Quoheleth
Member
I'm curious - not really shopping - about the AK. From what I read here, et. al., the AK and its variants are the Timex of the rifle world. You can practically melt it into a block and it will still function. Accuracy may or may not be all that hot, but one thing you can count on: an AK will run whether dirty, dry, wet, or anything between.
That said, I've got an AR (Doublestar) and a Marlin 336 in .30-30. I've got a Garand on the way. My rifles are rounded out by a slough of .22s. Handguns run the gamut from .22 up to .41 Magnum.
Always looking for a way to burn my wife's shoe money (just kidding, dear...see the smiley? ) and then seeing the post about best places to find AKs, it got me wondering, with the collection I have, what niche would the AK fill, other than to represent the Com-Bloc countries. Yeah, ammo is relatively cheap, but so is .30-30 and .223/5.56 is coming back down. The .30-30 and 7.62x39 are roughly ballistic cousins. While the Marlin doesn't have the rate of fire a semi has, it's just as portable and "off the radar" as an evil "assault" gun. My AR has the EBR corner in my safe, offers the higher rate of fire (should the zombies ever rise up out of the neighboring graveyard), and it's reliable - both from personal experience and from reviews of Doublestar.
Putting aside the inevitable "it's a gun, get it" type comments, do I gain anything by pursuing an AK? Serious answers, please. Why should I, or why shouldn't I, consider an AK?
Edit: I forgot to ask: If I wanted a one-stop crash course about AKs - variants, countries of origen, best bang for a budget buck, etc. - where do I look? Just looking at JGsales, they have Bulgarian, Yugoslav, Hungarian, Romanian; folding vs. fixed stocks; WASR vs. AK; etc. Where to begin???
Thanks,
Q
That said, I've got an AR (Doublestar) and a Marlin 336 in .30-30. I've got a Garand on the way. My rifles are rounded out by a slough of .22s. Handguns run the gamut from .22 up to .41 Magnum.
Always looking for a way to burn my wife's shoe money (just kidding, dear...see the smiley? ) and then seeing the post about best places to find AKs, it got me wondering, with the collection I have, what niche would the AK fill, other than to represent the Com-Bloc countries. Yeah, ammo is relatively cheap, but so is .30-30 and .223/5.56 is coming back down. The .30-30 and 7.62x39 are roughly ballistic cousins. While the Marlin doesn't have the rate of fire a semi has, it's just as portable and "off the radar" as an evil "assault" gun. My AR has the EBR corner in my safe, offers the higher rate of fire (should the zombies ever rise up out of the neighboring graveyard), and it's reliable - both from personal experience and from reviews of Doublestar.
Putting aside the inevitable "it's a gun, get it" type comments, do I gain anything by pursuing an AK? Serious answers, please. Why should I, or why shouldn't I, consider an AK?
Edit: I forgot to ask: If I wanted a one-stop crash course about AKs - variants, countries of origen, best bang for a budget buck, etc. - where do I look? Just looking at JGsales, they have Bulgarian, Yugoslav, Hungarian, Romanian; folding vs. fixed stocks; WASR vs. AK; etc. Where to begin???
Thanks,
Q
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