Something has been bugging me for years and I wonder if anyone here has the answer. Around 1984-1990 or so I kept hearing rumors from people in the military that our ammo (5.56mm and 7.62 NATO) could be fired in Soviet rifles. Supposedly they designed their rifles to use both their ammo and ours…
I know that’s not just bullshit, it’s frickin impossible bullshit. I knew it back then, and would argue the point with anyone who brought the subject up. Not that it ever did any good to argue. A kid babbling on about chamber dimensions, bore diameter, gas pressures, rim size, and other nonsense like that wasn’t considered much of an authority next to an actual Army instructor.
People have told me that they were being taught this in the Army. And I have no reason to doubt that when several people have told me the same story over the years. So the Army was teaching their people something that was complete BS. (Like electricity flows from positive to negative.)
Way I figure it, the Army probably didn’t want the Soviets to capture our ammo for a lot of reasons and cooked up that BS story to convince our guys to thermite their small arms ammunition rather than let it be captured.
Does anyone have any better information on how (or why) this story got started?