Yes, I have officially entered the world of the “evil bad-guy gun.” Even went so far as to [shudder!!] sell my Bushmaster AR-15 to get it.
WHAT!?! You sold the most popular rifle in America today to buy a...a...a GOON GUN!?!?!?! I thought you were an AMERICAN, dude!!!! What in the world would you want with a Commie rifle?!?!?
OK, do we have that out of our systems now? Good.
I could go into a long, drawn-out discussion about the pros and cons of AK vs. AR (and I probably will when I’m done with this paragraph), but the deciding factor for me was this: my personal defense carry gun is a Springfield Armory XD pistol (XD stands for “eXtreme Duty”). This pistol can take whatever you can throw at it — mud, sand, water, ICE, trucks running over it — and when you pick it up and squeeze the trigger, it goes “BANG!” I finally figured out I need a rifle that can do the same thing.
Loaded AKs have been found buried in the Iraqi desert (in the SAND mind you, not a box) and, after a few shakes to clear the barrel and receiver, have fired full-auto without a problem. I double-dog dare you to try that with any AR-style weapon.
Please don’t get me wrong, I do not HATE the AR…after all it was the first rifle I purchased and it's full-auto big brothers, the M-16 and M-4, have served our country for almost 50 years. As long as you treat it well, keep it clean, and feed it its favorite ammo, it will serve YOU well…just don’t drop it in the mud or neglect it’s upkeep or try running cheap ammo through it. (That “nasty” lacquer-coated steel-cased Russian ammo that makes ARs choke and puke? AKs eat it like CANDY and ask, “Please, sir, may we have MORE?”)
And, yes, the change in ammunition WAS a major selling point. The AK-47’s 7.62x39mm round is the rough equivalent of the .30-30, most often seen in lever-action rifles. The AR-15 are traditionally chambered for the military 5.56x45mm cartridge [the civilian .223 caliber round works, but don’t try using a 5.56 in a gun designed for .223…bad idea.] Now I might be wrong, but it seems to me that a 126-grain, .30 cal. bullet at 2,450 feet per second has a little more stopping power than a 55-grain, .22 caliber bullet at 3,250 fps. It is said that the .223 is a more lethal cartridge, but quite frankly we’re not looking to kill anybody — we're just trying to stop them from continuing their attack on us. That takes PUNCH. And from what I’ve read so far, the AK does that better than the AR.
I am not “done” with ARs. I imagine I will someday buy another one to stand beside my AK. But right now, I can’t afford both. And with what I got for my old rifle, I will be able to trick out my new rifle and buy LOTS of ammo and magazines...got to feed the baby.
P.S.: "Thanks!" to my nephew, Jerry, for leaving his AK with me while he was busy at Basic Training in San Antonio...shooting it kind of “iced the cake,” as it were.
