Was it really him, or a Chinese knock off.
Heads are bowed in South Central L.A. tonight....
NOOOOOOO
Bookmarking.
Very fond of my Arsenal SGL 21. Got it at a great price too.
Rest in peace, Mikhail. I know a few guys who love the AK.
That being said, I’ll take my HK91 over an AK any day.
RIP
The AK-47 is not an “assault” weapon. It’s the most durable rifle ever invented. Nothing to field strip, not high maintenance, and can be buried for 18 years and still fire as as good as the day it was buried.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgrJElGOMMg
Is he #1, 2, or 3 in this cycle?
RIP.
ping for later
Now he can meet Sam Colt
In America between WW1 and WW2, the US Army toyed with the .276 Pedersen (7x51) round. The Pedersen and Garand rifles were the Army's new rifle candidates to replace the venerable Springfield M1903. Unfortunately, the Pedersen needed a dry wax lubricant to function and it was rejected in favor of the M1 Garand in .30-06 caliber (7.62x63). {A wise choice since America was embroiled in a global war five years after the M1 was adopted in 1936.)
In 1940 the US Army was looking for a light rifle to span the range gap between the .45 pistol and .30 caliber rifle. The .30 M1 and M1A1 Carbine was the result. This cartridge was a scaled-up pistol caliber (7.62x33). In 1944, the US Army type standardized the M2 carbine (selective fire) and a new 30-round magazine for it.
The Germans realized they needed a selective fire rifle to bridge the range gap of the 9x19 caliber pistol and 7.92x57 rifle cartridges. They developed the 7.92x33 Kurz (short) cartridge that saw action in the prototype MKn-42(H) and MKb-43(W), MP-43/MP-44, StG-45, and VG-1 rifles. Hitler also coined the term “Sturmgewehr” [for storm or assault rifle].
The Russians were on the receiving end of the German's new assault rifles and developed the 7.62x39 intermediate caliber for their Siminov SKS-45g and Kalashnikov AK-47g rifles.
Post WW2, the British developed the .280 British (7x43) as their optimal assault rifle caliber. Skulduggery on the part of US Army Ordnance Corps forced the adoption of the T65E3 cartridge (7.62x51) on NATO and the .280 British faded into history. The new 7.62x51 NATO was a product improved .30-06 (7.62x63) cartridge and was not suitable in the assault rifle role because it was uncontrollable in automatic fire.
The last cartridges in the intermediate or assault rifle caliber are the .223 Remington (5.56x45 NATO) and the Russian 5.45x39. The former came about as the result of the US Army's “Project SALVO” and the introduction of the radical (at the time) AR-15/M16 rifle. The latter was the Russian response to the 5.56 NATO cartridge and was fielded in the AK-74 rifle.
The intermediate calibers have reached a dominant place because of their light recoil, accuracy, controlability in automatic fire, and light weight that allows carry of more ammunition. It all started with V.G. Federov’s Avtomat in 1915.
I always thought that Schmeisser invented the assault rifle. And wasn’t he working for the Russians after the war?
[The AK-47 is best described as a hybrid of previous rifle technology innovations: the trigger mechanism, double locking lugs and unlocking raceway of the M1 Garand/M1 carbine, the safety mechanism of the John Browning designed Remington Model 8 rifle, and the gas system of the Sturmgewehr 44. Kalashnikov’s team had access to all of these weapons and had no need to “reinvent the wheel”, though he denied that his design was based on the German Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle. Kalashnikov himself observed: “A lot of Russian Army soldiers ask me how one can become a constructor, and how new weaponry is designed. These are very difficult questions. Each designer seems to have his own paths, his own successes and failures. But one thing is clear: before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field. I myself have had many experiences confirming this to be so.” There are claims about Kalashnikov copying other designs, like Bulkin’s TKB-415[2] or Simonov’s AVS-31.]
It is being reported that Kalashnikov has actually been brought back to life. They skipped the casket, buried him in dirt, left him a while, and then dug him back up, brushed him off, cleaned him up a little and he came back to life and was working fine.