The AK47, or Avtomat Kalashnikov Model 1947, was originally used by the Soviets and most participants of the Warsaw Pact. It is a select-fire, gas piston operated rifle chambered in 7.62x39mm. The AK47 is the most iconic weapon of all time for good reason. It is just plain bad ass! I prefer the AR/M16 platform but the AK is a very close second.
The AK47, from here referred to as the AK, has plenty of great attributes but it's best of them is it's design. It is rock solid and is renowned for it's durability. If the 7.62x39 were the choice of the U.S. military the AK would be my platform of choice (it's an ammo availability in a SHTF situation thing). They can be thrown in the mud, filled with sand and shaken out, thrown form cliffs, you name it, the AK can take it and more. The sight system is nice but not the best. It is kind of heavy too, factory specs had them weighting in at 9.5lbs but they are more like a full 10lbs. One great thing about the AK is that it can be field stripped in under a minute without much effort. I can tell you factoids until I am blue int he face or you can find a way to try one out. If that isn't an option just follow this
youtube link. There are tons of AK related videos there. Bunches of those are the useless AK vs AR crap. I am sick of the argument, they are both great weapons but useless without training and knowledge.
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| The black AK above is one of my home brew AK's |
In the U.S. we are allowed to own any gun we want, even the really cool auto and suppressed stuff if we get a tax stamp from the ATF. We can also build guns for personal use. I have built a few AK's, most recently I did a run of 7 as part of a group buy and group build. (Don't build just anyone a rifle, these were people I knew very well. Dad, brother, grand dad, close friend, and of course a few for me) I will try to dig up some photos of the process and put a step by step together for the readers. If you can't wait on that just head on over to AR15.com for more AK info than one man's brain can handle. A word of caution though: rebuilt rifles usually don't have serial numbers on their receivers and most police officers do not realize that if you can legally own a gun you can legally build a gun for yourself. Check you state laws before taking my word on it though. Also, AK prices are down right now and can be bought a good deals so it may not pay to build one. There is something cool about knowing that you built it yourself, it adds a little something extra to that whole "This is my rifle, There are many like it, but this one is mine..." thing.
