Vepr meltdown, amazing rifle

Status
Not open for further replies.
yeah, AKs are awesome like that

best part was that beating it on the table a few times and firing a drum through it actually straightened the barrel back out and the rifling was still good.. clean that up, put a new handguard on it and its good to go
 
Got to love that AK gunsmithing. just beat it on the table a few times and it will remember what its supposed to be doing.
 
Robert said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAHAr-GmJg

Yup, AKs are awesome...
Click to expand...

If you watch OP's video, there is no "AK's are awesome, better than AR's" being tossed around.
Its more of a comparison of a good AK vs. a shoddy AK; the Vepr vs a WASR-10 that was tested previously that only went 265 rounds before failing.

The original intent of the OP still stands, IMO....the VEPR is a higher quality rifle than the previously tested WASR-10 and continued to function after more ammo than a man could carry was poured through it.

If we are going to post videos that are clearly slanted towards a specific conclusion, here is another good one.
Russian military testing, AK74 vs M16. You can probably guess the conclusion without watching the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr1tV2nsGoM

And you could go on and on either way.....
 
It just goes to show how much more steel there is in an AK than actually needed... ;)
 
ill take a rifle built to handle that kind of abuse vs one designed to be "well maintained and cleaned regularly" any day
 
ill take a rifle built to handle that kind of abuse vs one designed to be "well maintained and cleaned regularly" any day
Click to expand...
Yeah! Agreed! And a video like this just makes you feel confident that a well built AK variant like this is at least as good as an AR15/M16 in the durability department.

Nice to have so many well-designed rifles available to us which are so reliable even under conditions none of us will never ever see.
 
first of all, the average AR will never come close to taking the high level of harsh conditions an AK can, it just isnt in the engineering and no amount of turd polishing will turn an AR into that type of weapon, it just isnt there without making sacrifices to other features it possesses

second of all, better to have a rifle that can handle those conditions and not need it, than to need a rifle that can handle them and not have it... ive lived in wisconsin where ive regularly seen -40 degrees, ive lived in arizona where ive been through sand storms.. ive conditions that would jam up most rifles and by far the LEAST reliable in those conditions was the M1A i had, the AR would fall somewhere in between that and the AK by its "closed" nature, but get something inside and its done
 
Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you are a very dedicated AK fan and enjoy hating ARs so much. I apologize, I didn't mean to say something to offend you.
 
Entertaining video. He thought about quitting when it was engulfed in flames...then said, "screw it, I got more ammo" and kept on rocking. I have no desire to own an AK but that was pretty impressive.
 
Sam1911 said:
Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you are a very dedicated AK fan and enjoy hating ARs so much. I apologize, I didn't mean to say something to offend you.
Click to expand...
no, im simply being realistic, and its not ARs i hate, its the AR fanboys who havent shot much else who think because the US military uses them (and an almost complete absence of any other country using them) that they must all of a sudden be gods gift to small arms when the reality is there are many shortcomings..

they all have their shortcomings and their advantages, AKs are nose heavy, every optics mounting solution is some kind of a tradeoff, side rails get in the way of a side folder, right side folders fix this but then they get in the way of the controls, doglegs im not confident even hold a perfect zero, and who wants to mount a sight on a hot gas tube rail that makes it even more nose heavy?

i dislike it for its rear charging handle, spring in the ear, the fanboys, and the over saturated, over gimmicky snake oil driven aftermarket.. i like ARs for the easy repair, plentiful parts, simple scope/optics mounting, light weight and good accuracy potential.. i listed my dislikes for the AK, but when i want durability, reliability and ruggedness, thats where it really excels above most other rifles

as ive always said, if there were no tradeoffs thered be no debate, thered be now this vs that, i simply choose the tradeoff of better reliability and the utilitarian aspect of the AK and take a hit on the balance, weight, and optics options, though with my eyes not working right with red dots and AK iron sights not being the best ive found myself reconsidering the decision
 
Since the VEPR is based on the RPK, I would hope that it could endure a little bit of sustained fire.

It's no surprise that it should outlast the AKM-based WASR.
 
it just isnt in the engineering and no amount of turd polishing will turn an AR into that type of weapon,
Click to expand...
Huh. Usually it's people seeking to turn AKs into ARs (rails, grips, sights, triggers, accurizing, etc.) :neener:

Having just built an M76, the AK is hardly a panacea, with plenty of bonehead choices and compromises of its own (basically the entire barrel assembly). The AR had more, now has fewer, and is still being developed (i.e. the piston conversions that get a much lighter-built weapon well into volume fire territory) to ameliorate those which remain. Stupid quest, since the answer is a VZ58 and/or AR18 :p

As far as these torture tests, they are moronic. Volume fire capacity is a function of barrel mass, and that's about it. Unless you control for chamber temperature and rate of fire with a common chambering & rate reducer, comparing an AK to an AR is silly; AR cycling faster is probably what accounts for a lot of the difference not due to a lighter barrel mass.

Anyone melted a VZ58? Handgaurds get hot fast, but that is from heat leaving...

