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The AK-47
Submitted by fyl on Mon, 2009/12/21 - 16:19.
The first I really knew about the AK-47 was in the 1980s when the Sandinistas were getting Soviet-made AK-47s while Oliver North was busy buying Chinese-made AK-47s for the Contras. Well, I just read a piece about the AK-47 that surprised me.
The surprise was that I had just assumed the AK-47 was not really that popular and, well, that the M-16 was the "standard" assault rifle. An article titled Automatic for the People: The AK-47 says otherwise.
From the article:
While the US industrial-military complex may get to play with an annual budget which exceeds the rest of the globe combined, they have yet to create a weapon even near the genius of the AK-47. It is so reliable that you can literally drop it in the mud, step on it, pick it up, and fire at will. (Try that with an M-16.) Drop it into a river, fish it off the bottom, and she’ll fire just fine. US and British special forces fighting in the inhospitable badlands of Central Asia are big fans. Combine this amazing reliability with its incredibly cheap production costs and you have the Honda of assault rifles; more of the AK-47 variants have been produced than every other assault rifle combined.
the 5th International!
MK, the man with the most hits, now brings you the most shot:s http://www.kalashnikovglobal.com/
mine works fine..
never had a jam or misfire, very controlable , a great meduim range weapon
-Doug ©
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate
Most widely used rifle in the world
The AK-47 is the most reliable gun ive ever owned/used. If you look at the iner workings, every part is simple and robust. A shame the negetive aspects of its use but as good as an "assault" rifle gets. Due to the number produced and the amount of 7.62X39 ammo out there it will always be around. Had a funny moment in Nica when a friend took me shooting. He had me set pipas out on the beach... when i returned to the vehicle he had a full auto ak-47 and m-16. A moment of "damn Adam WTF are you doing in this foriegn place? Not in MT anymore. Ha ...Prepirate days...
Cheap and idiot proof
I heard a great radio broadcast on this last summer. Can't recall where, maybe CBC. I half remember that they said the AK-49 was adopted after a couple of years, and things moved on from there, but the AK-47 was so easy to make, and licensed out so far, that it became the standard. Consider it the open source of the weapons world. Everybody's makin' 'em. Still.
All due respect, etc., but the story referenced is kind of crappy. This is one case where Wikipedia is a bunch better, though probably has too much detail and not enough wild and crazy statements like "Besides corpses and vodka, the AK-47 was the only thing communist Russia was ever able to mass-produce."
I'm no lover of the Soviet era, but that statement is nuts. Their military philosophy was to make things cheap, durable, simple, and idiot proof. The dirty secret of recent history is that the Soviets won World War II. The U.S., the British, the Canadians and all the rest quickened the process, but Big Joe and his boys could have done it on their own. Good thing they didn't quite get the chance.
Take the AK-47 philosophy, extend it, and you get the most used, most reliable, and safest space vehicles yet, which says a lot. Remove a couple of dictators from Russian history, prevent Sovietism, and we could have instead had a hugely positive force in the world instead of so many dead bodies.
the Volkswagon Bug of assault rifles!!!
There´s a quote from old man Kalasnikov himself that goes something like: ¨¨Somewhere I read, perhaps in the good book, that their is nothing greater than simplicity. To this I dedicate my life´s work¨¨
Like the US 45 auto, the ak was a practical weapon for field work, sacrificing a little accuracy for a lot of reliability. The ak47 actually was replaced for first line troops with a model that fired a 22 calibre bullet, for all the same reasons the US addopted the :223. But the old .30 cal model was produced in the many millions, including under license by many non-Soviet countries, including Egypt.
If you ever get a chance, they are a fun shooter. Their humongous weight coupled with their medium-sized bullet makes them have very little kick. Accuracy wise, within a hundred meter range, they are just fine--both the gun and the bullet are roughly equivalent to the Winchester 1894 thutty-thutty.
PS, the Makarov pistol is nothing to laugh at either. A fine cheap gun from the tightwad geniuses of the Soviet arsenal. Some security guards here have them. (Great within the Soviet doctrine that a handgun is something you use until you can get your hands on a weapon).
¨Latin America devours its revolutionaries¨ -Simon Bolivar
Having had the opportunity
to use and work with both weapons (Ak-47 and M 16) for an extended period of time, I'll take an AK-47 anytime. It is sort of like the Beretta, it will rarely let you down.
soldier is the difference...
You can take your AK - 47... i will take the M 16 with 50% more of ammunition and steady shot...for digging is better the shovel and for fishing i use it a fish line...
Billy: with the makarov if you don't have your target less than 20 meters, try better trowing the gun, maybe you hit it in the head. When in the military they gave us that pistol..i pass, and instead i keep using my 9mm Browning with 15 rounds and 50 mt accuracy all time.
