Want an AK-47 But know nothing......

[Gixxer]

 

[Spectreguy]

View attachment 7096074

 

[Mr. Goodbar]

I really think the lifespan of the AK is numbered.

1) No more cheap 7.62x39. Even the new US steel cased stuff is much more expensive than the old surplus stuff.

2) Even if you have a bunch of of ammo stockpiled, more and more indoor ranges are saying you can't use it. Not a problem for folks with outdoor ranges, but again, a newbie is unlikely to know about those in a lot of cases.

3) No more sub-$500 AKs. The low price on things like WASR-10s and Saigas was the entry point for 99% of AK owners. You won't find a lot of newbies jumping in with the current $1000+ 'entry level' guns.

4) No more cool variants. Things like the RPKs and such are history. What's out there is probably all we'll ever see unless a US company steps up, and then they will be too pricey for most folks.

4) No point. Back when it was "AR vs. AK" you could argue that the AK platform had advantages over the 'traditional' AR. These days you can get an AR platform in any configuration, with any operating system, shooting any caliber you want. The AK has literally no advantages left over the AR 'world' except for retro-cool factor.

New shooters are simply not going to pick up AKs like they did 20 years ago. There's too many other options for them to want an expensive antique that shoots hard-to-get ammo costing twice what 5.56 does.

Ak has better terminal ballistics with short barrels vs ar, ak barely looses any velocity down to a 10 or 12 in compared to ar

 

[Control for Smilers]

Ak has better terminal ballistics with short barrels vs ar, ak barely looses any velocity down to a 10 or 12 in compared to ar

depends on powder too.

 

[Spectreguy]

I wanted an AK and knew nothing about them either. I just knew I didn’t want a 7.62x39. So I got a fully converted Saiga in 556 and a IWI Galil Ace Gen2 in 556 and also a Kalashnikov AK9. I have a dedicated reloading press for 556 and one for 9mm, that why I didn’t want a 7.62x39. They have some real good AK matches, that’s the only reason I wanted AK platform. It seems like the AK matches are way more fun than the AR matches. Plus is great going to a predominantly AR match and beating many many of them with my AK View attachment 7094932View attachment 7094936View attachment 7094937

At gun shops, sometimes, when those yellow mags are turning brown along the edges, you can get a bag of them for a dollar...

 

[Blue bio balls]

 

[spencer60]

Ak has better terminal ballistics with short barrels vs ar, ak barely looses any velocity down to a 10 or 12 in compared to ar

Not a function of the AK... a function of the cartridge. Get an AR in 300BO and you have almost identical performance.

 

[spencer60]

