Lost interest in AKs and ARs

[goon]

My current most favourite long gun is an old Remington rolling block in .38-55 set up with the long range peep rear and globe front sights. Working the block open and sliding the long rounds into place for each shot really adds to the whole experience.

That does sound like a really cool gun! I've got an itch for a Sharps military rifle with the wood almost the whole way to the muzzle. I'll have one some day.

Although I've been in and out of semi-autos, one of my favorite rifles that's always fun to shoot and that will never go away is my CZ-452. It's got no recoil and virtually no noise and I can knock aluminum cans around at 100 yards with it. It's hard to beat a rifle like that.

 

[cdb1]

I own one AR and one lever gun, a 336W. I also own six bolt action centerfires and two sem auto rimfires. The AR is for HD and has never been hunting. The 30-30 occasionally goes hog hunting. The two rifles I shoot the vast majority of the time are my CZ 6.5x55 and my CZ 512 .22 mag.

 

[jason41987]

Welcome to THR, I find that my interest in certain classes of firearms comes and goes but it is more like a revolving door. Milsurps are typically my thing but the political climate has shifted my focus to the modern rifles for the time being. My AR's are fun but I don't get nearly as much satisfaction from them as I do from an old milsurp. Lever actions are next on my list but their prices have gone up a good bit. A brass 1860 Henry replica gets my attention! I know that they have their faults but that gun just does it for me!

i guess i got to this thread a bit late.. but im going to +1 the above climate.. my biggest attraction used to be WWII and 19th century firearms.. love my lever actions, revolvers, and anything used in WWII, but also because of the political bullcrap going on ive focused my attention to getting semi automatics..

i have a few AKs on my list (have a 5.45 AK now, want a 5.56 AK, a 308 saiga, a bullpup, and MAYBE a 6.5 grendel model), a few HK rifles (would love to have an HK91 AND a PSG1 clone as well as an MP5 and HK93) and id love to get another steyr AUG (i sold my last one) and maybe a sig-551 and this is only the beginning of said list

reason is that whenever these (insert any vulgar adjective here) in office decide to go on some anti-gun crusade, they ignore all statistics, all demographics and go straight for the ones they fear most, so those are the ones ive decided to collect first as im fairly certain the 19th century stuff and milsurp bolt actions will always be around

 

[tark]

rdmercer, Sure, I've heard of a 256 Newton. The original 25-06. Kinda Sorta. It was an impressive round, way ahead of it's time, like all of Newton's cartridges were. Have you ever heard of the .280 ROSS? Another round ahead of its time.

 

[Plastikosmd]

The best thing I did with one of my ARs was to top it with redfield Olympic sights and redfield sight tube. I love shooting w aperture sights and that made all the difference for me

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

My AR sits silent due to cost--for what it costs for one 30 round mag of .223, I can shoot my .22's all day long.

Haven't lost interest, the cost is out of hand right now---also have a daughter and grandson getting to be shooting age and the .22's are great fun without being intimidating.

 

[rdmercer]

Tark, I have never heard of a .280 ROSS. That is a new one on me.

 

[Deog]

45/70 the original assault rifle. love my lever guns, so fun to shoot, The 45/70 is one powerful gun in a small package. And the sound of the lever action is just as intimidating as the sound of a pump shotgun. Marlin guy here.

 

[returningfire]

AR "feels like a BB gun".
I love Sam Elliot.

 

[wally247]

I started out shooting with an AR and polymer pistols, now I've got a model 94 30-30 and a couple Ruger single action revolvers. Way more fun to me than just seeing how fast I can empty a magazine.

 

[kimbershot]

i've bought and sold a bunch of ar's--some factory built and others i put together. just yesterday, i picked up a psa stripped lower on impulse--i don't have any timeframe for a possible build or caliber--it just may sit there. i do have a 45 uzi semi sbr--a hoot to shoot and cheap as i reload.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

It happened to me too. I sold all my AKs and the I ended up selling everything newer than WW1 (although I did a keep a few reproductions of guns with 100+ year old designs)...most of my guns are now over a hundred years old and they shoot great and I have WAY more fun than I ever did with my AKs.

 

[jason41987]

just because you may lose interest in the newer stuff doesnt mean you should sell them all off.. if youre trying to build any sort of a collection there will be a time in the future where youre going to want another one and wish you hadnt sold off what you had because when you go to buy them again theyll either be more expensive, or banned

now i like the old stuff too, probably prefer lever actions over anything else.. but i WANT the military stuff more right now even if its just a middle finger to the likes of diane feinstein and her treasonous allies

granted though, if i had to choose to be shot by something id rather get shot with an AK or an AR-15 over a 45-70

anyway.. id atleast pick up a couple AK parts kit and a couple receiver flats for later.. just to store and it wouldnt be very expensive to do so

and jim.. those marlin 336s are gorgeous.. i wish marlin didnt sell out to remington, i have a few remington products and it just seems to me like theyve been cutting some corners lately, so having remington as the parent company over marlin now has made me more cautious about buying a new one... im more inclined to buy a replica of an older winchester at this point, like the 1894, 1892, and even an 1873

