[OregonRancher]

Absolutely right! The original used a powder that resulted in a cyclic rate a little less than the Army wanted. They, the army, changed the powder to one made by their old favorite supplier and the result is history. The chrome plating was a result of the armys attempt to fix the jaming problem caused by the powder change. The original model used by SF advisors early Nam worked perfectly........The army never would admit that they were the ones' tthat screwed up a good design....NIH syndrome

[FreedomCalls]

Another thing that makes the AK more reliable than the AR is the fact that the AR case is a cylinder whereas the AK case is conic. That means the spent AR case has to be fully retracted before it releases, whereas the AK case is released the moment it is retracted even a small bit. The AR round is therefore more suseptible to breech fouling than the AK round simply because of this shape difference.