Posted on 10/07/2013 6:48:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
General Mikhail Kalashnikov never saw nor will he ever see one kopeck’s worth of royalties from his design.
Heck, a few years ago there were full page ads in the American Rifleman for “Kalashnikov Vodka”.
Too bad, comrade.
I’m confused. With the international weapons ban in place, who are they going to sell these weapons to?
Eugene Stoner (M-16) and Kalashnikov studied each others designs and incorporated concepts they liked into their respective weapon systems. Stoner more so than Kalashnikov. They became friends after meeting at European weapon shows. Kalashnikov would joke about all the money Stoner made with his weapon systems and how little he made, living in a modest home outside Moscow. In fact as time went on Stoner would sponsor Kalashnikov's attendance at weapon conventions in Europe. Stoner died of cancer in 1997.
Perhaps Kalashnikov, in his advanced years, will finally see significant monetary gain from his weapon system.
A bunch of years ago I had just gotten back from shooting in a local avacado field with my buds to an apartment I was renting when I saw a cable guy good old boy disconnecting somebody.
I asked him who he was disconnecting, and he basically said none of my business.
Ok with that, I popped my trunk and pulled out my Norinco with the milled stock and a case of beer and walked on by.
He was whiter than Michael Jackson
One thing to be said for current production Russian ammo, it runs well through Combloc guns that were designed for it. There are two major manufacturers imported here. Wolf brand made at Tula Cartridge Plant[Russia]. Brown/Silver/Golden Bear made by Barnaul Machine Plant [Russia]. All ammunition is steel cased, noncorrosive, and Berdan primed. Wolf ammo is polymer coated. Brown Bear is brown lacquer coated. Silver Bear wears a zinc wash. Golden Bear wears a brass wash. U.S. manufacture self-loading pistols and rifles may or may not like the steel cased ammunition. It is best to try samples to see if your firearm will function reliably with steel cased ammunition.
Brilliant post!
I especially appreciate the irony of that situation. Sell us the rope to hang you with indeed.
I'll have to run a box through some "borrowed" firearms to chech it out again.
Капиталисты продадут нам веревку, на которой мы повесим их. -Владимир Ленин
(The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. - Vladimir Lenin)
Russias largest weapons producer has struggled to be profitable in the post-Cold War years, and now 49 percent of the Kalashnikov Group will be sold to private buyers for nearly $41 million.
Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the worlds iconic firearm transferred the brand rights to the newly formed weapons venture. The brand is estimated to be worth $10 billion.
Now I realize the Kalashnikov firm is in debt, but there is no way 49% of it could be sold for a mere $41 million if the brand itself is worth $10 billion. The math just doesn't work. And for good reason. There are hundreds of thousands of unused mint condition AK-47/AK-47M/AK-74 rifles sitting in arms depots all around the world. Not to mention the million or more used variants still in use and available for sale. The family and similar variants are still manufactured in a dozen or more countries. No way is the AK-47 brand worth anywhere near $10 billion.
I hope it serbs you well
Clap, clap, clap.
I believe that Kalashnikov designed the AK at Kovrov, not Izhevsk.
Anyone they want to sell them to, while they’re telling the UN to GFY. Why can’t we do the same?
Does anyone know who owns the remaining 51%?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gun-C-J-Chivers/dp/0743270762/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381205920&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gun+chivers
Rostec is the Russian state arms corporation, so essentially its the Russian government. In other words a semi-legal organized crime syndicate with Vladimir Putin as the godfather.
They didn't try Shark Tank?
Yeah, unlike our Boy Scout-like Goo-goo (good government) masters, such as Valerie Jarrett, Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Jerry Brown, John McCain and the rest.
I doubt he did get any money from the design. Ditto for John Garand. “For his work with the Springfield Armory, Garand was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1941, and the first Medal for Merit (together with Albert Hoyt Taylor) on March 28, 1944. Garand never received any royalties from his design. A bill was introduced in Congress to award him $100,000 in appreciation, but did not pass. Garand remained in his consulting position until his retirement in 1953, and died in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1974.
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