US-made AKs
The Washington Times reports that Thomas McCrossin, the CEO of RWC, announced that his company is licensed to make US-manufactured Kalashnikov rifles, because the Obama Administration, just last year, forbade the import of the Russian variety;
“We are not permitted to pick up the phone and to talk to [Kalashnikov Concern],” Mr. McCrossin told CNN Tuesday. “In the second quarter of this year we are going to start manufacturing here in the U.S. What I’m manufacturing are our own AK-47s and shotguns under the Kalashnikov brand,” he added.
From CNN;
CNNMoney has reached out to Kalashnikov Concern in Moscow for comment, but hasn’t heard back.
McCrossin said he’s shopping around for a location for the factory. He said that he plans to hire people, but he wouldn’t say how many.
He made the announcement at the Kalashnikov USA booth at the SHOT Show. The booth carried the slogans “Russian heritage” and “Made in USA.”
I’m not a fan, but I figured some of you folks are.
Category: Guns
I want some feedback from anybody who has ever shot or owed an AK-47. I had an old Vietnam vet tell me if he had to go to war today, he’d take an AK-47 and a Glock. What say ye?
They shoot well enough. They’re most famous for reliability in the nastiest conditions.
Not the best accuracy, especially at long range. But you’re right. Utter reliability, in all conditions.
I’ve owned several, both in 7.62 and 5.45. Decent rifles, almost always run. Hate the sights on them. Ammo used to be cheap, not so much any more.
I sold all my AK’s a few years ago, decided to stay with the AR platform.
I would take one over our issued weapons but if you handed me an H&K 416 I would take it over the AK. The big factor in reliability for the AKs and the reason people say they are the best is the use of a gas piston and not a gas tube like the M16 and M4. The H&K uses such technology as well making it virtually un-jammable (I know that’s not a word but you get the point). The only problem I found with the old school AKs is that the safety is only right handed shooter friendly and I believe the mag release is only on one side as well (it’s been a long time since I fired one). So, although it may be more reliable in shitty environments, it’s not as user friendly as the Colts. The 416 on the other hand, is the best of both worlds. I’ve also remember having issues with the magazines on AKs.
Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.
Whoa whoa whoa I don’t know why it made my name SFC Rakkonan but I can assure you I am an E5 and not an E7. And I put my name as Jordan Rott everytime.
Oh god dammit I posted the wrong thing and on the wrong post. My mistake, I did not type that, that was SFC Rakk haha.
My apologies SFC Raikkonen I thought that was what I posted about AK’s for some reason because after I posted it the screen went there
I had a Romanian made Century Arms model. Fun to shoot, accuracy was “meh”.
At Ft Polk we had an almost professional OPFOR of East Germans out of Houston carrying AK’s w legit uniforms. Anyway, in an ambush at night, an AK is twice as loud as an M16. You almost feel outmanned even though you have superior force strength. Kinda intimidating.
The AK fires a 7.62 and the M16/M4 fires a 5.56. That’s why it sounds twice as loud. I bet if someone would have gotten on the 240 Bravo it would have equalized the intimidation factor a little.
I have fired the AK, found it to be a pretty sturdy rifle with no real issues jam wise. It did feel a whole lot different than the M-16 I was used to (obviously). I just do not have enough experience with it to say yay or nay.
The weapon I preferred over both was the Galil…which is of course on the prohibited weapons list for my Commie State.
If you don’t have spare parts, an armorer, and a lot of money to spend then the AK is the best choice. It’s not the most accurate, lightest, or prettiest rifle but it will go toe to toe with with other rifles. It’s the perfect civilian rifle but America right now is infatuated by botique AR in an attempt to play military without actually being military.
I currently own a Zastava M-70 and an American made Ak-47 (B-west). If you are going to get one an it says B-west made in Arizona be very careful because alot of the barrels are fucked. I would recommend the Zastava M-70 because it’s not made in America, My American made AK just feels like it was half assed. Although, that could be just because Century Arms made it. But I love the Kalashnikov design, I would take one over a M4 anyday. Way more stopping power, sure its not all that accurate but up to 300M with iron sights you will hit what you’re aiming that, and up to 800M or so you will hit what you’re aiming at with iron sights just probably not on the first, second, or third round. And you can treat it like shit and it would still work. The big downfall on the design (At least in my opinion) is mounting optics. If you get the rail mount for the dust cover, it is just unreliable and to easy to change your zero. If you wanted to mount something by the gas tube and put rails there, if its an ACOG or anything that zooms in you will never have a good sight picture. So pretty much unless its some kind of red dot its not worth mounting that far up. Plus if your short like me (I’m 5’7) you need to put a collapsible stock on it or else it is just uncomfortable. Usually they are cheap, (Like 800$ unless someone goes and shoots up a mall or something retarded and causes prices to skyrocket)and you can let it get way, way, way, more dirty and beat up then mostly any American made rifle and it won’t fail you.
I’d buy one, but I currently reside in the People’s Republic of Maryland, and evil war machines like this semi-automatic rifle are banned. Fortunately I still have my, errr, never mind.
I feel your pain. Had a fun time doing a transfer.
Not sure that I really need or want one, but I love the hell out of how this has got to be thoroughly pissing off Bloomberg and the rest of the anti-gun nuts. Thinking that prohibiting the import of certain weapons would lead to less weapons is fixing to backfire quite nicely for them.
