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It should be noted that the AK 47 was mostly ripped off from the german StG44.

It should be noted that the internal mechanisms of the AK-47 have little or nothing in common with the STG-44 and the idea that its a derivative weapon is one that has resulted from people who know nothing of firearms basing the workings of weapon solely on its external appearance and not on its actual function.
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If anything the internal mechanisms have more in common with the M1 Garand than the STG44.

If anything the internal mechanisms have more in common with the M1 Garand than the STG44.

This, though I will admit that the cartridges used by the STG and AK are close enough that...yea, probably copied and reduced for easier production in factories already turning out 7.62 pistol and rifle rounds for a multitude of existing weapons.

His inspiration for developing the AK was very noble. Something about a cart filled with six inches of blood in the bottom and men women and children, blah blah.

I wouldn't really credit him as a firearms designer, because he really didn't do anything other than refine and simplify ideas that were already in the works, and he didn't design more than one successful weapon, which makes the AK kind of a one-off.


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Daemonhammer wrote:
It should be noted that the AK 47 was mostly ripped off from the german StG44.

Stop saying things you know nothing about. There is nothing similar about them besides their loose aesthetic similarities.

 Captain Fantastic wrote:

I wouldn't really credit him as a firearms designer, because he really didn't do anything other than refine and simplify ideas that were already in the works, and he didn't design more than one successful weapon, which makes the AK kind of a one-off.

This is complete nonsense. First of all, Kalashnikov developed lots of other weapons, most notably PK machinegun, which if anything is more dominant design than AK-47 is.

Second, of course Kalashnikov ripped off good ideas from other guns. Every gun designer has done same. AR-15 or Glock are no more original than AK-47, yet for some reason, only Kalashnikov is singled out because of his supposed "influences", as if they somehow make his work less noteworthy.

In field of firearms, nearly everything was invented by 1900. After that, firearms design has been mostly about taking old ideas and refining and recombining them in new ways.

The PK is hardly more dominant then the AK family of rifles. Fantastic machinegun though it is, it and all it's variants probably haven't had as many units made as a single less common variant of the AK family

 Captain Fantastic wrote:


I wouldn't really credit him as a firearms designer, because he really didn't do anything other than refine and simplify ideas that were already in the works, and he didn't design more than one successful weapon, which makes the AK kind of a one-off.

He designed several successful weapons, unless we're going to consider the other AK's he made, the RPK, the Saiga, and the PK as unsuccessful weapons. By any measure they are. Not on par with the AK sure, but what firearm is?

but what firearm is?

It had to be done! *Flee*

I've been told that one of every five firearms in the world is an AK-47 or one of it's variants. If that is true, well then, there's that.

I've been to a few of the countries on that map, and interacted with their military.
None of them were using the M16/AR15, all of them were using an AK, or a local variant thereof.

Yeah. The AR15/M4 and its variants have ben greatly successful, but no AK successful.

None of the European countries marked use the M16 as their standard issue rifle. Neither does Australia. The M16 is popular in South East Asia though, and it's common amongst governmental forces in South America (regimes friendly to the U.S. any way)

 SOFDC wrote:

but what firearm is?

It had to be done! *Flee*

Misleading, many of those countries no longer use/have developed their own weapons that have little in common with the m16, like Germany and the G36... *drool*.

Other countries only ever received the M-16 in small quantities for evaluation or for use in certain select units that were operating closely with the US (NATO Standardization Agreements, aka STANAG).

I mean, I could show you a map of countries that are operators of the Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter, and you might be surprised to see that the US would be included amongst them, but in reality we only have a small handful that are used for evaluation and OPFOR/aggressor training, and tbh I'm not even really sure we paid for them...

We didn't. They were "tactically acquired"