Posted on 04/18/2010 6:50:11 PM PDT by goodwithagun
If I had my pick of wepons I would go with a noisy cricket hands down.
I suppose if you plan to spend a month in mud in a jungle or in desert sand under constant fire from very close range, (????), with zero chance to clean either rifle, the AK would be better.
I have never seen or even heard of this show. It sounds interesting, though stupid, for the reasons you mention.
A better match would be Spartan vs. samurai, as the ninja were spies and assassins, not warriors. They fought only when forced to.
A single first rate samurai would probably have taken out a top-notch Spartan in no time. The samurai were individualistic warriors. Spartan equipment and training was not based on individual combat, while that of the samurai was.
For the exact same reason, a thousand Spartans would have demolished a thousand samurai. The Spartans were trained to fight as a unit, and were punished and sometimes even executed for glory-hounding like the samurai routinely indulged in.
I have fired more rounds than I could count out of AR platforms. The ONLY jams I have had has been with one of those crappy 40 round steel mags or bad ammo that was improperly manufactued. If an AR is jammming it is manufactured improperly or worn enough for depot level servicing.
read post 23
“I have fired about a zillion rounds and not had that happen.”
Double feeds from a bad magazine is the only way that happens, and smacking the stock hard on the ground is the clearing drill. But, again, bad mags way out of spec. Decent mags never have that problem.
Or the persom is not cleaning it.
I’ve had ARs, M-4 and M-16s as well, that received little TLC and also ran fine. I’ve run them throught the mud and sand and pure salt water and would trust my life to them.
I dragged the M-16 threw about 300 yards of sand in boot camp and learned that if I didn’t want it to jam to keep the ejection port closed. So now I have the habbit of closing it after firing. Better safe then dead.
No way it is accuate at 600m with a 18” barrel.
Well..given that the AR is semiauto and the AK is full auto, I’d take the M16 over the AK for full auto use, and the AR for semi auto.
While the AK can fire even when extremely dirty, gritty, and such, if you can’t hit the target, the weapon is nothing. And, I never had issues my M16 (back in the day), or any of my AR’s, for that matter. I’m not meticulous about cleaning them, but they are decently clean, and I’ve found them to eminently reliable.
huh? AR-15 is ONLY semi and the AK is ONLY automatic? where do you get that?!
You seem to have your civilian vs. military use mixed up for both rifles.
I too have wondered if the direct gas impingement system might have something to do with the AR’s extraordinary accuracy. I had a Swedish Ljungman in 6.5 Swedish and it too was extraordinarily accurate and also had the rare direct impingement system.
I was in grad school in the late 80’s when the assault rifle ban hit. I was sitting pretty I thought. I had over 200 guns including a large number of the most desirable ones. I had three brand new H-Bars still in the box each with an included .22 LR conversion kit.
I got pretty hard up for money as it took me much longer to get through than I first thought it would. I would hit gun shows with my guns and was disgusted at most dealers. They would have a well used AR-15 priced at $2500 and would not give me $700 for a new H-Bar. Same thing with high capacity mags. They wanted $90 for theirs and would offer me $15 for a brand new Smith & Wesson 15 rounder which would also fit several guns beside the S&W.
When I finally got out of grad school, I had around a dozen guns. I then had to retire on disability and have not rebuilt my collection but one day I will.
Bushmaster is making an AK like gas operated system for their ar’s
FWIW, while active, I carried an GAU-5 (CAR-15 but full auto possible) iron sights and all - it was OK.
IF I had to choose an end-of-the-world as you know it rifle, the pick would go to the Ak-47 in 7.62 x.39, with the SKS as a close second.
But, as they say, your mileage may very.
The show had a samurai vs. Viking and the samurai won because of his individual weapons and skill. As you mention, Vikings fought as a unit using their shields to build a wall.
The AK will almost always fire. I have never had one not go BANG. But they are very inaccurate.
The AR is very accurate, but that is at the cost of jamming. It is also very easy to replace the barrel/upper.
So if I was heading out into the bush for years, I would take the AK. For a fight were accuracy matters, the AR/M16.
Lots of people are getting sub-MOA with it; I think a man-sized target at 600m would be within the realm of reality given the proven accuracy at 100m.
I think your point is valid although obviously no one will ever know because we can’t have a real Spartan fight a real Samurai. I happened to see that episode (it is the only one I have seen) and their point about the Spartan using his shield as a weapon seemed like a good one.
Thucydides in his “History of the Peloponnesean War” mentioned that the Spartans were not extremely good as individual fighters but were unbeatable in the phalanx. I suspect they actually were pretty good as individuals since they spent their entire lives training.
My guess would be the same as yours. As individuals I would pick the Samurai, as an army the Spartans. It might vary more with individuals than anything else.
The Spartans main weapon was the dory or stabbing spear. It would probably be much less effective in individual combat but I personally would not want to face one. They of course also had their sword.
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