Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK-47 dead at 94

The American M60 medium machine gun. Seems to me it was at least partly inspired by the design of the German MG 42.

One of the best uses the AK was ever put to was the execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceauescu.

RIP Mr. Kalashnikov

I actually met him once. Shook his hand and told him (through an interpreter) his baby hadn't killed me yet - but not for lack of effort. He laughed and promised to keep trying. Even the interpreter grinned.

Salute!

Schit.

Well I like his design better.


Travis

Mikhail, for some reason in my memory, among surely other reasons, was trying to shorten the bloodshed of the war. Kind of like the inventor of the gatling gun.
It from a conceptual standpoint had a father in the sturmgeveher 1944.
However, if anyone was to take a good look at the fire control group of the a.k., and the same in the garand, or carbine, you would go wait a minute.
And unless you have access to a select fire a.k., doubtful, you are looking at an assembled parts kit that is dependent on the quality of the build, usually not all that slick.
And keep in mine the Garand was considered acceptable to fire a 3inch group at 100.
The poodle shooter rifle is a good target rifle, but there is a difference in that and working in the mud.
Now I have a kvar arsonel a.k., with a american fire control group in it, and have shot it side by side with an a.r.
With good quality ammo, you would be surprised.
The russians did make some pretty good stuff, such as the s.v.t.38 and 40, which in a lot of ways is superior to the garand. At least the germans, thought so, at the time.

another comment would be is to look at the user of the rifle. masses of uneducated, peasants that had to have stuff that was pretty simple to keep running, and didn't require a lot of upkeep.
the a.k. did pretty good in that regard.
A similar example is the old moisin nagant which is a 100 year old design.
And what the finn's did when they rebuilt a lot of the rifle and kept the hex reciever. Mighty fine shooters. the first one of those i fooled with i cleaned the cosmo out of the barrel, that's it, put five rounds of surplus russian ammo in it, and offhand from my tailgate five rounds in a gallon coffee can at 100yards. I was pretty impressed.

For many years, starting with at least the Springfield, American military rifles have shown a respect for the marksman that very few foreign military rifles and no Russian military rifles have shown. It's borne out in the ergonomics and sight systems of American rifles. While many foreign rifles are accurate, few are as shootable as American rifles.

if we are going with semi auto battle rifles ild take a Russian SKS over a Garand were i a soldier....forget who said "Patton may think the Garand is the worlds greatest battle implement, but he didnt have to carry the damned thing."

Ever shot a Russian Dragnov? I had the chance to play with one that came out of Afghanistan when the Soviets were there in the late 70's early 80's.

I had heard of this almost mythical sniper rifle, but in the flesh so to speak, it was pretty piss poor.

Cocking it sounded and felt like all the moving parts were broken, and accuracy was decidedly average..I left the range wondering what all the hype was about..

He made one of the best cheap assault rifle ever made and the other best cheap combat weapon was the 45 cal Grease Gun . Great man, gun designer and a Russian Patriot .

no i havent they are damn rare in the states, the stamped Yugo sorta copies are more common.....do remember reading an article by a former Spetznaz soldier that was issued one, he said he loved the rifle but it made him bleed every timehe used it due to the sharp edges everywhere.....granted it was intended to be more of a designated marksman rifle than a true sniper rifle but even alot of the more accurate AK's ive seen have been made with heavier RPK style receivers.....

The optics on it were piss poor as well by Western standards..Had the Brits ever worked out a decent scope mount for our SLR's, (hint, don't mount stuff on that flimsy top cover and expect consistent accuracy) they would have comfortably out shot the Dragnov and probably would have been just as reliable..

hell i aint saying its the end all be all, think i would rather have a scoped FAL personally for a gun of that era but the Ruskies made exactly what they intended all around with their guns, highly reliable, easy to keep running firearms ideally suited for an uneducated peasant army....are there better guns out there? absolutely but they met their goal and then some....

Not having a go my friend, just commenting that rifle did not live up to the hype we had heard/been fed..The SLR/FN was an excellent weapons system, but I do wonder how it would have coped in conditions similar to say those found on the Eastern Front in WW2? Glad we never had to find out!

Arguing about the virtues of two worthless POS could result in injury.



Travis

Make that 3 POS. I forgot the FAL was mentioned.



Iceman

"For many years, starting with at least the Springfield, American military rifles have shown a respect for the marksman that very few foreign military rifles and no Russian military rifles have shown. It's borne out in the ergonomics and sight systems of American rifles. While many foreign rifles are accurate, few are as shootable as American rifles."
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True and well said.

Thanks.



Travis

Travis,
Was addressing Barry, but I echo your sentiments regarding the FAL.