The toy M-16 made by Matell
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 ...
I read, years ago, that Charles Atkins Jr was hunting in South Vietnam back in the late 1950s, before the war.
He was warned to be aware of the communist infiltrators, and while hunting, there came into his view two of them armed with rifles.
Askins pulled out his 44 Magnum and killed them both dead. One was armed with an SKS, the other with a strange rifle that turned out to be an AK.
Askins claimed that HE was probably the first person to take a human life with the .44 mag, and capture the first AK-47.
Drinking that stuff might have caused his internal bleeding.
The same could be said of the Czech CZ vz. 58. Mine is absolutely flawless.
Excellent paint remover!
.
Mikail Kalashnikov was also a life member of the NRA. That’s the American NRA. Hince he was one of our comrades-in-arms. He was a good one to have on our Freeper side.
***the “Matty Matell” and is now called the AR-15,***
Back in the late 1960s, a men’s adventure magazine had a cover painting of a wounded US soldier and a beautiful nurse fighting against the VC. The weapon the soldier was using was an M-16. A copy of the Matell toy M-16.
I had a gun shop owner tell me that some M-16s were made by Matell. I tried not to laugh in his face.
My condolences to the Russians, they have lost a great man today.
Although it was never intended as a standard battle rifle, I think the M1 Carbine would qualify as a very early assault rifle. It did not have a full auto feature but that was added later.
In my opinion, it was better without it.
***When he shot the AK47, he showed how comparatively inaccurate the weapon was,***
Inaccurate, yes. But the VALMET and GALIL versions were super accurate, from what I have read.
They had their Germans, we had our Germans.
The toy M-16 made by Matell
Go now to your rest, Sgt. Kalashnikov. You did well.
lol..true.
I have always thought the denigration of the gun for being comparatively inaccurate quite odd.
A very large percentage of those it was intended for weren’t going to be crack shots anyway. Many operating on the spray and pray principle, with no real aiming at all.
IOW, weapons and tools. An effective tool is one that works well at what it is intended to do. The AK-47 was never intended to be a precision weapon or a sniper rifle. It worked supremely well at what it was intended for. Nobody can ask more from any tool or weapon. Combining this high functionality with inexpensive construction makes it a work of true genius.
The fact you could stamp it out of sheet metal for less than $3 and that 100 million+ of them are floating around comes to mind...
Acckk.
“IOW, weapons and tools.” should be “A weapon is a tool.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.