 

[jason41987]

i apologize for reviving this thread if it was meant to die, and this may sound like venting.. but im really sick of AR15s and AKs.. i mean, i really dont actually like either design that much.. theyre both riddled with flaws, the only reason theres even an AK vs AR debate is because both are completely crippled in their own ways, debates come down to which design is more flawed than the next.. i honestly am not a huge fan of either one

i just feel compelled, if not forced to have to buy one because of the recent drama, id like to have atleast one military rifle for whatever case i may need one and it really sucks that there really arent many choices for the price. i wish i didnt feel a need to buy one or the other and honestly, ive been wanting to buy a lever action in 44 mag as a general purpose rifle.. theres nothing you cant do with those things and i do enjoy the lever action platform as well is military surplus bolt actions.. if there wasnt any kind of risk right now towards the military semi automatic platforms id be piling up on milsurps and lever actions right now

and you know, as far are these military style bolt actions go, if i could afford it, neither the AK or the AR would be my first choice.. so maybe thats another reason these two are so often pitted against eachother.. theyre the most affordable

i wish i felt more free to buy what i wanted and not feel the pressure of having to buy something that i was probably going to wait a few years before picking up.. its stressful and i know its 90% psychological

 

[kimberkid]

I got tired of them for a while too ... or so I thought.

I got wrapped up in lever guns for a while but it only lasted a couple years.

What I finally realized is I was tired of seeing and hearing about AR's and AK's all the time ... especially when most of it was just hype about flavor of the month.

 

[kimberkid]

I got tired of them for a while too ... or so I thought.

I got wrapped up in lever and bolt guns for a while but it only lasted a couple years.

What I finally realized is I was tired of seeing and hearing about AR's and AK's all the time ... especially when most of it was just hype about flavor of the month.

 

[jason41987]

thats true as well.. everytime an AR thread pops up its usually someone falling for the latest gimmick of the week guaranteed to make their AR more like an AK.. or someone from the AK crowd buying into their latest product of the week guaranteed to make their AK more like an AR..

in either case its always some third party manufacturer coming out with some story about how something about their rifle is inherently flawed, blame that for all the bad in the design and conveniently offer the solution.. like people being convinced their AR15s jam because of direct impingement, ignoring the real factors behind it only to run out and spend $400 on a piston kit.. or AK crowds hyping some new top rail system (to this date the side rail the russian military uses is still the best option)

so yeah. it all gets tiring, i lose interest in them, i get sick of feeling pressured to buy one from liberal (insert any vulgar adjective here) like feinstein who make it their life goal to try to ban something they understand nothing about.. honestly, once i finish putting this AK-74 together i think im going to call it quicks for the military semi automatics for a while and focus on the things i really like more but more than likely im just going to focus on my side hobby of designing new guns and start testing some new ideas i had for new mechanisms and concepts

 

[AethelstanAegen]

just because you may lose interest in the newer stuff doesnt mean you should sell them all off.. if youre trying to build any sort of a collection there will be a time in the future where youre going to want another one and wish you hadnt sold off what you had because when you go to buy them again theyll either be more expensive, or banned

Nope. I sold them and I haven't regretted it for a second. They were all worth much more on the market than they were to me, so I was happy to sell them and use the money to finance some guns that I wanted and would use. I also got a really nice reloading set up going. I'm very glad I just went ahead and sold them.

 

[orionengnr]

Well, I guess I'll be the contrarian here.

Bought my first AR in 82 or so, my first Mini around 86. Didn't necessarily get as much trigger time as I'd like to have, but $$$ was a concern at that point. Both those rifles are long gone. But...

That AR was not my last, and I recently dragged my current AR (bought in 87 or so) out of the safe after at least ten years of inactivity. Took it shooting twice in the last month, and I am re-invigorated. Just bought 1000 rounds of brass, and will be loading for it soon.

Also have a Mini-30 these days...again, its first use in 10+ years was a week or two ago. I will have to gear up and load for it as well.

Bottom line. You may lose interest today, but if you sell it, you may one day regret it. Imagine what an AR/AK will fetch a year or five years from now...if you can buy one at all.

Unless you absolutely have to, don't sell it. Rub it down with Eezox, put it in the safe and let it sit a while.

 

[rdmercer]

Jason 41987, I sure agree with just about everything you say. I plan on keeping my ARs and AKs, but it is mostly only because of the political environment in which we live in today. As far as a battle weapon that fits what I need, it is actually the M1a with just the aperture iron sight, composite stock and light sling. Anyone that has never shouldered an M1a and shot it is really missing out.
Getting back to lever actions, two others that I have and just love to shoot are the Winchester 94 Trapper in 44 magnum and a Uberti 1866 yellow boy in 38 cal. Now those are a kick in the pants.