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Best Assault Rifle

There is no best assault rifle because you need a different gun for different types of combat. For example: For Urban warfare in tight streets you'll want the smallest assault rifle possible for faster, sneakier movement and so that the enemy wont see your gun crossing the corner long before you.\
I like the TAR 21, Ive only used that and the M4. The TAR21 is plastic and extremely light, you hardly feel like you are carrying anything.
 
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Joshua C, are you just sounding like an opinionated 14 year old because you are? or are you just a biased weapon owner?

On the 416/417 If you read up on the changes, the only thing kept was the trigger mechanism(and perhaps one other part). And for your information, the AK-47 is a very unreliable weapon that nobody uses, the AK - 47M is the proper and correct name for the well known AK, the original variants of the AK were jam happy peices of ****.

In terms of an assault rifle, a few things matter, reliablity/accuracy/stopping power. The AK has two of these to about 300 Yards, the H&K has all three to a much further distance (depending on your weapon sights, be they open/aimpoint/ACOG). It depends what you need, if you only need a weapon out to 100Yards max, both will do and its up to opinionated twats to yell out which one is best, if its a matter of range, then H&K wins.

EDIT: Thought it necessary to throw in that the H&K inst necessary my most supported weapon here, there are many AR's that can engage up to 700-1000 Yards. Just making the point that the AK series suffers from the lack of very effective medium range accuracy.
There wasen't really anything wrong with the original AK-47s and jamming certainly wasen't their problem. A bit of a problem with the AK-47 was that there was a small chance that the weapon could fire out of battery in fully automatic so they added a rate reducer in the AKM to adress this. But other then that the AKM isn't really a whole lot better then the AK-47 in performance. The thing the AKM has going for it over the AK47 was that it used a stamped sheet metal reciever which costed alot less to make then the forged steel reciever of the AK47 and it was also a bit lighter too. As for the 416 it's hardly a remarkable weapon since as it's basicly just a M4 with a piston.
 
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Actually, the best assault rifle is the Winchester Model 1894. Dead-on accurate out to as far as you can see, and a fast enough rate of fire that you can engage multiple assaulting enemies and stop them before they get too close. However, the operation of these rifles allows you to choose how fast it cycles, giving the shooter a unique advantage in deciding when, where, and how to place their shots.

Additionally, they are available in a host of calibres and variations, with various accessories such as saddle rings and shorter barrels for increased portability and to facilitate action in close quarters.
 
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The Winchester 1894 lever action is not a assault weapon... Its a rifle... Although I will agree that it is one of the best still around.

When I shot once I thought it was a little hard to cycle fast. I've been people shoot them crazy fast but I couldn't picture it with the particular one I was shooting.
 
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There wasen't really anything wrong with the original AK-47s and jamming certainly wasen't their problem. A bit of a problem with the AK-47 was that there was a small chance that the weapon could fire out of battery in fully automatic so they added a rate reducer in the AKM to adress this. But other then that the AKM isn't really a whole lot better then the AK-47 in performance. The thing the AKM has going for it over the AK47 was that it used a stamped sheet metal reciever which costed alot less to make then the forged steel reciever of the AK47 and it was also a bit lighter too.

Well, whilst the primary reason to replace the 47 was that it cost too much and took too long to mass produce, there's a little more to it than that, here's the full list of changes made with the AKM (this list is based on the common production model, very early and very late production models can differ slightly):

