Mikhail Kalashnikov has passed away...

[alanint]

The MP44's bolt body/head and the gas piston are two seperate components, while the AK's bolt body/gas piston are one unit. Only the bolt head can be removed from the assembly.

The return spring is also not captured, but retained via the buttstock on the MP44, while the AK has the entire return spring within its receiver.

The first production AKs had a machined receiver, (although the truly first examples where stamped, just like the MP44) versus the MP44s stamped components.

Although Kalashnikov always denied a direct influence, (and would get upset when folks implied it), anybody with any brains can see a direct influence from one design to the other.

[GySgt1811]

Originally Posted by George Anderson

I was also a tanker. Kalishnikov's rifle has put and continues to put a lot of American soldiers in their graves. F---k him!

Yes. And so did/do Springfields, Garands, Colts, M1 carbines, M-14s, M-16s, M-4s, etc.

I feel strangely sad responding to your post, George. You're absolutely right...and I, like you, knew some of those soldiers/Marines; and yet, Kalishnikov was a patriot who deeply loved his country just as we do ours. And that's how I'm judging him.

To feel otherwise is to deny the honor of patriotism in others, or else then we will have to paint Eli Remington, Samuel Colt, Horace B. Smith, Daniel Wesson, Oliver Winchester, Paul Mauser, George Luger, John Garand, "Carbine" Williams, Eugine Stoner, etc. (You get the idea) with the same brush.

Or maybe there's another agenda in your response that I'm too...fill in the blank...to understand.


Anyway, Merry Christmas to all, and someday, God willing (are you listening, Lord?) may we please have World Peace.

Gunny John