Posted on 09/30/2011 4:32:57 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Russia stops buying Kalashnikov
The Russian army has said it will stop buying the country's famous Kalashnikov assault rifles until its designers come up with a genuinely new model.
By Andrew Osborn, Moscow
The current modification of the weapon – the AK-74 – was developed in the early 1970s and the defence ministry says its warehouses are "overflowing" with millions of the Soviet-era rifles, stocks of which are likely to last for a further twenty years.
"The guns being offered to us are hardly any different from those in the warehouses," a defence ministry source told the daily Izvestia newspaper.
"You don't buy three fridges for the kitchen or five TVs," the source added.
The gun's makers, Izhmash, said they were afraid of telling the weapon's legendary inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, 91, that the army was no longer buying his guns for fear of upsetting him.
"We don't want to risk it and break such news to him. Maybe he wouldn't survive it."
Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov shot to fame in 1947 when he designed the AK-47 assault rifle or Kalash. It quickly became the Red Army's standard issue rifle and was revered for its reliability and its simplicity to build and use (it only had eight movable parts).
The robust weapon soon became ubiquitous in revolutions and guerrilla wars around the world with an estimated 100 million guns or close copies being churned out.
The AK-74, the gun the defence ministry says it does not want to buy any more, is a modification of t
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
... and of course we have a fair percentage of imbecils that really believe they can fix a perfectly operating utility.
Yo Ruskies ... I'll take all you have at $50 a pop
Yeah, you don’t want to give bad news to a guy that mass-produces assault rifles.
They have millions of new ones in overflowing warehouses, so why to they need to buy more now?
Stimulus.
Revolutions have been much too peaceful in recent years.
Yeah'n'it's about t'get a little noisy over here if things go bad in 2012.
CC
What do they want? Carbon fibre and transformer parts?
At least the former Soviet Union can stop spending on unnecessary things!
The Russians put the AK-series of weapons into the hands of troops in 1947 and the weapon has been in continuous production since at the Izhmash plant in Izhevsk, Russia. Russians have also farmed out the production of the design to numerous friendly and allied countries. In 2011, total production of the Kalashnikov assault rifle by all producers is between 70 to 90 million rifles! The AK is the most encountered small arm on planet Earth.
The Russians have been huge marketers and exporters of military AKs for decades. If they're saying they may stop procurement of military sales for Russian forces, that means Izhmash will concentrate on overseas military sales and on its Saiga line of AK products. The Saiga product line has numerous applications of the Kalashnikov system applied to rifles, carbines, and shotguns.
Saiga semi-automatic shotguns, based on the Kalashnikov design, are some of the best in the world. They may appear as homely as a common hammer, but the do what the Kalashnikov design does best — they WORK under all environmental conditions — and that's something not all of your more expensive self-loading shotguns do well.
The defence ministry says its warehouses are “overflowing” with millions of the Soviet-era rifles, stocks of which are likely to last for a further twenty years.
Maybe our Moonshine, Cigarettes and guns bureaucracy could walk a few of those for the Russkies.
I LOVE the Saiga. Price point is around $650, as I’ve seen it. Nothing like a semi-auto 12 ga. shotty for CQB.
Glad I bought my SAR and WASR AKs a while back. I’ve got a handful of Izhevsk-marked 91/30s and some Finnish captures (one with an hexagonal receiver). The Ruskies know how to make functional weaponry!
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Why do some people need to have something new, just for the sake of being new. New isn’t always better.
I bought a Vepr-K in 5.45x39 several years ago. It’s a little heavy but rock solid and handles very nice for me. I think I paid $425 new in the box. The ammo is still cheap too. About $150/1000 rounds for Russian surplus and about $220/1000 rounds for Wolf.
Got 2000 rds of loose surplus at a local ammo “dispensery” for $165 out the door. Granted, a lot of the ammo either stovepiped or hang-fired, but it was cheap and went bang in both AKs and my SKSes. I buy Wolf for the bug-out bag mags.
I had an SAR2 a while back (5.45x39) Lots of fun to shoot. Really loud though!! Sorry I sold it now. Still have quite a bit of ammo.
Trivia: The Russians had an aircraft cannon — YVa, I think, in 20 or 23 mm — that used a helical feed rotor. The feed rotor was not heat treated for hardness. Instead, as the rotor got burred, the Soviet armorer dressed the burrs with a file and put the gun in service. If the rotor got deformed, it was thrown out and a new rotor was fitted. The idea behind not heat treating the part was ingeniously simple: (1) it was easier to make; (2) not heat treating meant more parts in less time; (3) burrs meant the part was approaching the end of its service life and would need replacing; (4) expensive inspection gages were eliminated.
I had an 1960’s era Egyptian model AK for years. Light wood stock.
It broke down easily for cleaning.
Then it sat in my moist basement for a couple years and the bolt got stuck. Didn’t realize until I was at the range, but kicked it open with my boot, racked it a few times with some oil and shot up old TVs and toilets/sinks all afternoon.
Had to sell it for financial reasons. I sure miss it.
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