  • Frontsight slimmed to reduce weight, materials needed for production, and improve weight balance.
  • Angled recoil compensator added to reduce muzzle climb, and to prevent kicking up lots of dust when fired from prone, it also has a slight effect as a flash hider, but it is primarely a recoil comp.
  • Gaschamber fitted with Bayonet lug, new easy attach/detach Bayonet also designed for it.
  • Gastube simplified, it nolonger has the 8 holes drilled in the tube, they are replaced by 4 holes in the gaschamber, easier to mass produce.
  • Front slingmount is now placed on the front grip retainer instead of the Gaschamber, easier to produce.
  • Buldges added to both sides of the lower front grip, giving a more solid grip on the gun, helpfull for controling recoil.
  • Got rid of pointless rear retainer on front grip.
  • Plywood is used instead of solid wood, reducing cost and logistics in production.
  • 800m rear sight replaced by 1000m rear sight (the only useless addition i might add).
  • Boltcarrier finished in black instead of beeing left shiny.
  • New stamped steel reciver with milled inserts, much lighter, much cheaper, a lot faster to produce.
  • Modeselector and top-cover stamped from thinner steel plate, with ridges for streangth, cheaper and lighter.
  • Hammer mechanism redesignet to keep the ROF stable at 600 RPM.
  • Stock retainer simplified, easier to produce, the stock itself is likewise made easier to produce.
  • Pistol grip made from Bakelite instead of Wood, cheaper and faster to make.
  • Stock is now in-line with the barrel, instead of drooping downwards, much improving felt recoil (less muzzleclimb).
  • Rear sling swivel placed on stock instead of Reciver, faster to make.
  • Finsish is Parkerized instead of Blued, cheaper.
So it's a lot cheaper and a lot faster to make, it's also allmost 1kg lighter than the 47, but it actually also has less barrel climb when fiering full-auto (people owning semi-only versions probably wont notice this though), and that alone would be a good reason to choose the AKM over the 47 if you where given the choice between the two.
 
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Most of things are just cost savings they don't mean anything for the soldier using them. You could just put the compensator on the AK47 and I have milled AK and a stamped one I can barely tell the difference in weight.

There are several things that matter to the soldier, that may not be readilly apparent to a civilian shooter, 1kg may not be all that much compared to the overall weight of the gun, if you weigh both of them in your hands it wont seem like a big deal.. but then again, you probably aren't carrying the thing around with you all day every day, more likely, you are putting it in a case or bag, driving to the range, shoot it a little and then pack it away again, thats usually what people do with their civie guns atleast.

And yes, you can put the comp on a 47, but you cannot put the in-line stock on it, and the stock is actually more important than the comp, and again, this is a point that civie shooters usually miss, because muzzle climb is not a big problem when you are shooting at targets on semi-auto, and usually, if people do have a Class-III license, they are just using the full-auto for spraying targets for fun.. but it's a different matter to the soldier, who could buy the farm if his burst is not on target, for him the better full-auto handling of the AKM can save his life.

And sometimes little things can matter, like the bolt beeing black instead of silver, that could be the difference between staying hidden, or beeing noticed and shot, in life and death situations, small marginals can make all the difference, and as a military weapon, the AKM is just that bit better.
 
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There are several things that matter to the soldier, that may not be readilly apparent to a civilian shooter, 1kg may not be all that much compared to the overall weight of the gun, if you weigh both of them in your hands it wont seem like a big deal.. but then again, you probably aren't carrying the thing around with you all day every day, more likely, you are putting it in a case or bag, driving to the range, shoot it a little and then pack it away again, thats usually what people do with their civie guns atleast.

And yes, you can put the comp on a 47, but you cannot put the in-line stock on it, and the stock is actually more important than the comp, and again, this is a point that civie shooters usually miss, because muzzle climb is not a big problem when you are shooting at targets on semi-auto, and usually, if people do have a Class-III license, they are just using the full-auto for spraying targets for fun.. but it's a different matter to the soldier, who could buy the farm if his burst is not on target, for him the better full-auto handling of the AKM can save his life.

And sometimes little things can matter, like the bolt beeing black instead of silver, that could be the difference between staying hidden, or beeing noticed and shot, in life and death situations, small marginals can make all the difference, and as a military weapon, the AKM is just that bit better.
Actually the weight is only a few ounce difference between the my milled and stamped. Maybe the military AK47s were more heavy because I held a full auto chinese type 56 briefly and I thought it felt heavier then my milled AK or maybe it was just me. I like the way the furniture looks on the AK47 more then the AKM, maybe the AKM stock does keep the muzzle down better or maybe it dosen't I wouldin't notice the differnce like you said. The bolt isn't really silver but actually polished steel.
 
