This is an excerpt from my “stuck” post up top about buying an AK.
[b]"There are three main cailibers available in AK’s…
The original caliber is the 7.62x39mm, roughly equivalent to a .30-30 WCF in power. This is a “pure” assault rifle round, with a tapered case designed to make it easy to get into and out of a chamber quickly and easily. It is also the least accurate of the cartridges available for an AK, but it’s by far the most prevalent cailber.
The 5.45x39mm was introduced in 1974 with the AK-74, it was the Soviet’s attempt at the lightweight rifle/caliber concept. They saw the M16 being used in Vietnam and they wanted a round that was similar. The 5.45mm has less recoil and greater accuracy than the 7.62x39mm round, and is a lot of fun to shoot. The rounds also weigh less.
AK’s can now also be had in 5.56x45mm. You know all about that round, but what’s important to remember with AK’s in this caliber is there were never any attempts to standardize parts or magazines among AK producing countries…they were always export rifles and the Warsaw Pact fell before they were widely available. If you get a rifle in this caliber, stock up on magazines and parts specific to the rifle you have. You can find Bulgarian, Chinese and Romanian stamped 5.56mm AK’s, and milled receiver Bulgarian AK’s, which are being issued in Columbia and are replacing other AK’s in Bulgarian service now that Bulgaria is a junior member of NATO."[/b]
I own AK’s in all of the three main cartidges. I’ll tell you that I usually recommend a 7.62x39mm rifle for a first AK, as all foreign military magazines will interchange with any rifle in that caliber, ammo is available, and rifles chambered in this cartridge tend to be the most reliable.
The 5.45x39mm is one of my favorite calibers to shoot; it’s light recoil, flat trajectory, and better accuracy are all major improvements to the 7.62x39mm.
RIGHT NOW, ammo is cheap, but the ammuniton that is so cheap right now is surplus from Russia, Bulgaria, and Poland. Good stuff, but it’s corrosive, and you need to undertstand that you need to care for your rifle very soon after use (meaning don’t throw it back in the safe and come back in a month to clean it).
Surplus can also dry up very quickly, what’s cheap today is expensive and hard to get tomorrow. Russian commercial ammo is available from Wolf and sometimes Barnaul. If a ban on Russian ammo came down, we’re going to be SOL. That’s what happened in 1994 with a ban on Chinese ammo, and fortunately the Russians were there to take up the slack on cheap 7.62x39mm.
US manufacturers make 7.62x39mm. It’s not “cheap”, but it is available if we need id.
I love my SLR-106FR in 5.56mm. It’s accurate, and I’ve never had any issues what so ever with it. But as I said in the “stuck” post, 5.56mm AK’s were NEVER standardized and so every country uses a different mag system.
Some things to think about. Again, I’d recommend a quality built 7.62x39mm AK for your first.
Hope that helped.
