5.56 pistols which also shoots great. Later, I bought a Bear Creek 7.62x39 upper for it to share the special mags with the carbine. Now this one broke a firing pin right away - I replaced it with an 'enhanced' firing pin and all's good. Each upper for the pistol has its own dot sight. I think I'll find a .308 bullet and see how tight it is in both of those barrels. Tight will mean a .308, able to push it will be a .310. No .308 bullet can be "pushed" through a .311/.310" barrel, let alone a .308 barrel. The ".308" in .308 barrels is the groove depth. The actual rifling is .300", meaning that the rifling engraves the bullets .004" on all sides. If you own pin gages you can determine the actual land to land measurement. |
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Originally Posted By 1saxman:Mine is a 'Radical Firearms'. They did not specify bore size. I called them and they said the barrels were .308. However, I readily understand the possibility of error from an office person particularly on this subject which can be very confusing to non-mechanical people. I have a Gamma brake on it and a padded butt plate - it shoots sweet, and I think its my favorite rifle right now. I think I'll find a .308 bullet and see how tight it is in both of those barrels. Tight will mean a .308, able to push it will be a .310. That's a rather cavalier response from Radical Firearms. They're selling 7.62x39 chambered barrels with .308" dia bores? I would think that's a NO-NO from a retail sales perspective. A custom one-off? Maybe.. Now, it it seems very desirable but in this age where folks are scared to shoot their 5.56 in a .223 REM chambered rifle, the difference in the bore/bullet size for the 7.62 Russian seems more significant. You may have gotten someone on the phone who really doesn't know. I came across this thread searching to see if anyone had a custom made barrel where a real .308 barrel was chambered in 7.62x39. I reload 7.62x39 and I'm aware of the plethora of good .308 rifle bullets vs. the limited choices we have for .310/.311. To me, that would be a really nice combination. But what you're saying is that you are shooting off-the-shelf 7.62x39 ammo through a .308 bore and it's very accurate. I find that very interesting. |
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Posted this list a few times in the past when the question came up on bore diameter and manufacturer. Put the list together when I was looking for a 310/.311 bore carbine barrel several years ago. It can use some updating more than likely. Attached File |
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The Ruger Mini-30 is a 7.62x39 that uses a .308 barrel. In WW1, in order to fill a shortage of rifles, Mauser rifles with the older “small bore” 7.92x57, were “converted” to use the larger updated 7.92x57. Both of these rifles use a longer, gentler throat taper to allow squeezing down the larger diameter bullet to fit in the smaller diameter barrel. |
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