The AK-47: A real weapon of mass destruction

The folklore of war features many weapons: the flintlock rifle of the Revolutionary War, the Henry repeating rifle in the Civil War and the M-series rifles that served American soldiers from World War I through modern times.

But no hand-held weapon has impacted the history of conflict more than the Soviet-designed AK-47.

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Then we come to the US M16.

However, Kalashnikov's AK47 isn't the only popular submachine gun out in the world, enter the M16. The United States Military began using the 223 caliber M16 during the Vietnam War. Some of the upsides to the M16 are that it weighs less and fires more accurately than the AK47. It is also easier to add modifications to the M16. The only problem with the M16 is that it can prove to be unreliable without proper maintenance. Some of the advantages to the AK47 over the M16 are that the former is easier to clean and repair, is more cost efficient, and has the option of select-fire, not to mention its quick fire rating. The downsides to the AK47 is that it is very loud, heavy, and not as accurate as the M16 by a long shot (no pun intended).

I have a question. If the AK-47 seems to be superior to the US M16, why haven't we reverse engineered the AK-47? Is it US pride? It isn't like we don't have AK-47s. We must have a ton of them.

The seeming advantage of the M16 seems to be its accuracy, but when you're shooting hundreds of rounds a second, who the fuck needs accuracy? I could bring down a pheasant in flight with one round.

Yes, I have hunted pheasants and killed quite a few. I'm beyond that, but still bad.

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