Hi everybody,
I've noticed that many people cherish the AK-47 and AK-74 rifles. I've never had the chance to be exposed to them and I have a few questions.
Howdy! Yeah, these are pretty over-hashed questions, opined on in thousands of threads on hundreds of forums. But everyone's gotta hear it somewhere...might as well get it right the first time!
1. Milled vs Stamped receiver. Which one is generally better, and why?
Neither.
The original design was a version of a stamped receiver. Russian industrial tech wasn't quite up to producing that in consistent quality so they adopted the milled version for the first 10-12 years as it was easier to build. When the design was modernized into what most of us know as the AKM, an improved stamped design was the result, and constitutes the majority of Kalashnikovs in the world today.
The milled guns are heavier. Many shooters believe they are more accurate. They aren't vastly or consistently more accurate than the stamped guns (both are hampered much more by poor quality cheap 3-rd world ammo and sights which are not the easiest to use than they are by inherent mechanical accuracy deficiencies). Some examples of either design may put rounds into a ~2" group at 100 yds, with good ammo, if the shooter is up to it.
Some believe the milled guns are more durable. This is hotly contested. Neither design will fail before the shooter gives up trying. And either design would consume wear items like barrels long before the receiver itself failed.
The two things the milled receivers do have, heads and shoulders above the stamped guns are, 1) weight, and 2) price. If you are looking for a heavy and expensive Kalashnikov, by all means search out a milled gun.
2. The Con Bloc countries made, and still produce, AK rifles. Which country would you say makes the best Kalashnikov in terms of quality? Poland, Russia, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria etc.
Romania's probably at the bottom. Russia is probably at the top. I guess I'd put them in order otherwise as East Germany(2), Bulgaria (3), Yugo(4), Poland(5). But that's just my opinion -- they all work great. China's in there too, as is Egypt, and others.
Many are more expensive due to rarity, more so than quality.
3. What kind of accuracy can be expected from the AK-47 and AK-74?
Again, it mostly depends on the shooter and how well he/she can handle the sights and the fact that the carbine design doesn't lend itself easily to good bench-rest form. Next, you'll be hampered or helped by the quality of the ammo you're using. US-made commercial stuff? Handloads? Brown Bear? Norinco from the '80s? Russian surplus 5.54x39? I generally believe the 5.45x39 guns to be a hair more accurate, for me, than the 7.62, but individual guns, and results, vary. Some inexpensive ammo works surprisingly well. I've shot real Russian surplus steel cased 5.45 into 2" groups with my AKS-74.
4. probably a stupid question, but I'll throw it out anyways. Reliability, ever seen, had or heard of a problem? If so, what would cause it?
Sure. Bent, damaged, or out-of-spec magazines happen, just like with any autoloader. The good thing is with AKs, those problems are rare as the mags are built tougher than the rifles, and they're so cheap, if you get a bad one you just toss it out.
As almost all of these rifles which exist here in the US are RE-MANUFACTURED on US-made receivers out of demilled gun parts kits (you should look into "922(r)" so you understand why this is), very few of the common examples were actually assembled in their current version by the original manufacturer. The quality of the assembly HERE varies all over the place. You do see some that were put together sloppily or with crooked front sight blocks, for example. It is still pretty rare to see one that actually doesn't
work, though, considering how very VERY many of them there are out there.
5. What can it take on in terms of abuse? Extreme heat and cold, ice, mud, sand, water etc
A lot. That's not something that can just be told to you in numeric quantities. They work well under a lot of conditions. Probably, and generally, for longer than most other automatic rifle designs under worse conditions. But they will stop if abused too badly.
Why does it matter to you? Do you treat your guns like that? Very very few of us will ever put our guns under such poor maintenance conditions that we have to trust them to keep running when frozen in a block of muddy ice, or whatever. We aren't taking them to war. Folks who have, generally managed to keep them going. (Just like they have done with the M-16/M-4 family of rifles.) That should be enough of an endorsement, I'd think.
