gtmerkley
member
To day my son joined the ranks of AR. owners and I joined the ranks of AK. owners. MY son buying a brand new AR. 15 Bushmaster in 5.56 I buying a brand new AK 74 tantel in 5.45. We have been arguing for years about which was best. We finally decided that there were good and bad points about each. So we each bought a new rifle and took them out and tested them side by side Here is what we found. As far as grouping they shot the same we each came up with one raged hole at 100 yards and no we didn't miss we used a built trap and every built was accounted for we shot from a table but no other rest just elbows resting on table. Inside our bullet trap we had the chamber wall lined with trauma simulation clay and a front target that simulated shooting through a car door . a wire reinforced glass front. And a plaster wall. so we could see the penetration through deferent material the first shot was with the AR.15 it penetrated every thing including the back of our bullet catcher using 75 gr prvi PartizanPPU match hollow point it made a small hole going in and coming out not much mushrooming here but the trauma clay wall chamber showed a good amount of disruption as it passed through this chamber both top and bottom was shattered in a straight line front to back. which would make for a bad wound through the body the estimated area damage in side the body would equal about 12 in. next came the 5.45 Tantels turn. using military armor piercing rounds the tantel round penetrated all material but did not penetrate the back of the bullet trap after getting through the cover material it seemed to break up in the chamber lined with trauma clay sending the fragment every where and smashing the hard clay past the limit that could be measured the entire 16 in square trauma chamber was decimated which would equal 16 inch's of a body around the wound would be turned to mush with spread fragments. So the 5.56 penetrated more then the 5.45 but the 74's round caused more damage to what would be the internal part of the body. The heavy non steal core bullet seamed to penetrate better then the steal core bullet. All ammo was new not some old stuff that had set around. The rifles were new right out of the box no modifications were done to them just pre fire cleaning and bore checking no modification to the ammo the AR 15 was The A 2 type with 20 in barrel we had no problem with ether gun both worked flawlessly I would not be afraid to depend on ether rifle I believe the built design is what makes or brakes a rifle and that is one thing the military or anyone needs to work on
At 100 yards?
With a tantal?
