Stop This Madness!

The AK 47 Assault Rifle
Manufactured By: Izhevsk Mechanical Works, Russia.
Caliber: 7.62 x 39 mm

The AK 47 is an acronym for (Автомат Калашникова образца) if you don’t read Russian, this reads – Avtomat Klashnikova 1947. Contrary to popular belief the ‘47’ in the name does not refer to the caliber of the rifle, it is the year the rifle was adopted and standardized. The AK 47 is the ideal assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikova and originally produced by the Izhevsk Mechanical Works in the Soviet Union and is the most widely used assault rifle even today with more AK rifles being produced than any other rifle in the history of guns selling over 100 million units world-wide.

History OF The Design
The concept of the assault rile is credited to the Germans, who hit upon the idea during World War II. The Germans believed, through experience, that almost every firearm combat occurred within a range of 300 meters this range made the fire power of all the existing rifle cartridges at the time far excessive for small arm fights. The Germans started working on their requirement. This sent armies of the world scurrying for a cartridge and rifle that would combine a sub-machine gun characteristics and benefits that could use an intermediate-power cartridge and could be effective over a 300 meter range.

The existing 7.92x 57 mm Mauser Cartridge was shortened to 33 mm. The result was a shorter, lighter and less expensive 7.92 x 33 mm caliber cartridge, which the Germans christened the 7.92 x 33 mm Kurz – meaning ‘short’. The cartridge was used with a rifle designed for the cartridge – arguably the first assault rifle - the Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44). It is believed that the Italians were also in the fray to develop their own version of an assault rifle and came out with the ‘Cei-Rigotti’ followed shortly by the Russian ‘Fedorov Avtomat’ rifles. It was, however, the Germans who popularized the use of the assault rifle, and towards the end of the Second World War, effectively used it against the Russians and in the bargain got them thinking about refining their version of the rile.

Military Man And Inventor
The inventor of the AK 47, Mikhail Kalashnikov, was born on November 10, 1919, in a Russian village called ‘Kurya’, to a peasant family. It was during his military service that the young Kalashnikov showed his prowess for invention. It was not long before Kalashnikov was promoted to senior sergeant. When he was badly injured in a battle against fascist invaders in 1941 at Bryansk and was convalescing in hospital that the idea of the AK assault rifle came to him and he began working on his latest invention, an invention that would take the world by storm.

The result was the AK-47 Assault Rifle that weighs a mere 3.8 kg (8.4 lb) when it is empty and 4.3 kg (9.5 lb) when loaded, has a total length of 870 mm (34¼ in) and a barrel length of 415 mm (16.3 in), is powered by a gas operating rotating bolt that loads and fires 600 rounds of 7.62 x 39 mm cartridges a minute over an effective range of 300 meters. The ammunition feed system can be a 30-round detachable box; compatible w/ RPK 40-round box or a 75-round drum magazine. Never has a deadlier hand-held firearm been produced in the history of mankind.