So this otherwise sensible guy and I are talking after church today and he claims that HK makes a weapon that is the current military firearm of the Thailand army that is 7.62 x 39 that can use M-16 ammo "for short range use" and "only a few rounds" and that it "used just one barrel".

I thought that the Thai army used the M-16/M-4.

I ask him how the magazines interchange. I ask him how the .223 bullet bounces down the 7.62 bore. I ask him what contains the 50,000 psi of the .223 brass cartridge inside the larger 7.62 chamber. I ask him how it head spaces. I ask him how the bolt works with both cartridges, how the extractor works.

Didn't get an answer except that it's true.

The one answer that I got is that this uber-weapon uses both gas and a recoil pistol.

I tell him to stop smoking crack and shooting heroin at the same time before going to church. We argue for about 20 minutes before my wife pulls me away.

Is this some sort of urban myth left over from the Viet Nam war? I seem to recall some such nonsence but why would someone who claims to own a dozen firearms believe such clap-trap?

I think you should have taken him outside and kicked his ass!

Troy, have you been out fire forming brass again?

What the heck is this a picture of ???

Quoted: Shooting .223 in a 7.62x39 rifle is bad, m'kay? -Troy

Dateline - MOD's ANNOUNCE NEW "BELTED" WILDCAT CARTRIDGE -

You guys really are crazy!!

DON'T try this at home kiddies!

I wish that my church had services on Saturday evening.

What were we talking about?  Drunk Dutch guys?

I stand by my previous statement.

HK never made a production weapon chambered for 7.62x39mm. They did make some prototype HK32s, but never a production version.

That guy is stupid.

Out of curiousity, I did a search on Thailand and rifles, and saw reference to training with an HK 33 rifle.  

That would explain the "M-16" ammo--the HK 33 is .223/5.56mm.  It can use adaptors (HARK?) to use US/NATO mags.  It is a recoil operated, delayed roller locked mechanism, not gas operated, though.

AFARR

maybe he thought that it was a G3 and that G3s use 7.62x39mm rounds

Thailand was originally equipped with US WWII stuff (M-1, M-1D, M-1 Carbine).  They then reequipped with the FN/FAL in 1961.  They assembled locally the HK-33 from German components (about 30,000 of them) in the early 1970's.  In the mid 70's they started buying M-16s from the US under Military Assistance, and directly from Colt and Charter Industries, Singapore (Colt contract production).  They've never used the G-3 (HK 7.62 NATO), and as noted the HK32 was never in production.

It isn't hard for someone to put together that hairbrained story based on fragments of fact.  Take the HK-32 in 7.62x39, add the HK-33 armed Thai's, throw in the 5.56mm, and there you go.  The Thai's use a special HK in 7.62x39 tha will shoot M-16 rounds as well.  Most of the American public thinks like this.

Ross

HK never made a production weapon chambered for 7.62x39mm

HK makes the HK21 LMG, normally chambered in 7.62x51 it can also fire (after change of barrel, bolt and "feeding system"!!) 5.56x45 and 7.62x39. But only if you change the essential parts. Perhaps that is the backround of the story...?

I've actually seen .223 fired in a 7.62X39 AK.

Bunch of Gomers were at our shoot, had all their stuff on a table with a few ammo cans of loose ammo, some were shooting ARs and some AKs. They were reaching over each other grabbing rounds, loading mags and somebody must have dropped a 223 in the 7.62 box Well, you can guess the rest, but it actually fed and fired in the AK.