Question by Shaun S: What is the difference between an AK-47 and a AK-74 automatic riffle?
What is the difference between a AK-47 and a AK-74. Which Country manufactures these weapons. We are looking to the way the re-booting of the AK-74 makes the weapon preform.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Ren Hoek
Have forgotten, but the 74 is a more recent Russian design , an update of Automat Kalashnikov 1947. Don’t know if its just another 7.62x39mm. I think it is in more calibrations than this. Seems like there is a full-auto mag-fed shotgun version. Also, I think the magazine is plastic.
EDIT: In response to Bryan’s answer, if it is .223 Rem. (NATO), that translates to 5.56 X 45 mm in metric. While we’re at it, .308 Win. (NATO) is 7.62 X 51 mm.
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tlbs101 says
Besides what the above answerers say (correctly, I might add), the AK-74 has a verticallly oriented nozzled gas vent at the muzzle. This causes the recoil to be almost perfectly horizontal, so firing in automatic mode is 'smooth' and you can lay a tight pattern on a target with little effort (once aimed properly).
The AK-47 wants to 'walk' vertically when firing in the automatic mode.
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dugal45 says
The AK-47 (first issued in 1947 hence the 47) fires a 7.62 x39mm round and weighs about 3.8 kg-empty
he AK-74 was issued in 1974 and fires a 5.45 x 39 mm round with a muzzle velocity of about 900 m/sec and weighs 0.5 kg less or 3.3 kg empty
and has about a 200m increased effective range than the AK-47:
500m vs 300m, the -74 has a slightly longer barrel length as well
Bryan J says
Off the cuff, one big difference is ammunition. AK-47 is approximately .30 cal and AK-74 is approx .22 cal (7.62 x39 mm and 5.45 x39 mm I think). The number also represents the year of acceptance so AK-74 is a newer design but still just a derivative of the AK-47 design – so still very similar both in operation and manufacturing.
Both are major Soviet military maintays, and thus manufactured under license by a large number of eastern bloc countries.
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by "re-booting" or "preform"… don't you re-boot a computer?