Top Ten Combat Rifles Of All Time #2 & #1
Military.com has rated their “Top Ten Combat Rifles Of All Time” here are the top two:
2. M16
Type: Semi or Fully Automatic Assault Rifle
Country of Origin: United States
Caliber: 5.56 x 45 mm (.223 inch)
Cartridge Capacity: 20-30 rounds
Muzzle Velocity: Approximately 3,281 feet per second
Rate of Fire: 700-950 rounds per minute
Although it took a little time to work out the gun’s jamming problems during its combat trials in the early 1960s, the M16 has proven to be an outstanding performer with superb accuracy, handling, service length and combat effectiveness. The rifle fulfilled the U.S. military’s desire to develop a lightweight modern assault rifle that could replace the semiautomatic M1 and its selective-fire counterpart, the M14. Its innovative features include lighter metal alloy and plastic construction, a simple gas reload system and the use of 5.56 mm ammunition, allowing soldiers to carry twice the amount of ammunition for the same weight of 7.62 mm rounds.
1. AK-47
Type: Semi or Fully Automatic Assault Rifle
Country of Origin: Soviet Union
Caliber: 7.62 x 39 mm (.30 inch)
Cartridge Capacity: 30 rounds
Muzzle Velocity: 2,329 feet per second
Rate of Fire: 600 rounds per minute
With over 75 million built worldwide, the AK-47 (a.k.a., “Kalashnikov”) is a firearms legend that has probably inflicted more lethal results than any other single weapon system ever produced. Built on the same basic design as the German Sturmgewehr, it chambered an intermediate round and was built from stamped parts. The AK-47 was not only easy to produce and relatively cheap, is also proved remarkably easy to maintain and virtually immune to conditions that could easily take out other guns. Accuracy is average, but the Kalashnikov compensates for this with its ability to unleash a lethal wall of lead.
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The AK might be more prolific, but the AR-15 platform is way more versatile and the ergonomics are not even comparable. You can’t switch uppers on an AK. You can barely do a one-handed mag change, and the charging handle is on the right side. The AK safety makes one lower their weapon, while the AR can silently switch between the safety, semi-auto, or burst/full-auto. The one bad thing about the AR is its direct impingement gas system, but there are modifications (such as the HK416) that remove this (virtually non-existent) problem. Properly cleaned and combined with a well-trained fighter, the M-16/M-4 is light-years ahead of its Soviet-era counterpart. BTW- the Russians switched to the 5.45×39 cartridge.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:56 pmThere are many, many things you can call an AK, but “prolific” is definitely not one of them.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:03 pmDictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
pro·lif·ic /prəˈlɪfɪk/ [pruh-lif-ik]
–adjective
1. producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful: a prolific pear tree.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:05 pm2. producing in large quantities or with great frequency; highly productive: a prolific writer.
3. profusely productive or fruitful (often fol. by in or of): a bequest prolific of litigations.
4. characterized by abundant production: a prolific year for tomatoes.
Ak’s are prolific and ubiquitous.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pmThe AK47 is way more rugged than the m16/m4. The gas-piston system in the AK47 prevents carbon from building up in the chamber and on the bolt (damn those star clusters…) like in the m16/m4. The system is so perfect that you can pour sand in the chamber of an AK47 and it would still fire. In fact, decades after the end of the Vietnam war, kids in villages were finding AK47s that were buried in the mud for years that were still loaded and fired. It doesn’t jam, the round is bigger, you don’t have to clean it, there are only 5 parts…Compared to the m16/m4?…yeah (for the love of God don’t lose that retaining pin…)
January 11th, 2008 at 5:54 pmThe AK has more killing power than the M-16. The AK is durable, you can drop it in a swamp, pick it up and still fire it.
The M-16 is light…but requires lots of cleaning. I’ve fired both. I prefer the AK for stopping power. I like the M-16 for varmint shooting or plinking or target shooting.
For hunting I prefer a .243 (durable, accurate and pretty to look at )
Hopefully, the US military will get smart and make the decision to adopt the 6.8 round as a standard.
