I said the AR is essentially free floated, which it is seeing as the gas tube is an ultralight, flexible link unlike gas piston system. An AK can usually hit a baseball at 100 yards, that's 3". That's perfectly in keeping with what I've said, the best AK's I've shot, my Valmets, group 3-4", that means the vast majority of rounds will drop in a baseball. My Colt HBAR could put the majority of rounds into a quarter. In combat, does it matter? Debatable. Just laying the facts out, I actually like a good AK roughly as much as an AR, so no bias here. The AR's just plain more accurate due to design and construction. My greatest gripe with the AK remains its accuracy, as I'm a sportsman and target shooter.
While living elsewhere I had a machined receiver Yugo, not by choice it was just what was available. Overall just a pretty loose rifle, and it wasn't heavily used. Reliable, sure, but again no tack driver. Works for 90% of what's asked of it, but making a 1" group in a match, it does not. Doesn't sound like this matters to you, and that's all good you can use your AK's for different purposes where you are. Here for us, the last unrestricted AK's we can hunt with and shoot in the woods are the Valmet M78 (which in the AK world is considered to be among the most accurate of AK's) and Hunter, also highly regarded for AK accuracy. With mine, I bought them for hunting, and especially the .223 I was hoping for good accuracy seeing as its quarry are gophers and coyotes. In the end they proved equal to the Mini-14, exactly, so ho-hum, works but leaves some to be desired. The Swiss Arms PE90 leaves them in the dust. So there's my reasoning, and for variables, it's not the shooter, I tied for win in an iron sight match in the fall, and even prefer commie sights such as the AK's inside 150 yards to aperture.
Don't think it gets more easy to put than the AK is a durable, heavy, reliable short-medium range gun that leaves some to be desired in accuracy. Ergos are a bit off too, but its redeeming qualities will see it in use a further century.
Good post. Cant really disagree with anything, except your accuracy figures for the Valmets. Most Valmets WILL shoot close to 1 MOA with good optics, rest and ammo. I have never tried shooting mine with all 3 of those, but i know others who have.
If you satisfied those 3 conditions and your Valmet still wont group better than 3", it is due to one of the following:
- Barrel in poor condition.. Damage on the crown.
- Improper trigger release. Some people have to get used to the trigger (similar to a lot of new shooters shooting Glocks)
- Bad ammo for the gun. Some guns just dont like certain ammo brands, even if it's quality stuff.
If raw accuracy is the only thing you need from a gun, AK is obviously not for you. But neither is the AR. AK's are not paper punchers, never were. They're accurate enough to do what they were designed for - consistently hitting man-sized targets at intermediate ranges.
Saying that AR is better assault rifle because its more accurate is the same as saying that my grocery getter (car) is better than yours because it can do 280km/h when yours can only do 240.
Here's a video to illustrate my point: (i know it's about handguns, but the exact same principles apply to assault rifles)
[youtube]UVzSAm5VhfE[/youtube]
Poor ergos on AK is also a moot point. An extended mag release (comes stock on many newer variants) is essentially a button that can be pressed with the index finger (without changing the grip) to drop the mag free... Same as AR.
Many people dont like the standard safety. There are variants with AR-style thumb-operated safety if thats your thing, but (like AR), its more difficult to operate in heavy gloves, which is the reason why most variants have the lever safety.
Slower mag changes are the result of poor training and technique, not rifle design. Here's a video to illustrate this point:
[youtube]EqYxhanNimA[/youtube]
Newer AK's have just as many options for adding optics and tacticool crap.
What AR DOESNT have is the ability to fold the stock. With the same barrel length, AK is more compact with the stock folded than AR with it's stock collapsed.
The extra weight of AK is not always a bad thing either - it helps control the recoil in F/A when firing the more powerful 7.62 round. The rifle also makes for a better beating stick if you happen to run out of ammo
