Thursday, May 2, 2013

Buying an Assault Rifle AR vs. AK







Buying an Assault Rifle
AR vs. AK

If you don't own a civilian-ized military rifle, it's not to late. Most manufactures have stepped up production to meet the needs of our free society.


The first thing most of us consider before we purchase anything is the price. In the Pacific Northwest the price of an item has a lot to do with where the store is
located. In my recent travels I have found a dramatic difference in pricing for ammo, guns and accessories seemingly all based on demographics. The more affluent the neighborhood the higher the price.
When I'm asked, what's the best rifle to buy?
I respond with what are you going to use it for?
The type of shooter you are really makes a difference as to what I might recommend.

If you like going to the local gravel pit and love to burn up ammo get an AK-type. The re-manufactured imports are less expensive and ammo is cheaper.
The maximum effective range of the 7.62 x 39mm is 300 meters and are known to shoot groups over minute of angle or (MOA). When your shooting at an old computer, TV, water jugs, or even at an over ripen fruit, accuracy is not a high priority.

Do you like going to your local rifle range? Is accuracy, craftsmanship, and owning an American icon what you are looking for?
Then defiantly get an AR-type.
The average AR-type using the .223/.556mm has an effective range of 500 meters.
The accuracy is often well within MOA.
They are mostly built out of aluminum and lighter weight than the AK.
Most of all they are American Made.

To be fair, the AK has a history of operating under more diverse conditions. You can bury it in mud, let it rust up and abuse it all you want and it will still shoot.
I have never meet anyone with a lick of sense who is willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a new rifle just to bury in mud and let it rust up.


If weight is a factor consider this. An AR-type with one fully loaded 30rnd magazine weighs about the same as a AK-type with an unloaded 30rnd mag.
That means with the AR-type you can carry 2/3rd more ammo.

I am bias as I am a former Marine and I was trained on the M16A1. The civilian-ized rifles available today have the same effectiveness as that old Colt I carried, with the exception of being fully automatic.

The reason I didn't name other designs is simple, I tend to group together rifles based upon operation systems.
A gas piston type of operating is an AK-type
(ie: Galil, Valmet, AK47, )

The gas impingement system of the AR-type
(ie: AR-15, XM15E2S, LAR-15)

The newest trend is the bastardization of making AR's into gas piston guns,
that I will leave for another day.


Be safe and Keep Your Powder Dry
Terry the Gun Guy  

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