Question For Gun Buffs?

[Missourian]

I've never fired a Kalashnikov but I was issued both the M16a1 and a2 and they were both top notch firearms in every respect.

They were both tough and accurate.

I was so impressed with it, I've owned it's civilianized cousin, the AR15 from that day to this.

 

[MikeK]

American M16 vs Soviet AK-47 - YouTube

Thanks for this revealing video. It squares with everything else I've read and heard.

Irby seems impressed with the ability to group under full auto, which I believe to be counterproductive to the purpose of full auto -- that of sweeping multiple targets rather than holding on a single individual. Plus it is obvious the AK's tendency to creep under full auto is because it's putting out a more powerful round.

I recall a Staff Sgt. range instructor at Parris Island telling us the M-1 Garand's nearly ten pound weight is worth its weight in gold in combat. He told us that officers in Korea were issued short, light, .30 select/fire, low recoil, M-2 carbines. But when the Chinese started coming down from the mountains wearing heavily quilted winter clothing the officers were dumping the M-2s and picking up M-1 Garands from enlisted casualties. Because the M-2 wasn't stopping them. But when the Chinese charged en masse the armor-piercing ("black tip") 30.06 M-1 rounds often dropped two with one shot -- through and through.

Although I never was in combat I felt very confident about the eight-shot, semi-auto M-1.

 

[CMike]

The US military uses the civilian version of the M16, the AR.


That should say a lot.

Actually, the AR (AR-15) is the civilian version of the M-16.

I noticed I reversed it.