Mebbe time to say farewell to AK rifles..?

[Doc Safari]

I don't know how you survived all that honestly.

It was actually kind of fun modifying my AK's to my satisfaction. I developed some skill at it. Of course there were receiver covers and gas tubes, etc., that ended up in the trash after I ruined them, too, but if I got an AK modified with everything nice and tight I felt like I had added something to it.

[Circle_10]

It was actually kind of fun modifying my AK's to my satisfaction. I developed some skill at it. Of course there were receiver covers and gas tubes, etc., that ended up in the trash after I ruined them, too, but if I got an AK modified with everything nice and tight I felt like I had added something to it.

I used to have fun reconfiguring mine too, then I got into ARs and realized that some firearm designs are made so that their components actually just fit together without you having to beat them into place with a mallet or nearly slice your own wrist open when the screwdriver slips while you are trying to remove ridiculously tight buttstock screws. I had just assumed that's what working on a gun entailed. Granted I was in my early twenties at the time and less mechanically savvy than I am now, but I never forgot what it was like.

I've progressed to the point now where the last time I messed around with an AK I just kept thinking "God I hate these things..".

[RHINOWSO]

If I need to use 762x39, I'll scavenge an AK from the dead outside my perimeter.

[RetroRevolver77]

I personally am looking at upgrading my 1970's-1980's style AKM's to more modern SLR 107 types. These would fit well with my SLR 106's along with my modern AR's and Steyr AUG's.

[alcante262]

I got a red dot on my Arsenal 101S its good to go.I had two Ak one a Romanian 545 but got rid of it.So Im keeping the Arsenal.

[RetroRevolver77]

I used to have fun reconfiguring mine too, then I got into ARs and realized that some firearm designs are made so that their components actually just fit together without you having to beat them into place with a mallet or nearly slice your own wrist open when the screwdriver slips while you are trying to remove ridiculously tight buttstock screws. I had just assumed that's what working on a gun entailed. Granted I was in my early twenties at the time and less mechanically savvy than I am now, but I never forgot what it was like.

I've progressed to the point now where the last time I messed around with an AK I just kept thinking "God I hate these things..".

To me the AR isn't reliable enough of an alternative to a well tuned 5.56 AK. While I own some AR's, I'll hang onto my 5.56 AK's for the real SHTF.


M

[jpmuscle]

To me the AR isn't reliable enough of an alternative to a well tuned 5.56 AK. While I own some AR's, I'll hang onto my 5.56 AK's for the real SHTF.


M

Stahhhppppp


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[Doc Safari]

To me the AR isn't reliable enough of an alternative to a well tuned 5.56 AK. While I own some AR's, I'll hang onto my 5.56 AK's for the real SHTF.


M

I'm not trying to be insulting or condescending, really, but when I read posts like this I think to myself that you must not have owned that many AK's, especially in 5.56.

I had two milled Arsenal 5.56 AK's that could not get through a single magazine without a malfunction. Granted all you could find at that time was the black Circle 10 5.56 mags (the transluscent ones weren't out yet), but my experience with 5.56 AK's was so horrible I swore off them permanently. Months after I sold both weapons the new owner was evidently perfectly happy with them. It turned out they worked with steel-cased ammo but not the brass-cased rounds I was shooting. So much for a SHTF weapon as far as I'm concerned (since you have to shoot what you can get in a SHTF situation).

Add to that the internet posts of unreliability I've read over the years for other 5.56 AK's and there is no way I'd ever own one unless it was a Galil or Valmet. Even people I knew in the 1990's who owned Chicom .223 AK's said they weren't as reliable as 7.62 AK's.

Contrast that with my AR's: As long as I've stuck to a Tier 1 AR like a Colt or BCM, I have experienced nearly 100% reliability. Out of tens of thousands of rounds fired among both brands, I can literally count my total malfunctions on two hands.

5.56 AK reliability? Did you forget to post the Jester emoticon or something?

[sundance435]

I've got a semi-customized SLR and a close to AKM-standard SAR-1. I don't really see myself adding another AK, except for maybe a MAK/Chinese 56 clone, but I'm not getting rid of them, either. I separate guns into "useful" and "range" categories. Over the years, I've winnowed my guns down to those that are useful to me (C&R stuff aside). I don't really have any "range" guns. AKs are as close as I have to that, yet they are still GTG for more practical purposes. I'd still choose an AR if I had to pick 1, though.

That being said, working on AKs is like sculpting out of rock instead of clay (ARs). You don't appreciate how much of a "4th grade education-peasant" gun they are until you start working on them. I don't mean this as a complement for myself, but I actually think too much when it comes to working on an AK, which just causes more aggravation.

Still, an underfolder would not be the only AK I owned. To me, they're the most useless.

[Circle_10]

I had an SLR-106FR in 5.56 for awhile and it was not reliable. Lots of failures to feed. Granted most of the issues were probably mag related (Both Gen 1 and Gen 2 black Bulgy waffles) but i wasn't interested in trying to cherry pick the $30 mags I could trust out of a pile of others that I couldn't. I traded it and the mags for a J-frame .38, a Yugo Mauser, and an Aero AR lower.
Thus ended my 5.56 AK experiment...

I've found ARs to be reliable and AKs (with the exception of my 106) to be reliable. The AK might have a legitimate edge in remaining functional when neglected for extended periods, but I don't really believe it's inherently more reliable than an AR.
It's not a bad gun, just not my favorite anymore. It's kind of like Glocks, I don't really like them, but just because I don't like them doesn't mean they aren't good guns, which they obviously are.