[Ron H.]

..... Yea, I've got 'better' rifles. But if someone told me that tomorrow morning I was going to be dropped onto the surface of another planet and could only take one gun, it'd be one of those AK's.

Based on my personal combat experience in the Nam for a year and a half I'd have to agree that in a really bad situation and even worse environment I'd have to take the AK-47 every time. I loved my M14 as well and the M16/AR15 just set in the bottom of my tracked vehicle gathering dust. Give me a 47 when the chips are down every time. You just can't beat it for dependability and ruggedness.

[Who is John Galt?]

You just can't beat [an AK] for dependability and ruggedness.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not bad-mouthing AKs (I've got a Russian 5.56, and built two in 7.62x39 that I no longer own) - but I prefer FALs "for dependability and ruggedness."

The Tale of Ol' Dirty. A Texas Legend. (Update: over 15,000 rnds fired w/o cleaning)

;>)

[Lurker]

As I said, I've got 'better' rifles. I've tricked out a couple civvy M-4's and I worked for 2 years putting together a tack driving no crap 900 yard National Match M1-A. They're beautiful in every sense of the word.

But as I said on the first posting of this I believe that beauty is when form follows function and there isn't a weapon on the planet that epitomizes that better than Sgt. Kalishnikov's design.

Yea, it could have some burled walnut furniture. Yea, it could have some fancy scrollwork. Nah.....who am I kidding. The beauty of the AK is its rugged utilitarian design, ease of manufacture, nearly flawless reliability, and absolutely unequalled man killing record.

I'm proud to own a few of them and I'm absolutely confident that I made the right choice to buy enough of them to equip my loved ones with them.