It is a compromise between the 7.62 and 5.56. Lightweight(7.3lbs) and looks, feels and has the same familiar parts as the 16.It is the M468. Of course, it’s made by Barrett.
Good list of weapons. I can’t argue with the choices.
I’d like to see different list of weapons. Like give me your top 10 weapons of any caliber that you fired, that are on your top 10 list…or something like that? Well BASH? What do do think of my idea?
January 11th, 2008 at 6:57 pmThe 7.62×39 stopping power is not comparable. 5.56mm NATO rounds have a thin copper gilding that fails as the round begins to tumble inside a human target. When the gilding fails, the bullet disintegrates, leaving multiple would channels, as well as much larger permanent and shock cavities. When the rounds are fired from an M4, the effective range at which this happens (based on velocities and stabilization) is usually 20m out to 400m. Past that and the round loses too much velocity to properly fragment, causing “icepick” holes with little damage. Longer barrels (M-16)can extend this range to around 500-600m. The 7.62×39 round is not capable of this damage, as it tumbles, but doesn’t break up. Since modern armies are not allowed to use hollow point ammunition, the larger size of 7.62×39 has little effect on terminal ballistics.
As for the durability of the AK-47, I agree it is a more rugged design. It achieves this through larger clearances (don’t say tolerances or Mikhail Kalashnikov will kill you) and as mentioned above, a piston system. I am not sure if the Barrett M-468 uses a piston system, but I would assume it does, as this is the latest trend in the development of the AR platform. However, allowing larger clearances in the design also comes at a supreme cost: accuracy. I shoot service rifle competitions with a Rock River Arms NM A2 (Douglass barrel) and although I am not the best shot, these rifles will hold x-ring all day long with match ammunition. The AK platform is quite correctly described as “minute-of-man,” not minute-of-angle. If you’re engaging hadji at 300m, do you want an M16A4 with the superb ACOG 4x optic, or an AK-47 which has a fickle mounting bracket and isn’t worth putting a scope on? I’ve shot the AK-47 (A WASR-10, I believe) and it really is a shitty shot. Think about that before you exalt the AK.
In short, the AK is a beautiful weapon, rightfully near the top of the list. But it isn’t an AR.
As for the 6.8 round, the jury is still out. I hope it makes a good replacement for the 5.56, but most likely, it will be kept inside the SF community. Too much hassle trying to retool all your guns for a different round.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:37 pmSo far I’ve heard that the AR platform lacks (A) reliability and (B) knock-down power. The latter is somewhat subjective and has many arguments for and against it. So what we really have is an issue of reliability. Yes, the AK wins, but the AR platform isn’t exactly “unreliable.” We fixed a lot of problems after Vietnam, especially with the addition of chromed parts and a cleaner burning powder. If properly maintained, M-16s do their job well with few problems.
So the M-16 loses in the reliability department. But it wins in:
-accuracy
-ergonomics
-development
-weight
-controllability
*We won’t include “knock-down power” as there are many people in both camps.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:56 pm“you can pour sand in the chamber of an AK47 and it would still fire.”…yeah, just not accrately
January 11th, 2008 at 11:11 pmYeah but look at the last pic of the RPG the rope is tied to his hand so that, Allah willing, he will arrive first on the scene.
Kind of a jihadi transporter
January 12th, 2008 at 12:43 amwho knows? may be an extra fist on the rocket will add a little more punch
January 12th, 2008 at 12:44 amAnyone who has worked and trained with Iraqi Army knows very well that yes, the AK does in fact jam. The jundee are under the impressions that the AK is so durable it does not need to be cleaned, so they don’t, causing lots of malfunctions. Plus the AK needs the front sight adjustment tool, and with those being as hard to find in Iraq as they are, most of the Iraqi soldiers do no zero their weapons, making it almost impossible to hit the target. As for stopping power, I know the SAPI plates we had stopped 7.62 no problem, but a rifleman in my squad was shot with a 5.56 round and it penetrated his SAPI plate as well as the soft armor. Good news is that the round was slowed down enough and deflected enough that the injury was not serious. Just my two cents on the AK
January 12th, 2008 at 4:51 am