6 myths about the Kalashnikov assault rifle that you shouldn't believe

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It's time to find out if the AK punches the railroad track and if the green berets really love it more than their native M16.

Myth 1. AK is very hard

This misconception came to us from America. It is traditionally believed there that the Russian Kalashnikov is reliable, but extremely heavy. And an unprepared shooter from it will land the entire clip in a white light as a pretty penny - this is how this monster twitches in his hands. And the M16 is supposedly more capricious and requires more delicate handling, but it is much lighter and more convenient. And allows you to shoot more accurately.

But this was true in the 50s, when the AK with an empty magazine weighed NI Naidin. Manual on shooting. 7, 62 ‑ mm modernized Kalashnikov assault rifle 4, 3 kg, and M16 - 1 kg less. But a modern Kalashnikov weighs 3, 93 kg against 4 kg for a foreign analogue. So there is parity. The AK-47 is neither heavier nor lighter.

Myth 2. A shot from an AK pierces a railway rail

This is one of the most popular myths that even those who do not understand weapons have heard. AK is endowed with some incredible armor-piercing: it will shoot through the rail, and the tree, and the enemy hiding behind it. And even tank armor will allegedly be sewn through.

In reality, if you try to shoot through the rail with standard hunting or army cartridges, nothing will work - weapon enthusiasts have long tested it. Rather, the shooter will receive a ricochet - if he is lucky, he will not touch the vital organs.

Chances are only for armor-piercing charges of the 7N23 type, and even then if you shoot at an uncured (and preferably rusty) rail.

The army cartridge of the Kalashnikov assault rifle under the M43 marking has excellent armor penetration rates for its class. However, only a maniac with an incredible craving for destruction, but without the instinct of self-preservation, will shoot from it at thick steel gizmos.

Myth 3. The Kalashnikov assault rifle does not need to be cleaned

Another popular misconception. Allegedly, the AK is so reliable that you can completely calmly drown it in the mud, and then take it out and put a burst of enemy infantry platoon running at you in a frontal attack.

A famous quote from an American military journalist, uttered during the Vietnam War, is circulating on the Internet.

Standing nearby, I looked into the hole and pulled the AK out of the slurry. “Look, guys,” I said. "I'll show you how real infantry weapons work." I pulled the bolt back and fired 30 shots - the AK had not been cleaned since the day I got into the swamp about a year ago. It was just the weapon our soldiers needed, not the out-of-trust M16.

David Hackworth Colonel of the United States Army.

Some even say that the AK is designed in such a way that it is capable of "self-cleaning" when firing. Pull the trigger - and, firing, the machine gun will spit out not only bursts of lead, but also the dirt that has packed inside. It remains only to wipe the handle on your pants and continue to fight.

Nevertheless, this is a delusion, and the grossest at that. The AK is a reliable weapon, but even it cannot function without cleaning and lubrication. Corrosion, barrel contamination, problems with the delivery and extraction of cartridges - all these troubles will immediately manifest themselves if you do not take care of the AK. This can result in not only a breakdown of the machine, but also serious injuries. Firing contaminated weapons is simply life threatening.

The myth of "self-cleaning" weapons originated from the American "counterpart" of the AK, the M16 rifle. When this gun was first brought to Vietnam, rumors circulated among the soldiers that it did not need to be cleaned.

And in theory this is almost the case, because the M16 has fewer design holes for dirt to get into. In addition, at first it was assumed that the rifle would be equipped with cartridges with special gunpowder, which practically does not give carbon deposits.

But in practice, it turned out that the "emka" is even more sensitive to pollution than the AK, and the designated special cartridges for it were simply not produced in sufficient quantities. So any weapon requires cleaning, regardless of talk about "dirt resistance".

Myth 4. Kalashnikov created a machine gun alone

The most common version of the development of legendary weapons sounds like this. Sergeant of the tank forces Mikhail Kalashnikov was wounded in another battle with the Wehrmacht troops and sent to the rear for treatment. It just didn't lie for him in a military hospital, and he took and invented an assault rifle that surpassed all the rifles in service with the Soviet Red Army.

But in fact, this story is a fiction. Kalashnikov, of course, is an outstanding designer, but the AK can hardly be called his sole invention.

The first prototypes of the machine were generally rejected by the selection committee, and it took many years of improvements, carried out by the efforts of a whole group of Soviet engineers.

By the way, Mikhail Kalashnikov never concealed this and described in detail the work of all the gunsmiths who modified his brainchild, in particular, the designers Zaitsev and Dementyev.

Myth 5. The AK is a copy of the German StG 44 assault rifle by Hugo Schmeisser

In general, outwardly, these machines are similar. Therefore, many lovers of foreign weapons, noticing the similarity, begin to say something in the spirit: "The Russians cannot come up with anything of their own and they steal everything from the Germans."

Nevertheless, the rifles are structurally different.

Strictly speaking, in the USSR, the first such weapon was created by S. B. Monetchikov. The history of the Russian machine gun in 1943 by engineer Alexei Sudaev. By itself, his machine was not perfect enough to put production on stream. But many of the ideas gained during its development were applied in the AK-47.

The AK with the StG 44 has a couple of similar features to the AA Malimon. Domestic submachine guns (notes of a weapons-maker). For example, in both cases, the automation works due to the gas outlet, and both carbines - at least in their early versions - have a breakable receiver to facilitate disassembly.

But at the same time, a similar system of removal of powder gases was used in the Simonov ABC-36 rifle long before the invention of Schmeisser. So it's a mystery who copied what from whom.

Myth 6. The Americans in Vietnam threw out their M16s and armed themselves with captured AKs

It is not true. By all charters and instructions of the American army, soldiers were strictly forbidden to take captured weapons. The reason is simple: if someone began to rumble out of an AK taken from the Vietnamese or its clone, the shooter could easily be mistaken for the enemy by his comrades. And to shoot this smart guy is just an oversight.

But who really picked up the trophy machines were special forces and saboteurs. The fact is that often the Vietnamese made each other understand that they were not enemies by firing a couple of AK shots into the air. Its tracer bullets were tinted green, while the M16 had a red trail. In addition, American rifles differed in sound.

This was used by the Viet Cong for signaling. A kind of "friend or foe" identification system.

Sly American "green berets" took AK with them and, approaching enemy positions, fired a couple of shots into the air so that the enemy sentries took them for their own. This is probably what gave rise to the myth that Americans cannot live without Soviet AKs.