That.
Several gun makers are offering the piston SAR platform in several calibers. Off the top of my head Stag Arms,Ruger and Rock River. The big gun show(4& half acres of shooting. Only the SHOT show in Las Vegas is bigger than the Tulsa Wamacher showand it is open to the public. Joe
Jonn,
this is deserving of it’s own thread. Major General Eldon Bargewell received the DSC while serving with MACV-SOG in Vietnam as an enlisted man. He later served with the Rangers, commanded a special mission unit, and Special Operations Command Europe. In Vietnam, he carried a Russian RPD machine gun and as a 2 star in Iraq, carried an AK-47.
I was honored to serve with him when he was a J-3, here’s the video of his Bill Simon Award and I was there to watch the presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciBh6vXnRGw
Worth a post,
Otto
Hmmm. May have to rethink the owning-a-scary-looking-gun thing. This is bound to irk the loonies, so it may be time to start a gun collection.
Sure. Put me on the list. How soon will they become available? 😉
I shot ak-47. Shot pretty well, never jammed . I didn’t like how the clips lock in. Always gave me trouble. Little bit more heft to the bullets. Accuracy was mediocre. Rust really easy. M-16A1… I like the accuracy. Needs more cleaning. I like American made products. Not commie shit. Have AR-15 (A1 model ) now (Bushmaster) great varmint rifle upto white tail deer.
Here is a story today on a firm that has tried to combine the qualities of both the AR and AK platforms.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/20/firm-blends-ar15-and-ak47-rifles-to-create-new-mk47-mutant.html?comp=1199441404940&rank=5
Though, I’m not sure I’d consider the AR gas system as an improvement.
The AK is a great platform, and these days there are numerous after market item available to fix most of the issues that poster above have noted (such as adding a peep style rear sight.
While the AK accuracy is brought up allot, its good to remember that it is still more accurate than the average military shooter. Its greatest flaw, IMHO is that the heavy bolt carrier group is slightly off centered making the weapons a little harder to control at higher rates of fire.
The Galil (and South African R-4) improved on some of these deficiencies, and it looks like Galil will be introducing a 7.62×39 rifle sometime this year. According to the article it will take standard AK mags which will be huge plus. I dumped my old Galil in 2001 as it was just to expensive to buy more mags at $100 a pop.
http://kitup.military.com/2015/01/iwi-resurrect-galil-rifle-market.html?comp=1198882887570&rank=3
Well, thanks, ya jerk. Now I’m going to have to come up with $2k bones.
I don’t have experience with the AK. I do have plenty of trigger time with an SKS, which is a great rifle in its own right. I’d be willing to try out an American-made AK or AKM if the price was right, but alas, I live in the Soviet Socialist Republik of California. If they even make a CA-compliant model, it won’t be worth the trouble.
I’m curious if they might branch out into newer members of the Kalashnikov family, like the AK-100 series or the AEK-971. The stuff I’ve read says that the AEK-971 is to the AK what the HK416 is to the M16, complete with folding stock, polymer furniture, accessory rails everywhere, and a wierd but effective recoil reduction system. The Russians didn’t like it for general-issue due to cost, but given our national love of customizable weapons, you’d think there’d be a worthwhile market for it here.
If you can afford to own only one AK, the model to own is the Poly-Tech AK Legend that was imported from the PRC in the late 1980’s. It was an exact semi-auto duplicate of the early milled-receiver AK with hardwood furniture. It is perhaps the finest civilian semi-auto AK ever made. Finding a mint condition unit will probably set you back 1500 bucks or more these days…
IMO the SKS is a superior rifle for a civilian shooter. The things that make the AK superior to the SKS for a military force are things like the fact that it’s cheap to make and can fire fully automatic – things that don’t matter to a civilian shooter. The SKS shoots the same cartridge but is a much higher quality weapon, where the AK is cheap, stamped sheet metal and has a lot of really poor features (a horrible safety, no bolt hold-open on an empty mag, crappy sights, etc.)
For a 3rd world military that uses the “spray and pray” tactic or a terrorist shooting unarmed people at point blank range an AK is excellent. For anything beyond maybe 100 or 150m, it’s pretty marginal.
I haven’t handled a Kalatch since the late 80s, but like the others said. To summarize:
Most important: Very rugged and reliable. Bombproof reliable. This is the main reason that many IDF special units used captured Kalashnikovs before the late 80s. By the time I enlisted in Aug. ’80, we were receiving short M16 variants, or Galil variants in most of the infantry units if types. Today they’re using a lot of M4s or Tavors.
Large pieces for field stripping. Nothing for the average user to lose in the sand, like that annoying little cotter-pin-like piece that held the firing pin in the M16 variants. (We used to lose a leave if we lost that pin.)
Of course, the design was also easy to manufacture; which is important for outfitting an army; but that wasn’t the question.
The down sides are noise, bulk, weight, not as accurate. No reason to put up with any of that today. Nowadays, based on what I read, I doubt it has any real advantages anymore. Great piece of world history and Soviet military and foreign policies.
Since I lack the money to ‘collect’ curiosities, and with the number of other, and better options on the market, I can’t come up with a single reason I’d own an AK.
Daewoo K2.
Best of both AR and AK platforms.
First saw them in Korea in the 90’s.
Visited again a couple years ago.
Still using them.