Posted by Mr. Scratch on November 07, 1998 at 05:40:02:
Just thought I'd mention my first AK experience, and how I developed an interest in the Kalashnikov.
During the late 80's, when I was in the 82nd ABN, I was issued a milled receiver folding-stock AK47. It had no bluing left, the folding stock wobbled, and strangely, though it was a Russian gun, it had a Romanian foregrip. It must have been twice my age, and seen half the bush-level firefights from Angola to Nicaragua by the time it fell into Yankee hands in Grenada.
Anyway, the Army doesn't give a damn about these things...the guns in the capture section of the weapons depot at Ft. Bragg were just heaped on top of one another on crates, some of them weren't even complete. So I thought I'd give it an enduarance test. For 2 weeks I fired that gun on full auto, magazine after magazine, without oiling or cleaning it. It was rained on, covered in mud, and just generally neglected in a way that I would never treat a rifle anyone cared about.
Hell, it was so nasty that it even had thick rust on the bolt face. Through it all, it never misfired even once. In fact, it fired as well when covered in NC swamp sludge as it did when it was on the range.
Quite an admirable performance, and I felt more confidence in that AK than I did my M-16A2 (not that I want to get THAT argument started again). Quite an accomplishment from a nation that had such trouble keeping up with the technology of the West.