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Assault rifle inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at 94
BBC ^

Posted on 12/23/2013 8:41:52 AM PST by kronos77

he inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died aged 94, Russian TV reports.

The automatic rifle he designed became one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons.

Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.

Although honoured by the state, Kalashnikov made little money from his gun. He once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in November.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: ak47; banglist; kalashnikhov; obituary; russia
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To: JRandomFreeper

I would but I’m clean out of Ma Deuce rounds.


201 posted on 12/23/2013 6:59:34 PM PST by Redcitizen (Never bring a tank to a Chuck Norris fight.)
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To: Revolting cat!

Is he #1, 2, or 3 in this cycle?


202 posted on 12/23/2013 6:59:40 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: a fool in paradise

1, I think.


203 posted on 12/23/2013 7:07:43 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: BluH2o

That’s pretty cool. I know the feeling being a brand new private and having the top dogs around. I was 2PPCLI for a time and 3 tours. I generally didn’t engage too many in conversation that out ranked me significantly.


204 posted on 12/23/2013 7:18:38 PM PST by Bulwyf
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To: donmeaker

>>>>knockdown power is a myth.

You can penetrate a human, but nothing remotely the size of a bullet can knock a man down.

You can penetrate certain parts. If you get his spine or brain stem he will fall, but will not be knocked down.

If you penetrate the heart or large blood vessels, comeing from it, the target will bleed out, but will not be knocked down.

Lavoisier the French Scientist who discovered oxygen was sentenced to death. His last experiment was to blink his eyes as long as possible after the knife cut his neck. It took 16 seconds for that head to die....<<<<

Knockdown power is not a myth. It is directly related to a size, shape of ammunition and muzzle velocity.
Learn about kinetic energy.


205 posted on 12/23/2013 7:19:30 PM PST by cunning_fish
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To: cunning_fish

If it knocks a man down when it hits, simple physics says that it will also knock the firer over when discharged. Learn Newton’s Laws.


206 posted on 12/23/2013 7:38:19 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

It actually does to some extent, indeed in a different way and it is why a shooter is able to sustain it. We are actually comparing apples and oranges right now.


207 posted on 12/23/2013 7:43:57 PM PST by cunning_fish
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To: cunning_fish

No, it doesn’t. ‘Knockdown power’ as in Hollywood style ‘lift a man off their feet through the air and put them on their butt’ is a myth for man portable type gunpowder weapon sans explosive warheads - it would also lift a shooter off their feet through the air and put them on their butt when fired!

Incapacitation, musculoskeletal damage and the like are real and both can and will cause a human to collapse when shot - but get thrown through the air and knocked down? No. Check out any live test of a ‘bulletproof’ vest.


208 posted on 12/23/2013 7:49:48 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

Then said “knockdown power” it is not meant figuratively. Indeed the higher kinetic energy applied to your enemy the more shocking effect it makes.


209 posted on 12/23/2013 7:55:59 PM PST by cunning_fish
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To: kronos77

RIP.


210 posted on 12/23/2013 8:17:45 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: henkster

And the Sturm44 was developed from a Russia design dating to prior to 1920!


211 posted on 12/23/2013 8:24:04 PM PST by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: gundog

Hahahaha...I am sure there is an exclusion clause there somewhere!


212 posted on 12/23/2013 8:34:00 PM PST by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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ping for later


213 posted on 12/23/2013 8:41:52 PM PST by mykroar (We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again. - Nathanael Greene)
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To: Azeem

Love how people act like the STG44 was a Nazi death ray, and the M1 carbine is denigrated as mere handy pistol.

The facts are, 125 grains 7.92 at 2250 fps for the vaunted STG44. Yet the 30 Carbine is 110 grain 7.62 at 1990 fps.
There is almost no practical difference.

Oh, except there is one difference. The M1 is half the weight and twice as ergonomic as the German try. When I held an StG44 I was amazed at the weight and awkwardness of it. The AK outclasses it in every way too.

But 30 Carbine is a far far better round than people realize.


214 posted on 12/23/2013 11:21:04 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: Azeem

“The .30 cal has very similar stats to the .357 Mag “

Try again, unless you mean 357 mag out of a rifle, or you mean that at 100 yards, the 30 carbine still packs more power than the hottest 357 magnum loads produce at the muzzle.

Also, the new belle of the ball is the 300 whisper. its non suppressed load is, wait for it.,,,,, a 125 grain 7.62 at 2150. A pointed, slightly warmer 30 carbine is the hottest spec op round to be had these days.


