| AK-47 | AR15 / M16 / M4 | Mosin-Nagant |
| It works even though you seldom clean it. | It works as long as you buy the $9/ounce special non-detergent synthetic teflon infused oil. | It was last cleaned before entering Berlin in 1945. |
| You can hit the broad side of a barn from inside. | You can hit the broad side of a barn from 600 meters. | You can hit the farm from the adjacent county. |
| Cheap magazines are readily available. | Cheap magazines melt. | What is magazine? |
| Your safety is a broad lever audible 300 meters away. | You can silently flip off the safety with your finger on the trigger. | What is safety? |
| AK-47 | AR15 / M16 / M4 | Mosin-Nagant |
| Your rifle came with a cheap nylon sling. | Your rifle now has a 9-point stealth tactical suspension system. | Your rifle came with two dog collars and a leash. |
| Your rifle's finish is varnish and paint. | Your rifle's finish is teflon and polymers. | Your rifle's finish is low-grade shellac, cosmoline, and Soviet toenail polish. |
| Your bayonet makes a pretty good wire cutter. | Your bayonet makes a pretty good steak knife. | Your bayonet is as long as your leg. |
| You can mount your bayonet and intimidate your foe. | You can mount your bayonet and make your foe laugh. | You can bayonet your foe on the other side of the river without leaving your hole. |
| Recoil is manageable. | What is recoil? | Recoil is often used to relocate a shoulder dislocated by the previous round. |
| Your sight adjustment goes to an uncalibrated "10", but you have never bothered changing it. | Your sight adjustment is calibrated in fractions of minute of angle. | Your sight adjustment goes to 1200 arshins, and you've actually tried it. |
| AK-47 | AR15 / M16 / M4 | Mosin-Nagant |
| Your rifle is used by two-bit nations' illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide. | Your rifle is used by elite forces to fight two-bit nations' illiterate conscripts worldwide. | Your rifle has fought against itself and it won every time. |
| You paid $350. | You paid $900. | You paid $59.95. |
| If your rifle breaks, you can repair it with a hammer. | If your rifle breaks, you can take your rifle to a certified AR15/M16/M4 gunsmith, if it is still under warranty. | If your rifle breaks, it is cheapest and easiest to just buy a new one. |
| You buy cheap Yugoslav ammunition by the case. | You carefully reload precision crafted rounds one at a time. | You dig your ammunition out of a Ukrainian farm field and it works just fine. |
| You can change between 7.62 mm and 5.54 mm, most easily by buying a second rifle. | You can change cartridge sizes by pushing a couple of pins and installing a new upper receiver. | You know that no real man would suggest that there is anything other than 7.62x54R. |
| Favorite movie: Red Dawn | Favorite movie: Black Hawk Down | Favorite movie: Enemy at the Gates |
| AK-47 | AR15 / M16 / M4 | Mosin-Nagant |
| You could accessorize your rifle with a new muzzle brake or a modified stock. However, Ivan Chesnokov will tell you that you should not. | Your rifle's accessories are more expensive than your already expensive rifle. | Your rifle's accessory is a small tin can with a funny lid. But it's buried under an apartment building somewhere in Budapest. |
| You would really like to have an autographed photo of Mikhail Kalashnikov. | You would really like to have an autographed photo of Eugene Stoner. | You're uncertain if there were cameras when Sergei Mosin was alive. |
| Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to hold your rifle over your head and shout "Wolverines!" | Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to clear your house, slicing the pie a room at a time. | Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to dig a fighting trench in the yard to sleep in. |
| Service life: 71 years. | Service life: 55 years. | Service life: 127 years, so far. |
From another classic:
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/politics-10manliestfirearms.html
“#9: Mosin-Nagant M44
Mosin-Nagant M44Speaking of guns without safeties, here’s the Mosin-Nagant M44 Carbine from Russia. The Mosin was used by the Russians against theFinns, theFinns against the Russians, the Estonians against the Russians, theRussians against the Russians, and the Russians against the Germans. It does, in fact, have a safety, but it’s quite hard to engage. But this is not a complaint one would ever voice in the Red Army. Your officer would reply, “Safety? Safety? Is gun! Meant to kill! No warrior should know he has safety on gun, because he should be killing enemies of homeland! Safety make loud click to aid enemy in locating warriors! No safety!” while pounding his fist on the table.
And the Mosin can kill enemies of homeland. The muzzle blast will vaporize green growth within a few feet of the muzzle, and even if you miss, the enemy will be reduced to shouting “WHAT?” to communicate. You’ll need a recoil pad or shooting jacket. Ordinarily, this might be considered unmanly, but this rifle has a short stock for using while wearing several layers of wool for a Russian winter. It is acceptable to wear padding to fire a Mosin.
Of course, there are also M38, 91/30 and other variations of Mosin-Nagant and all are cool. All, also (except the M38), come with a bayonet. Russian doctrine held that the bayonet was mounted except while traveling in a vehicle, because the Russians understood that an empty rifle could still be a pointy stick—a Viking spear. The Russians loved to spear Turks. So, coincidentally, did the Vikings. This rifle sounds better all the time, doesn’t it?The Finns used the Mosin as a sniper rifle during the Winter War, and their greatest Sniper was Simo Häyhä, who had 500 confirmed kills in 100days. This is a man the Finns describe as “modest” and”self-effacing.” It’s a good thing the Russians didn’t run into a Finn who was proud and arrogant. They’d have been wiped out.
It fires a 7.62X54R (for “Rimmed”) cartridge, about as powerful as.30-06, and holds the distinction of being in service from 1891 to the present, longer than any other military cartridge. It is still used in Dragunovs, PKMs and other Russian weapons. It’s cheap in quantity. So are the rifles, because they were built for (all variations) over 70 years, by Russia, Finland, Poland, Romania, even the US. As I write this, arsenal-new M44s are $55 to $200. At that price, you should have several, so any guests you have during the Collapse can be outfitted as they receive Enlightenment. Then they can rape, kill, sack and loot with the rest of the men who secure a new Dark Ages to hasten the new renaissance. It will be a manly duty.”
LOL Great post. I own an AR and a Mosin-Nagant, and that pretty much sums it up. The one difference on the AR is, I got mine with a 2nd Gen polymer upper and lower, so it hasn’t cracked. It does feel somewhat lighter than the A2 I carried in the army. And at $479, I can’t complain. I laid out about 80 bucks plus transfer fee for a hand-select Mosin about ten years ago, the serials all match, and it came with all the trimmings. Took me two days to get the cosmo cleaned off to the point where I didn’t leave grease streaks on everything I touched. I did fire an AK pistol in my back yard a few years back. Took two days before my ears stopped ringing.