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Actually the weight is only a few ounce difference between the my milled and stamped. Maybe the military AK47s were more heavy because I held a full auto chinese type 56 briefly and I thought it felt heavier then my milled AK or maybe it was just me.

It's clouse to 1kg on the origional Russian models, but if your civie model is lighter than the Russian 47.. who knows, it's certainly possible, it's most likely a reproduction (IE: its probably not a retrofitted gun from the 1950's), and there's no saying they used the exact same grade of steel, wood, or even kept the measurements exactly the same (the thickness of the reciver walls could be less for instance).

I like the way the furniture looks on the AK47 more then the AKM, maybe the AKM stock does keep the muzzle down better or maybe it dosen't I wouldin't notice the differnce like you said.

Laminated wood does look cheaper than solid wood, and it is, so naturally the AKM doesen't look quite as nice, the same is true of the metal parts, parkerized steel does not look as nice as blued steel, but the AK was never ment to be pretty.

It's the shape that sets them apart though (as late production 47's also had laminated wood), the bulges on the AKM grip does provide for a more firm grip on the gun (think pulling down to fight full-auto recoil here), and the in-line stock does reduce muzzle-climb, they where changes that needed to happen, the old 47 had too much recoil for its own good.

The bolt isn't really silver but actually polished steel.

I was referring to the colour, not the metal used, they obviously didn't make the boltcarrier out of silver ;)
 
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Alright it ends up at a gunshow today, remarkably I came across the same exact chinese type 56 from before and I held it real good this time and the weight difference is HARDLY noticeable between the stamped one they had it's not this 2kg stuff weight difference you hear.

Its not 2Kg, it's less than (but clouse to) 1Kg (something like 850grams IIRC), and, you are comparing it to a Type-56, which is still made from 90% AK-47 parts, it only has the Stamped reciver, none of the other AKM parts (remember that most of them where lightened, not just the reciver), and even the reciver on the T56 is different, the barrel trunion on the T56 is not the same as on the AKM, you can even see it on the outside, look at where the 3 bolts that hold the trunion is placed on an AKM, and then a T56..

You need to compare 2 real Russians to get the weight difference between the 2 Russian weapons (but i know this is a tall order, i can't imagine there's many origional 1950's made AK-47's in the US, let alone ones that are still full-auto that people will let you handle, thouse that exist will likely be bring-back's from 'Nam).


I didn't pull thease numbers out of my hindquarters, go look it up, there is a weight difference between the 47 and the AKM, and with good reason, the weight of the gun was one of the things Kalashnikov set out to improve on the AKM when the red army rejected the 47.

Hell that alone makes my point, they rejected the AK-47 after less than 10 years of service, yet they adopted the AKM despite it competing against other excellent designs like the Korobov TKB-517 Prototype, and they have been using the AKM ever since, it is still in active service in Russia along side it's siblings like the 74 and 100 models which are based on it's design.

They did this because the AKM was a big enough improvement over the 47 to warrent it, it was lighter, cheaper, and it was a better shooter, it is by all means the better of the 2 designs for military purposes (and i still stress the military part, American hobby shooters comparing a well made Arsenal SAM-7 to a cheap and nasty Semi-only Romy wont see the points in the AKM's favour, and i don't blame them, but things would look quite different to a Russian soldier ano 1961).
 
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I've not cleaned my AR-15 in almost two years. It's had thousands of rounds through it and it still shoots perfectly even if it is all crusty and dirty. Hardly cleaned by service rifle either.

Well it wouldn't be a very good rifle if it couldn't handle its own powder residue. The real reliability argument comes from the performance the AR and AK display in harsh conditions.
 
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I've not cleaned my AR-15 in almost two years. It's had thousands of rounds through it and it still shoots perfectly even if it is all crusty and dirty. Hardly cleaned by service rifle either.

I am guessing you do not use Wolf. Although I've fired hundred of rounds of Wolf through my AR-15 all in one day and still no problems. Although cleaning at the end of the day was a b*****.

Whats your set up?
 
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