AK-47 , THE RIFLE WHICH STOOD THE TEST OF TIME-- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

AK-47   THE AMAZING RUSSIAN ASSAULT  RIFLE

A stands for automatic. ( avtomat )

K stands for Kalashnikov . ( Kalashnikova )

47 stands for the year off build.

In 2004 Vladmir Putin sent George W Bush some Russian Vodka in a bottle shaped like a AK-47, just to remind him of its popularity in USA.. what with its reliable firing rate of 700 round per minute. It was also to remind that that AK-47 is an invention of Russia and not Hollywood.  

An AK-47 requires NIL training. Just load , shoot and kill. There is a selector switch for single shot of full automatic fire. It has passed every torture test of getting buried in ice or sand or dirty salt water, thrown down cliffs and very time the gun fired. It created large exit wounds and can pass through a car door at 100 metres easily.

In the Hollywood movie First Blood II, Rambo takes on the entire Viet Cong with a old and battered AK-47.  His American colleague with a M16 asks him “ A beat to shit AK?. Every 12 year old in Nam got that!”  Rambo looks mighty pleased and gives his trademark  laborious side way drawl “ Exactly!”

American Marines in Viet Nam were given M16 guns which jammed even in light rain. And they had to face the awesome firepower of the Viet Cong 40 kg warriors whose guns never jammed even if it was covered in heavy mud. So after killing them  the Americans used to steal their AK-47 rifles and bullets.

When your life is on the line you need a reliable weapon, NOT a fancy one on paper. Their bullshit Colt Armalite M16 guns had to be cleaned every 30 rounds, if it had to be reliable. The GIs’ were NOT even issued with rifle cleaning kits. The US military came up with a white washing statement later that the soldiers were given the wrong cartridges—so many lives lost, by the big bull of M16 being maintenance free!

If you hold a AK47 and shake it, it rattles . But such a shake given to a M16, does NOT rattle—for the simple reason enough clearances for temperature variations and grit in the system was ignored. So though the AK47 was less accurate in distances greater than 300 metres, they were much more reliable, as the gun never jammed in the thick of battle, at the most inopportune and critical moment.

Most firefights happen within 300 metres range. The maker Kalashnikov was so cock sure that his gun wont jam, that he never bothered to fit them with bayonets..

Just about 4 months after the World trade centre came down in New York, my ship loaded a full shipload of Siberian USED railway tracks at St Petersberg Russia.  Siberian railway tracks have the best steel on this planet.  I made sure I examined what went into my ships holds. There was NOT a single USED railway track—all were BRAND NEW. It is easy to find a used track, as the bolts and nuts will leave circular marks. Some gigantic Russian mafia export to US government , to be melted in the furnace for military needs.

One of the reasons Russian AK-47 assault rifle and its later models has stood the test of time , is due to superior metallurgy. Many countries make their own AK-47 guns without licence. Their guns cannot fire 700 rounds a minute and will jam as the metal expands. While the Russian AK-47 will work from minus 40 deg C of Siberia to plus 60 deg centigrade of Kuwait desert.

On my last ship I had my Filipino Bosun, who was kidnapped by the Nigerian rebels at Lagos , along with the 2^nd Mate and the Russian Chief Engineer. He tells me that he used to cry every day, for the couple of months he was with them in the jungles. Then he said that the Russian Chief Engineer was very happy. It seems the rebels used to give him hundreds of AK-47 rifles to overhaul, and in return they used to feed him well with fresh lamb and as many girls as he wanted at night.

One of my ex- Russian Chief Engineers had told me that at school they were trained to dismantle and assemble AK-47 rifles with eyes blindfolded. It was part of the school curriculum in the cold war era. I remember him telling they there are only 8 parts, and even a retard can do it, it was no big deal.

The AK-47 is a GAS BLOW BACK operated weapon. When the gun if fired and the round detonated the  gas of the explosion behind the bullet goes up the barrel, and enters a small port at the top of the barrel near the muzzle, from where it directed to push the working piston mechanism back at the breech. This ejects the spent cartridge and loads a new cartridge, from the magazine to repeat the cycle. The gun reloads by itself.  simultaneously the hammer is cocked , and it does it 11 times a second under the automatic fire mode..

Lt Gen Mikael Timofeyevich Klashnikov started his career as a gun designer after getting shot on his shoulder with a nazi shell shrapnel during the Battle of Bryansk in Oct 1941 as a tank commander.

While in the hospital for 6 long months, he heard soldiers complaining about their guns—which they could NOT officially. This man  receives only a state pension today, and has received many awards including the Hero of the Russian federation .  

He is proud of his brass bust in his native village of Kuria , in the Siberian region of Altai. The AK-47 is still being manufactured in the first factory it was made at Urals.

If he was an American Jew he would be the richest man in the world.

He says modestly today “ I am ready to shake hands with anybody who makes a better rifle than AK-47 . All the latest model reverse engineered fake models like the Chinese cannot fire 700 rounds per minute at a muzzle velocity of more than 730 metres per second  without jamming.

 There are more than 110 million happy owners of this superbly designed assault rifle. It has been in  every war since 1949—and will be around for some more decades. Where there is a war, there will be an AK-47.  The AK-47 is here to stay, because of its durability, low cost production, ease of use  and its reliability.

More AK-47 rifles have been produced than all other rifles combined.

The later models of AK-47 ( AK-74 and AKMS ) have silencers , anti flash devices, night vision telescopic sights, folding stocks and short barrels—for covert operations at night by paratroopers . You get 100 rounds drum magazines too. The later models an go 1000 metres and punch holes on thick steel armour.

The shifted pulse gas operated AN-94 can fire 1800 rounds per minute—with single shot, 2 round burst or fully automatic modes.  Double shots ensure a kill. The “shifted pulse” is a high tech system that delays the recoil by microseconds so that the shot is more accurate. The “cylic rate reducer” is used to slow down fire in fully automatic mode.

The below flag belongs to Mozambique.--it shows an AK-47

In Somali , in the year 2011-- you can barter an AK-47 for a sack of grain or a cow.

An AK-47 is as famous around the world as Coca Cola.

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

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