215 posted on 12/23/2013 11:31:48 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: cunning_fish

Kinetic energy is a fine thing. Yet a bullet that misses has the same amount of kinetic energy as one that hits. Energy lost when a bullet penetrates the back does no damage. Some structures in the body are necessary life, others are necessary for volitional action. Miss an important organ, and you don’t end its function, perhaps ever, perhaps only indirectly after a slow process of bleeding out. The spine is nearly the length of the torso, but also only the width of the tip of the little finger. Even when missed, psychological conditioning (Oh, I was shot, I should lie down!) can lead to greater effect than what biology would expect, or less. One gentleman took a 40mm grenade through the chest, and lived. Another had a crowbar blown through his head by a premature charge, and survived and recovered. Kinetic energy? both had plenty, and survived, the latter without ever losing consciousness!

Because of the complexity of the human target, simple measures such as kinetic energy give misleading estimates of bullet effect. If you care enough to give your very best, care enough to put a few rounds in every identified target.


216 posted on 12/24/2013 12:32:21 AM PST by donmeaker (The lessons of Weimar will soon be relearned.)
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To: MHGinTN

Ah the old Fedarov! The difference is Hugo made it work.

After Hugo made it work, and the Winchester design team had made it work, then Kalashnikov had the task to make it work again, with Hugo’s help.


217 posted on 12/24/2013 12:35:01 AM PST by donmeaker (The lessons of Weimar will soon be relearned.)
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To: Anton.Rutter

my spanish mauser was converted to chamber 7.62x51, but the spanish used a low power round. I have carfully fired high pressure rounds, but the rifling isn’t very effective at high pressure. I get keyholes. After learning what I could, I retired it.

My two Krags still work fine. My most accurate rifle is the P-17 American Enfield. I can touch bullet holes all day with that.


218 posted on 12/24/2013 12:51:17 AM PST by donmeaker (The lessons of Weimar will soon be relearned.)
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To: kronos77

Now he can meet Sam Colt


219 posted on 12/24/2013 3:11:47 AM PST by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: kronos77
The concept of the “assault rifle” has been attributed to various designers and countries. Probably the first rifle of this type was designed by Russian V.G. Federov in 1915. Federov’s rifle fired the soft recoiling 6.5x50SR Japanese cartridge used in the Type 38 Arisaka rifle. Some 3,200 of these selective fire were produced. The rifle saw combat service in WW1, the Russian Civil War, and the 1939-1940 Russo-Finnish War. It was retired in 1945.

In America between WW1 and WW2, the US Army toyed with the .276 Pedersen (7x51) round. The Pedersen and Garand rifles were the Army's new rifle candidates to replace the venerable Springfield M1903. Unfortunately, the Pedersen needed a dry wax lubricant to function and it was rejected in favor of the M1 Garand in .30-06 caliber (7.62x63). {A wise choice since America was embroiled in a global war five years after the M1 was adopted in 1936.)

In 1940 the US Army was looking for a light rifle to span the range gap between the .45 pistol and .30 caliber rifle. The .30 M1 and M1A1 Carbine was the result. This cartridge was a scaled-up pistol caliber (7.62x33). In 1944, the US Army type standardized the M2 carbine (selective fire) and a new 30-round magazine for it.

The Germans realized they needed a selective fire rifle to bridge the range gap of the 9x19 caliber pistol and 7.92x57 rifle cartridges. They developed the 7.92x33 Kurz (short) cartridge that saw action in the prototype MKn-42(H) and MKb-43(W), MP-43/MP-44, StG-45, and VG-1 rifles. Hitler also coined the term “Sturmgewehr” [for storm or assault rifle].

The Russians were on the receiving end of the German's new assault rifles and developed the 7.62x39 intermediate caliber for their Siminov SKS-45g and Kalashnikov AK-47g rifles.

Post WW2, the British developed the .280 British (7x43) as their optimal assault rifle caliber. Skulduggery on the part of US Army Ordnance Corps forced the adoption of the T65E3 cartridge (7.62x51) on NATO and the .280 British faded into history. The new 7.62x51 NATO was a product improved .30-06 (7.62x63) cartridge and was not suitable in the assault rifle role because it was uncontrollable in automatic fire.

The last cartridges in the intermediate or assault rifle caliber are the .223 Remington (5.56x45 NATO) and the Russian 5.45x39. The former came about as the result of the US Army's “Project SALVO” and the introduction of the radical (at the time) AR-15/M16 rifle. The latter was the Russian response to the 5.56 NATO cartridge and was fielded in the AK-74 rifle.

The intermediate calibers have reached a dominant place because of their light recoil, accuracy, controlability in automatic fire, and light weight that allows carry of more ammunition. It all started with V.G. Federov’s Avtomat in 1915.

220 posted on 12/24/2013 4:02:25 AM PST by MasterGunner01
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