![](http://www.classic-guns-of-america.com/129794.jpg")
Posted on 12/23/2013 8:41:52 AM PST by kronos77
he inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died aged 94, Russian TV reports.
The automatic rifle he designed became one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons.
Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.
Although honoured by the state, Kalashnikov made little money from his gun. He once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower.
Mikhail Kalashnikov was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in November.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Some of the stocks actually were. Mattel has the capability to mold large parts when we needed to rapidly ramp up production at the beginning of the Vietnam unpleasantries.
As any company would have done in those days, Mattel proudly stepped up to the plate when the country needed them.
The only similarities between the Stg-44 and AK-47 are external cosmetics and the fact that they are gas operated. Kalashnikov used the rotating 2 lug bolt design from the M-1 Garand along with a tweaked version of the Garand trigger group. The Stg-44 used a falling block bolt lock system similar to the FN-FAL.
I saw an interview somewhere where he was talking about how brilliant the design of the M-1 was and how it affected his work.
Yep. That is the one on the cover of the magazine.
Ice Station Zebra reference?
That graphic is great and thanks freedomlover because I wouldn’t have understood what the white stuff was without your explanation. Thanks.
IO,OW, it was perfectly designed to fill its need.
Way back I had one of those, a toy Mattel M-16, it was the best!
Now selling on eBay for $4,500
The M1 Carbine fires a pistol cartridge. You would never assualt with it. It is designed for CQB support of the M1 Garand, the same as the German MP40.
Think of where Russia would be today if they made cars as good as they made AKs? ;-)
“Actually he ripped off the basic design from the Germans.
They had their Germans, we had our Germans. “
“Our German scientists are better than their German scientists!”
The Right Stuff
LOL...I don’t know enough about that, but...I will give the designer, whoever people say it was, his due.
It is a wildly successful design, in my eyes. I presume when you confront someone banging down a door ten paces away, something that can spray a larger caliber projectile without jamming and little training is probably a good thing!
I know it is also true that the M16 was problematic from a reliability perspective when it first came out, but...being in production for such a long time can go a good ways toward fixing those things.
No the M1 Carbine does not fire a pistol cartridge. I did once have a Ruger Single action which was chambered for the Carbine round. It had so much blast that I traded it off fair;y soon.
The M1 carbine round is in the same class as the original German 8mm Kurts as well as the AK and M16.
Let’s see. Stg/AK:
Top gas tube - check.
Pistol grip - check.
Detachable mag - check.
Garand:
Top gas tube - No.
Pistol grip - No.
Detachable mag - No.
Sorry no sale. the AK’s basic design was ripped off with German help.
http://transsylvaniaphoenix.blogspot.com/2009/02/michail-kalashnikov-admits-german-help.html
“I had a gun shop owner tell me that some M-16s were made by Matell.”
I had thought the stocks and forends were made by them at first.
“Charles Atkins Jr”
Askins?
Well said.
"An engineer can do for a dollar what any fool can do for two."
Arthur M. Wellington
I’m so old I never got past my M-14...rookie.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.