The AK-47 Turns 60

well, it lays pretty good suppressive fire even if your Manuel did not clean it in a month :o) and $330 is very cheap, I am going to check it out :o)
happy b-day to the AK-47, AK-74, AKM and AKS LOL

You know, I have half again that much invested in my 10/22 at this point. And I can hit that wasp which lands on the target at 50 yds...
Still, I think I need an AK. Dunham's has'em for cheap, but I don't think they have stores in VA.

Military Channels show "Top Ten" but the AK-47 at the number one spot for combat rifles.

But the same show puts the M-113 at number one for APCs too, so consider the source.

I had a Romanian SAR-1. Good enough rifle except for the usual complaints. The sights blow, the safety sucks, and the ergo's are crap. Fun rifle to shoot though. And 7.62x39 is still pretty cheap.
Just check it for a bad front sight (some are canted) and trigger issues.

If you're interested, AR15.com has an entire AK section that is full of good information and, if you can fathom it, AK Snobs. Seriously. They talk about wood colors and crap. And plums. Don't know what that's about.

AK's have a lot going for them in terms of reliability. The gas system has plenty of energy, as demonstratd by how far it kicks the brass. This means plenty on energy stored in the recoil spring for positive chambering and locking.

As far as accuracy goes, The sights are good enough for point-fire to the effective range of the weapon and cartridge. The deficiency in range is made up the employment of a designated marksman with a scoped rifle and/or a SAR in the form of an RPK. Most armed forces are not the Marine Corps, having every man a rifleman. Thus good enough is good enough for half-trained or untrained camel-jockeys and tractor-drivers.

In my experience, a good AK (the Yugoslavian are the best) can do m.o.a. with a scope. My Mitchell Arms model did this regularly, with my reloads.

I suggest the 7.62x39 round is a limitation. Penetration is poor and the velocity is marginal at the muzzle and sub-marginal at any kind of range for the production of hydrostatic shock.

With all its limitations, its capabilities earn it a place among the greatest weapons of all time. Equip it with good sights, as on the Valmet and Galil varients, and it surpasses the M16 family in serviceability.

As with most things, I guess it depends on who makes them.

Had a ChiCom AK-47 when I was in Iraq. It was not very good. We cleaned it regularly and still had problems with its functionability.

I've fired non-Chinese AK's and have always been impressed, though.

Could someone tell me where I can find a dust cover rail mount for my yugoslavian ak47 model# M70B1? I just bought it and all the rails I have tried are to long.

actually a few guys i know say the total opposite, if you cant get a kalashnikov get a chinese, i just bought a mak90 never been fired for $753 with tax included. i dont know about the chicom ones but alot of people sweat those mak90's. after the chinese the egyptian ones are next best, so i here.

oh i forgot happy birthday ak47. bless kalashnikov for making such a great weapon, never jams even in sand, mud, water, you can even run that thing over with a tank and it will still fire. i think its great for home defense/close quarters combat. very efficient, very effective. lets hope to see more great ak47 variants.

Some of these posts are totally off the wall. Just regurgitated propaganda from the media. Not serious nor factully based comments.

Listen up.

I am a former Marine who served in a weapons Company. I own many Ak's. Milled receivers, stamped receivers, rpk receivers with the reinforced trunions and 1.6 mm thick receivers. Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, Romanian, Egyptian, Russian...You get the picture.

In all 3 major calibers. 7.62x39, 5.45x39, and 5.56 Nato.

A word to the wise. Junk surplus ammo and junk surplus parts kits shoddily put together make up for most of the "poor" Ak mythology. The rest is inexperience and poor basic marksmanship, if not non-existant.

A quality bulgarian AK built on cad-cam machinery with a cold hammer forged Steyr barrel built in Las Vegas Nevada with quality Hornady TAP match grade ammo is capable of sub-1 inch groups at 100 yards. Fact- See arsenalinc's websight.

A Russian VeprII built in Russia at the Molot plant groups .58 inch to .85 inches at 100 yards. Word. Go to the robinson arms websight and navigate to-vepr-accuracy.

This has been in line with my shooting experiences. I Qualified "Expert with the M16a1! Shootr better with an A2(A3/A4). Shot 247 out of 250 on pre-qual., and 242 out of 250 on qual. day. For a weapon that does not require a certified armorer to repair and fires EVERY time you pull the trigger, my AK is my "go to" gun.

As far as lethality or incapacitation power. With Lapua or cor-bon ammunition, what ever a M14 or M60 can do at 250 - 500 yards balistically, and AK with the above ammo selected can do from the muzzle out to 250 yards. Definately 90% + of combat ranges. Ask the Wehrmacht and the soviet army From WWII experiences. Penetration is superior for hitting something on th other end of object when shooting through something than the 5.56 Nato in the M4 or M16 series.

If the western world was to collapse as we know it, and I had but one wepon to chose to survive, and I had to maintain and service it myself, it would with out question be an AK.