Let me say first, for those of you who don't know me, that I have been an AR/M16 man from the beginning. Used them in the service, got to work at Bushmaster for a long time after I got out, I know the AR inside and out. Worked on thousands of them, from many different manufacturers, so have seen just about everything.
Here's my AK story, after one of those really complex 3(or 4?) way gun trading deals I ended up with a preban MAADI AK variant. I wasn't looking for one, really didn't want it, but figured I could trade it off for something, anyway. Then I made a big mistake.
I went shooting.
Now, I was expecting problems. This rifle looks like it was stamped out in a muffler shop for about $1.98 in sheet metal and deburred by dragging it through the desert. The only reason I wanted to shoot it at all was to make sure it wouldn't explode on whoever I sold it to. I truly was not expecting much.
Well, I got a lot more than I bargained for. Even though the cocking handle feels like it drags and the bolt isn't smooth in it's travel, even though the recoil spring guide is a couple pieces of wire looped together, even though the reciever has enough crap in it to warrant a trip through the car wash, the damn thing shoots.
Even though the ammo was cheap chinese surplus, even though it was 15 below zero and the rifle was left outside the whole time, even though the rifle had no lubrication and had not been cleaned(looked like it'd NEVER been cleaned), even though I fired over 500 rounds through it that trip, the damn thing shot, shot decently, and never malfunctioned once.
Now, let me say that I ain't real easy to impress when it comes to firearms, I've seen all kinds of strange things happen in my firearms career, here and overseas, and it takes a lot to make me go hmmmm....
But this thing impresses me, albeit with some trepidation. I think the trepidation comes from the fact that when I was in the Corps in the early 80's, we were up against the Soviet bloc and this was the weapon of my enemy. We had a class on them in training, learned where the safety was and how to load it, the real basics.
They never told us much about them, just that this is the weapon of your enemy, look how crappy the weapon is, you will have no problem defeating anyone armed with this junk, etc, etc. Well, I for one am pretty happy I never had to go up against these for real.
What strikes me now is the construction, it is SO FRIGGIN SIMPLE that I almost can't believe it. I could keep this gun running practically forever with a bastard file and a ball peen hammer. This rifle will tolerate sloppy tolerances and still work, which the AR absolutely will not do.
AR parts have to be made to some of the most critical tolerances in the gun business, some must be held to (get this) .0005" inches(yup, five ten-thousandths of an inch) or the rifle will flat out not work. There isn't one part in this AK that looks like it's even .005", let alone anything tighter. Unbelievable, at least to a manufacturing guy like me.
The extractor is HUGE compared to an AR, the firing pin looks like a wood splitting wedge. The AK only has 5 springs in the whole damn gun, versus the 20 springs in the AR, which has 5 in the A2 rear sight alone.
Accuracy was surprising for so crude a weapon, probably running around 4 MOA, which is our own current U.S. milspec for the M16A2. Service accuracy differs from commercial accuracy, if you roast your barrel with hundreds of rounds of full auto fire, your 1/2 MOA HBAR will suddenly start shooting wide as well.
I think part of the poor accuracy reputation of the AK stems from the sights being so close together, if they were more widely separated, shooting it well would surely be easier. The other part probably goes to the ammo, just by visual inspection you can see that this stuff isn't as uniform as most .223 ball ammo.
So, while I'm not converting to the Kalashnikov cult or anything like that, and I am surely not getting rid of my one-off custom built Bushmaster Dissipator AR, nonetheless I am impressed by the AK design, even in a crude rendition like this. The mere fact that something can be so simply and poorly made and still be so utterly reliable and service accurate astounds me.
You know, I might just hang onto this one for a while after all...
------------------
My brain's a hand grenade...catch. Ice-T, OG.
The M-16 is a damn fine weapon, but your best, your most lethal and effective weapon is between your ears. Ssgt Brown, Parris Island, 3rd Bn, H co. 1984.
Here's my AK story, after one of those really complex 3(or 4?) way gun trading deals I ended up with a preban MAADI AK variant. I wasn't looking for one, really didn't want it, but figured I could trade it off for something, anyway. Then I made a big mistake.
I went shooting.
Now, I was expecting problems. This rifle looks like it was stamped out in a muffler shop for about $1.98 in sheet metal and deburred by dragging it through the desert. The only reason I wanted to shoot it at all was to make sure it wouldn't explode on whoever I sold it to. I truly was not expecting much.
Well, I got a lot more than I bargained for. Even though the cocking handle feels like it drags and the bolt isn't smooth in it's travel, even though the recoil spring guide is a couple pieces of wire looped together, even though the reciever has enough crap in it to warrant a trip through the car wash, the damn thing shoots.
Even though the ammo was cheap chinese surplus, even though it was 15 below zero and the rifle was left outside the whole time, even though the rifle had no lubrication and had not been cleaned(looked like it'd NEVER been cleaned), even though I fired over 500 rounds through it that trip, the damn thing shot, shot decently, and never malfunctioned once.
Now, let me say that I ain't real easy to impress when it comes to firearms, I've seen all kinds of strange things happen in my firearms career, here and overseas, and it takes a lot to make me go hmmmm....
But this thing impresses me, albeit with some trepidation. I think the trepidation comes from the fact that when I was in the Corps in the early 80's, we were up against the Soviet bloc and this was the weapon of my enemy. We had a class on them in training, learned where the safety was and how to load it, the real basics.
They never told us much about them, just that this is the weapon of your enemy, look how crappy the weapon is, you will have no problem defeating anyone armed with this junk, etc, etc. Well, I for one am pretty happy I never had to go up against these for real.
What strikes me now is the construction, it is SO FRIGGIN SIMPLE that I almost can't believe it. I could keep this gun running practically forever with a bastard file and a ball peen hammer. This rifle will tolerate sloppy tolerances and still work, which the AR absolutely will not do.
AR parts have to be made to some of the most critical tolerances in the gun business, some must be held to (get this) .0005" inches(yup, five ten-thousandths of an inch) or the rifle will flat out not work. There isn't one part in this AK that looks like it's even .005", let alone anything tighter. Unbelievable, at least to a manufacturing guy like me.
The extractor is HUGE compared to an AR, the firing pin looks like a wood splitting wedge. The AK only has 5 springs in the whole damn gun, versus the 20 springs in the AR, which has 5 in the A2 rear sight alone.
Accuracy was surprising for so crude a weapon, probably running around 4 MOA, which is our own current U.S. milspec for the M16A2. Service accuracy differs from commercial accuracy, if you roast your barrel with hundreds of rounds of full auto fire, your 1/2 MOA HBAR will suddenly start shooting wide as well.
I think part of the poor accuracy reputation of the AK stems from the sights being so close together, if they were more widely separated, shooting it well would surely be easier. The other part probably goes to the ammo, just by visual inspection you can see that this stuff isn't as uniform as most .223 ball ammo.
So, while I'm not converting to the Kalashnikov cult or anything like that, and I am surely not getting rid of my one-off custom built Bushmaster Dissipator AR, nonetheless I am impressed by the AK design, even in a crude rendition like this. The mere fact that something can be so simply and poorly made and still be so utterly reliable and service accurate astounds me.
You know, I might just hang onto this one for a while after all...
------------------
My brain's a hand grenade...catch. Ice-T, OG.
The M-16 is a damn fine weapon, but your best, your most lethal and effective weapon is between your ears. Ssgt Brown, Parris Island, 3rd Bn, H co. 1984.