Wielding an AK-47

This week I had the chance to fire an AK-47 for the first time. It was great fun. I fired about 600 rounds and my shoulder is black and blue today. It is a really impressive weapon. There are only 4 pieces to the whole thing, making it one of the simplest inventions in the history of warfare. By comparison the M-16 has 16 pieces. That simplicity makes it very forgiving. It rarely jams, even on full automatic, and tolerates the sand and dust very well. There was a sandstorm going on while we shot and mine did not fail at all. That's more than I can say for the M-16, which simply won't fire if it gets sand in it. It is amazing to think that Mikhail Kalishnikov's design is 62 years old and hasn't been changed at all. It is also the most widely proliferated weapon in the world with over 200 million having been produced. By comparison, 16 million M-16s have been produced. It is easy to see why it is the preferred firearm for dictators and terrorists around the world: it requires virtually no maintenance, can put a lot of rounds downrange quickly, and costs very little ($25-$130 apiece in 3rd world countries.) It was fairly accurate at the 25 meter distance we fired from.