Question by Thomas: What are some interesting facts about the ak-47 (total death toll, trade rates,etc)?
I am doing a project on th ak-47 and was wondering if you guys knew any interesting facts?
do you know what the global trade rate is? (like i heard 4 cows = 1 ak in some countires,etc)
and do you know how much death the ak47 is responsible in total?
+ any others
Answers and Views:
Answer by Nahum
1st off, there is in no way in hell you can tell how many countless souls the AK has claimed, but i bets its in the 100’s of millions.
2ndly, im currently in afghanistan, and i was talking to our terp about how much a AK is worth, he says they run for about $ 100 here, FYI one goat is worth $ 100 here aswell, hope this helps with your project.
oh yea awhile back they did a test between the standard issued M4 against the AK, they ended up buring them in mud and dirt, then loaded a mag and fired, the M4 failed as it jammed (gas repelled) but the AK didnt jam or have any problems. its a reliable wepon thats why its been around for so long.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
robert says
It's very reliable(doesn't jam very often), BUT it's not very accurate compared to most assault rifles.
I'll take an M4 or M16 and a cleaning kit over an AK47 any day.
The reason it doesn't jam often is because it was built with such loose tolerances that you would have to literally fill it with gravel before anything would get stuck, unfortunately loose tolerances also means that parts have much more room to move around when your firing it, which makes it less accurate.
Soldier Jay says
AK-47 is probably one of the most well-known Russian weaponry piece. They say it became so popular worldwide because of it’s high durability (it can go for years without any kind of cleaning or special maintenance) and extreme simplicity – it has only eight moving parts and can be stripped down in one minute.
In some countries of Africa it can be bought as cheap as $ 12 for one piece and no any license is needed, so even children armed with the guns. Maybe that’s why some of the countries of this continent have the AK-47 depiction on their coats of arms, like Mozambique has it both on its flag and coats of arms. Zimbabwe got it too. Burkina Faso had it from 1984 till 1997. And Eastern Timor got it live as an official symbol starting 2007. Then the radical Mid Eastern groups are also well known for AK-47 affection. Hezbollah has it on its flag.
And Osama is known (or was known) for having one or two AK-47s standing somewhere near him during his video appearances.
Those groups are not the only in the modern world who are fond of this epic assault rifle. For example architects of Russia were going to build a AK-47 shaped skyscraper in the home town of its inventor, Mr. Kalashnikov. And by the way, people say he didn’t get any profits upon inventing and introducing this gun just because in Soviet Union authors of such inventions didn’t get any royalties at all.
But while the Russians are just planning to built something like this, in Egypt they have already built a giant AK-47 monument on the coast of Sinai peninsula.
Sometimes the AK-47 mania gets really crazy and one can get a gold coated rifle.
And in Afghanistan people put AK-47 on the hand made rugs. Also in Russia you can get a silver coin with it. But then sometimes even countries that are far from participating of wars and enjoying peaceful living come up with something as strange as a dollar coin with AK-47 (New Zealand).
One can get AK-47 shaped guitar. Or an MP3 player. And of course, the last but not the least is AK-47 vodka bottles.
Jay says
It gets very hot when fired on automatic for an extended period of time.