Is a anecdote for a fellow officer: one night in a small tow in the north, they were interrogating a contra soldier (or collaborator) , at one moment the men find out to escape and star running away, this officer when after him , and shoot all his makarov pistol round. He say shoot at him, maybe from 40 meters. The day after, he found out information about the men and a people that help him, discovering that the men has two shot in his shoulders, but removed by hands the bullets.
You don't believe ?> try shooting at that distance to a similar target.
me . too
With good support service, I would take an m16 any day over a .30 cal AK. Accuracy, light weigh, corrosion resistance, and more ammo. With little or no support service, I´d go for the AK. For pure fun, the AK has it handsdown!
40 meters is time to look for a real weapon, not ignoring Stg. York´´s masterful use of a .45 in WW1. Also, stateside you can buy jhp 9mm mak ammo which is decent for closeup work on an unarmored target.
¨Latin America devours its revolutionaries¨ -Simon Bolivar
Browning Hi power
Good choice-one of my personal favorites-as Nicanor says accurate and deadly out to 50 meters or more-often used by Israeli assassination teams.Used to use them years ago when I worked security details at LAX and the Pasadena Federal courthouse. Spent a lot of time at the shooting range in Rancho Cuucamonga practicing for our bi-annual shooting exams.
I agree nicanor the makarov is crapp
However for reliability the AK-47 is far superior to the the M-16. My old 303 will of course beat both of them for accuracy and in the hands of an expert it can fire off a lot of rounds in a short period of time. It all depends on the application at the time of combat.
guerrilla
for guerrilla war..AK 47 is the right choice, because its strength, is the rifle for a non regular soldier, than don't know how take care of a arm. But i disagree with that too...on my experience in guerrilla, all time i used a FAL (Belgium), is little bigger, but is superior in almost everything. The only advantage of the AK 47 is that is a assault rifle, but even that characteristic was matched with the superFAL or SA58 FAL PARA 18" . One nice characteristic of this rifles where they can throw rifles grenade a powerful resource for cause heavy damage. The other rifles used in guerrilla where in the same line of FAL, its twin the G3 with the same characteristics.
If i remember well...one of the special characteristic that i learned in my training about the AK 47, was the ability of the bayonet to cut wires.....i never used.
Company machine gun M60 and MG 42 , not RPK
AK 47 receive a massive propaganda because is the preferred rifle of the liberation movements and is the cheap rifle for the world, Right now Chavez bought 100,000 AK 103 a modern version of the AK 47, but not because think is a superior rifle, but because know he must assure the supply of ammunition and parts in the future and know is cheaper than other western rifles and avoid whatever embargo supply.
But really i don't know what is the sense of this discussion, M 16 is already a museum piece, the new army rifles are superior by far to the AK, and the new ones will be for long time out of a match.
I enjoy reading RIA Novosti, every day the Russian army is getting a better military gear, but every day also they announced Russia is delaying the production or the test fail. Let not doubt that the technical advantage is for the western (US), in must areas is easy more than 30 year ahead.
Fascinating Stuff
I've learned almost as much about you guys as I have about the AK-47! I only knew about Birmingham Small Arms,( no jokes about the size of our weapons please)...later to make motorcycles as BSA. I had a 175 Bantam and a 1957 Tiger Cub. Always a good trivia question that one (what does BSA stand for). This is a really good web site with a great story of the company: www.bsaguns.co.uk OK, I'll shut up now....back to that sloppy, K Car of a gun you were talking about.
beezer?
my dad owned a Triumph ...that was a motorcycle that have nothing to envy to the Harley....
theoretically speaking
what would be the apprx street value of an AK be in Nicaragua?
$500
Is what i have listened.
After the end of the war contra, the UN bought the AK for $100 each, after the lost of the FSLN they dropped to $50, at that time everybody have a AK in its house, some has more than one, and some high ranked were selling loads trucks.
PS. remember in Nicaragua army rifles are banned, only the Army and Security forces can use it.
and yet
some still have 1 or 2 laying around from the early SMP years,with ammo (those of us,that forcefully served know what I mean,wink) even thou must of the folks that still own 1 in Nicaragua only uses it for New Years and Christmas. better yet,last year my barrio got lit up with red and green tracers :-O.
arms is not for that kind of fun...
army weapon or heavy weapon is not for fun...i star to use weapon with my father; a ex-military, and one of the things he teach me (as same at the military trainers) is: that weapons carried a lot of responsibility.
I hope this year your neighborhood will not get lit up , because sometimes one of that bullets when came down...can lit off a precious life.
Feliz Navidad con responsabilidad.