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I’ve been thinking about different guns lately. Specifically AR’s and AK’s but we could extend that same line of thought to HK-91′s, FN-FAL’s, M1A’s, the newer Mini 14′s as well as Glocks, M&P’s, Sigs etc all. Cost differences vary and various factors including logistical support should be considered. Also we need to look at current prices not historical ones, case in point AK and AR prices are a lot closer now then a few years ago.

They all have different good and bad points. Some have more parts availability than others. Sometimes you pay hundreds of dollars for a name. Some have superior ergonomics. Some are in more common calibers than others. Some are more modular than others. All of these matter to varying degrees for different people.

Back to the AR and AK for a minute. I think both of their cliche weaknesses, accuracy on the AK and reliability on the AR, have been greatly overstated. That is my fairly informed opinion from shooting a few AK’s and a ton of AR’s.

In terms of accuracy the AK’s I have shot are 4 MOA guns. Not amazing but lets put that in perspective. That is the important part of a head at 100 meters and solid chest shots well past 200m. At about 300 it starts to slip from minute of man to minute of SUV but for most situations that is not a huge deal. Also the cartridge drops pretty fast around there anyway.

As to reliability the issues with the AR platform come from two places. First there was ‘Nam when the myth that these rifles did not need to be cleaned was perpetuated for awhile. Second was the Battle of Wannat. During that battle those soldiers essentially used their selective fire M4′s as suppressive fire weapons at close to cyclic rates for prolonged periods of time. I am not faulting them for that choice, they did what they had to do. The thing is these rifles are simply not made for that. To put it into perspective if you go cyclic mag after mag in any burst or automatic weapon it will fail at some point. The M4 is pretty reliable

The reliability requirement for the M4 is 600 Mean Rounds Between Stoppage (MRBS). The demonstrated current reliability is over 3600 MRBS as a result of our continuous improvement program.

If you keep an AR lubed they will shoot almost indefinitely.  I put lube on them to just short of the point where it will drip off. There just isn’t a downside to it. Keep them lubed and occasionally give them a quick cleaning and you are good to go.

Moving forward.

I am more concerned about what people can do with the guns they have than with their choice to carry an AK and a Glock 9mm or an AR and an M&P or a PTR-91 and a .45. If everybody spent a bit more time training and a bit less on the internet arguing about guns they would be a lot more capable.