TCB
 
umm, the AK had a pistol grip, a trigger, and sights before the AR did (considering its quite a few years older).. and the picatinny is just a standardization of the weaver rail that was out on various other civilian rifles before the military standardized and adopted it in the 90s as the picatinny.. so not a feature specific to or even started by the AR-15

the M16 itself had to be modified from its original format to include a picatinny rail between the M16A2 and the M16A3.. that said, neither of my AKs even have picatinny rails

also, AR piston kits arent going to make your ARs more reliable, itll just make them heavier and less reliable now having more parts to break, the shank end of the short stroke piston is very small and thin as well... its a lot of costs that creates a lot of problems that people buy into when some snakeoil saleman promises their new piston kit will make their ARs AK reliable... theyre not the next evolution of the AR, theyre just a gimmick and nothing more, stick with DI
 
I got a rack of really tricked out or smoothed out ARs, all are DI , which I believe is the best way for an AR design. I also have a shorter rack of 3 AKs, all pre ban and two of them are well set up for practical shooting American style :) . Tens of thousands to get top tier trained since the late 90s as my Gunsite orange training lapsed into 3 decades old.
If we are talking say 300 meter combat ranges either will work well when set up for the operator (sighted in ! ) . The modern M4 well smoothed out, will functions in the same realworld conditions as an AK but does require a LITTLE more maintence to remail so.
An Ak can be overcome by the AR system by using an ACOG on an improved M4 system and keeping your enemy more than 250 meters away preferably closer to 400 meters. A good trained and skilled marksman can attempt rested head shots at that distance with a 4x ACOG with a high probability , or take the body shot if not an armored foe and get near 100% probability of a hit . With the 77 grain ammo the effect will be sufficient.
I laughed when I first was brought into the m16 world in 1968 (I was in since 65) and was informed it was a "Varmint" rifle and how it would tear up small targets up to 400 yards. Yes it was a varmint cartridge and a darn good one too ! Having grown up near the the East coast capital of long range ground hog hunting the Matel toy looked nothing like the Varmint rifles I was used too from the late 50s on to then in 68 . :) I was a dry bolt man and shaving cream dry brushed the red dust and dried mud off the boltcarrier assy and the other exposed parts and drislided the BCG and charge handle and called it good. I never had a stoppage, I fired off maybe 6 mags in semi fire in an attempt to get sappers in the wire with no problems in the Ashau Valley. A few other times afew rounds when needed and it worked, but I hated it and soon went to other guns leaving the 16 in the company arms room at Camp Eagle.
Well down and dirty one of my preban AMD-63s with low cowitnessed Aimpoints is very nasty to at least 200 meters , it is sighted in with the irons and the M2 Aimpoint and I can hold 3" 100 yard groups with them rested with decent ammo which with 4MOA dots is not bad. That allows a reasonable 200 meter head shot rested and is extremely fast in CQB ranges. One does not have to worry about any reasonable condition AK not going bang when properly loaded. Under no maintence in the early 90s I had an Ugly Maadi AKM in a service truck box and never lubed it, it was shot rarely but the truck was on rough dirty ranches an forests for 3 -4 years . When I finally decided to take it out it was starting to have fuzzy rust on the outside of the reciever and was even uglier than when it went in their - brand new . I sold it right before the California Assault Ban of 2000 and oiled up it still fetched almost what the half a dozen Chinese AKs I had at the time I dumped them in a gun store in OCT. 1999 and put high prices on them Everything sold before 2000- they did a TV shoot there featuring my rack of Black rifles which were going to be banned :)
Well this PS is "which is better" , well I think a tricked out AR will kick the well set up AK past 200 meters, like I said in the beginning. Both are now reliable with reasonable care (I'm a wet AR man now ) the AR has pinpoint accuracy to twice the range in a modern version.
 
Last edited:
I had a Vepr. When they converted them to a "sporter" configuration, they mounted the handguard to the barrel with a band and secured it with the front sling stud. If you shot more than 30 rounds and happened to touch the front sling swivel stud, you'd find yourself with a nice red temporary tattoo just about every time. Turns out that sling swivel studs are great conductors of heat... And so is the palm of your hand!
 
I've seen a Colt M4 do more rounds that that and catch on fire and keep going, it doesn't prove much other than both are engineered to outlast the stupidity of the user.
 
The VEPR had an interesting failure mode. Given that it took close to a thousand rounds of nearly nonstop full auto before the bolt began to stick, I'd say it's a very robust rifle. It also demonstrates why dedicated machine gun platforms usually have quick change barrels.
 
Watched that video the other day and thought it was pretty interesting. One thought I had was that it was a failure of the handguard, not so much a failure of the rifle. How long do you guys think that rifle could have survived sustained firing if the handguard was not allowed to burn freely, or if it was fired without furniture?
 
KevinB said:
Watched that video the other day and thought it was pretty interesting. One thought I had was that it was a failure of the handguard, not so much a failure of the rifle. How long do you guys think that rifle could have survived sustained firing if the handguard was not allowed to burn freely, or if it was fired without furniture?
Click to expand...
so your theory is the heat off the burning handguard exacerbated the damage to the barrel?.. that could very well be possible
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

B
  • Locked
New Russian Vepr rifle models.
Replies
21
Views
3K
Strafer
S
N
  • Locked
VEPR Rifles!
Replies
20
Views
5K
Nightcrawler
N
0
  • Locked
my new VEPR
Replies
1
Views
448
cslinger
C
J
  • Locked
VEPR AKs
Replies
9
Views
861
Prince Yamato
P
J
  • Locked
My VEPR & My LMT M4 16" Carbine
Replies
2
Views
481
JQP
J
Back
Top