'The' Gun Thread (Page 44)

I decided to not post the response since everyone beat me too it...

I guess what I was wondering, do the the latest versions still use the direct impingement system or have they gone to a gas piston?  Maybe the varients or AR-15 type?

Not sure if anyone watches Sons of Guns.  It's a bit campy and barely worth watching at times, but it's good enough when nothing is one.  It looked like they were revamping an AR design to be gas piston ala the AK.   That can't be the first time anyone has tried to do that successfully.

I can't tell you how many documentaries I have watched on discovery and military channels and how much I read, and I still can't sort it out sometimes.  I end up referring back to wkipedia or something in a pinch.

It's like Game of Thrones with dozens of different names and nicknames and entire family histories to remember.

Violent crime as a whole in NYC has gone down over the years (think it's rising slightly again), but NYC is a very large city with lots of people and neighborhoods.  I bet if you looked at the statistics just for the poor neighborhoods targeted by these giveaways the crime rate would be a LOT higher.

No, Sons of Guns is not the first place to make a piston (AK style) AR. You can get them but you will spend more on it. Not sure how much but I remember it was enough for me to just get the regular style. 

I'm not an expert on this, but I did research it quite a bit on it when making my purchase.  My understanding is the piston driven is "better" in the sense that it runs cleaner and cooler.  The DI rifles are cheaper and all the parts are interchangeable with pretty much any mil-spec rifle.

Here's a video showing how they work differently:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3ShwUfi4CIY

So, if you're shooting a lot and your life is on the line I would say Piston.  However for me, I will shoot mine every month or two and clean it well after each shooting so I decided DI is just fine.

For sure.  We have the luxury of taking it home and cleaning it.  I may push for the piston system if I was in the bush and needed it ready 24/7....

I wonder if you can just get am AK chambered for a smaller round.  But then again, the small round may not be able to produce enough pressure to cycle the weapon.

That's one thing I like about shows like that (and they don't even get into it deep enough, IMO).  It may SEEM simple, but there is a lot of science and physics into firearm design.

I seem to recall they hand an issue with the weapon on the show.  The smaller round needed a different piston system to cycle in full auto.  The spring system they had in there wasn't correct and they needed a pneumatic?  - something like that.

Oh, and also as for the "latest version" the manufacturers will often sell a Piston and a DI version of the same newer gun.  My Colt SP6940 has a DI and a Piston variant (SP6940P) however my next one which is the Barrett Rec 7 6.8SPC is only a piston.

I doubt you can get an AK style with the 5.56 round, at least I haven't heard of it. But there really isn't much reason to do that. The 7.62 is a good round and is almost as easy to shoot as the 5.56. I have a bullpup SKS and my wife has a full length SKS with a tactical stock on it. She loves the gun and shoots it well and enjoys it. She likes the AR too but she said there isn't a lot of difference between them. My follow up shots are a bit better with the AR as the muzzle rise on the SKS is higher, but I don't have a brake on the SKS yet. I think I will be able to get that tamed down and then they should shoot pretty similarly. 

I like the AR platform but I also wanted something simple and rugged like an AK. In my reading I found that everyone said the SKS was more accurate and just about as rugged as the AK. I managed to find a Norinco Sporter model SKS so it takes AK mags. So I have AK mags and reliability with the improved accuracy of the SKS in a bullpup kit that makes it about 28" in total length. Pretty sweet gun!

Beat me to it. I stand corrected on the 5.56 in AK.

And yes the 7.62 is usable for deer hunting and I like it as a round. Fun to shoot!

lol, I carried a Beretta 92F when I was in the Navy and it was the first gun I bought when I got out for that very reason.  I knew it inside out, backwards, and forwards.

I've since moved on, and even got rid of my 92F because I really didn't like it that much once I saw what else was on the market. 

The AK-47 and AKM were chambered for the 7.62 x 39.

The AK-74 (it's replacement from, wait for it, 1974) is chambered for 5.45 x 39

The 7.62x39 round is barely used by the Russian military - most of their rifles are now 5.45 across the board (LMG, rifles, etc).  AFAIK only their sniper rifle uses 7.62x39 today.

edit: 5.45 is even cheaper than 7.62x39.  Even today, you can buy a 1080 can for $190 (that's 0.18/round )  7.62 runs around 0.30/rnd

The SAR 1 is a 7.62, the SAR2 is a 5.45 and the SAR3 is a 5.56 AK.  The WASR and Saiga's can be had in all three calibers as well.

As for AR in gas piston or DI, keep in mind that DI has an advantage over gas piston in that if you do not have an entire mass of metal shifting back and forth, you can stay on target a lot easier for follow up shots.  If you keep your AR clean, you will not have a reliability problem.  Finally, if you want a gas piston AR, buy one that is already set up that way.  I had a SIG556 which was gas piston but I ended up selling it during the hype.  It was heavy and no better than my built guns. 

I do not recommend the conversion kits.  Look up carrier tilt and  you can see why.  Some people have issues with conversion kits causing buffer tube issues.  Others regard it as myth. 

I was cleaning my garage over the winter and I stumbled across a crate (two 1080 cans) of 5.45 that I got for $225 at a gun show.  I forgot I had it.  I sold my SAR2 but I still have a WASR2 and over 3000 rds for it.  I love finding ammo that I forgot I bought.

If you had a fire in your garage, the FD would love you...

It would certainly be exciting.

Rounds that are set off outside a rifle don't do near as much damage that they do when fired from a rifle.

That doesn't mean that they aren't potentially deadly.

Don't ask me how I know this....

I'm sure we could both come up with places that could be better suited, but they're a private entity so they get to choose where they want to go. 

It's hard to say why he chose to go there, but you may be correct in that he wants to rub it in the nose of the Mayor.  Either way, I think it's a cool thing to do.