I completely understand your points but I'd like to add a few thoughts as counterpoints. First of all, I believe the unavailability of cheap 7.62x39 is due to the progressive phasing out of trade possibilities with countries that produce it cheaply. I saw that coming. There's absolutely no reason why we should be paying these prices when half the world is producing it in huge numbers at a fraction of the cost of what it's selling for here in the USA. If you look at who is in charge of our current government, it's no wonder that our options for cheap, foreign ammo are becoming more limited. Because of this fact, I don't think it's unreasonable to believe that, if our government were to become more free and unrestrictive, we would see the floating free market bring us cheap 7.62x39 again. I also believe that current importers of foreign ammo in this caliber probably succumb to the greed of understanding that they can enjoy huge profit margins and don't have to charge a fair price based on their cost, because they're going to sell it anyway. In a truly free market, they'd just be bypassed by someone willing to import and sell at a lower price point, but I think there's such a bottleneck in the supply market that we don't benefit from those lower prices. Secondly, I think the crazy prices for imported AKs have a lot more to do with some things that people's intuitions are telling them rather than just the collectibility/nostalgia/cool factor craze. As our society continues to unravel, EVERYTHING is being made more shoddily while ever-more-clever marketing and hype are used to convince the populace that everything is still quality. Companies routinely pay for reviews and reviewers to ensure continued positive reputations while the reality is a rapid decline in quality due to shortcuts and inferior materials/processes used in production. The firearms market is not immune to this. I see failures in my friends' newer production ARs all the time, and cheaply made MIM parts seem to break right off at a much higher rate than in the past. For example, I've never had a single failure with a MAK 90 over years of putting thousands of rounds thru them, with cheap steel-cased ammo, and I'm not the only one to have experienced this phenomenon. I'm not at all implying that a Chinese AK is the holy grail of weapons, but what I am implying is that they were made to last, with quality parts that were made without cutting corners, with the intention of impressing the lucrative American private firearms market. So, they're now $1,000+, and a lot of people think that's expensive for a rifle that's not built with multiple, complicated parts that justify the price. And that's true to an extent! They're way too expensive, and yet, people are still buying them and driving the prices ever higher. I believe this trend is due to people's intuitive understanding that their solid, foreign-made AK won't fail in a disaster scenario while some of their modern USA-made guns might just be constructed like all the other new-production things circulating right now. I know that everybody notices this. Everything is garbage dressed up like a princess. I don't even buy basic lawn equipment like shovels and rakes at hardware stores, anymore, because they're all trash. I buy 50 year old shovels at garage sales and they last. As another firearms example....a year or two ago, I went in with a friend on three Zastava M77s (.308). One of the magwells was so out of spec that the mag would just wobble around (I'm talking several milimeters). I sent it back to Zastava and they replaced the whole rifle but, despite my efforts, I could not get an answer as to how something that out-of-spec could've made it onto the market without being caught in quality control. So, that got me thinking...is there really any quality, quality control these days? That purchase was supposed to be my solution to wanting a solid, quality, foreign AK in a bigger caliber and I don't consider 2 out of 3 to be a very convincing quality ratio. So now I believe that even the foreign AKs being currently imported are probably experiencing the same declining quality that everything else in this world is. All of this is just a hunch based on my perceptions and observations and I have no further proof of this trend, but this is what I suspect is happening. I am also not implying that there are no quality, domestic firearms manufacturers around, because there sure are. But is a $2,000 AR the solution?

I don't think any of that changes my point... Back when WASR-10s were $199 at gun shows everyone thought they were junk. Now they are $1K-plus and people seem to think they are great and worth every penny. Samke for the old Chinese MAKs.

At the end of the day it's about what the next wave of gun owners wants and I just don't see the AK being anything more than a curiosity for most of them.

 

[Jambo]

I don't think any of that changes my point... Back when WASR-10s were $199 at gun shows everyone thought they were junk. Now they are $1K-plus and people seem to think they are great and worth every penny. Samke for the old Chinese MAKs.

At the end of the day it's about what the next wave of gun owners wants and I just don't see the AK being anything more than a curiosity for most of them.

Correct.

'Back in the day' I bought an AK because it was cheap, mags were cheap, ammo was cheap. Then Bill Clinton signed an executive order, and ammo and firearms from China were done. No president after has reversed it, and none will reverse it. Sign an executive order letting China send ASSAULT WEAPONS to the U.S.? Nobody is taking that one on.

So AKs and ammo are expensive now, or at least on par with AR-15s. AKs now have too many weaknesses:

Less Modularity
HORRIBLE sights
HORRIBLE safety
Not so great reloads, rocking the mags in
The mags don't fit in pouches all that great, either
No last round bolt hold open (a bigger deal than most people think)
Less aftermarket support
Quality ARs can be had for equal or less money

Are AKs reliable? Sure. But I've yet to see a decently built AR-15 with reliability problems. Most of the AR-15 reliability problems come from magazines, and Magpul pretty much fixed that. Sure there are some crappy AR builds out there, but it's typically the really low end ones or the poorly done home builds.

Will the AR-15 wear out sooner? Maybe. But that is probably 20-30,000 rounds down the road. That's a lifetime for most shooters. And if you do wear one out then they are much easier to rebuild vs. an AK.

In reality, the only thing the AK ever had going for it was its low cost. Heck, look at pictures of "the bad guys" overseas; most of them have transition to AR-15s as well since we left so many of them over there.

They had a choice, and even they chose the AR platform.

 

[Dodge man]

What should I look at?

What should I avoid?

Always wanted one but never knew where to start.

Take me to school y'all!

Thanks in advance!

Russian all the way. Stay away from anything American AK related, Russia is where it started and Russia is where I stand.