

It was called an Avtomat Kalashnikova, the automatic weapon of Kalashnikov-AK-and it carried the year of its first manufacture, 1947." I was a soldier, and I created a machine gun for a soldier. Kalashnikov himself stated."I was in the hospital, and a soldier in the bed beside me asked: 'Why do our soldiers have only one rifle for two or three of our men, when the Germans have automatics?' So I designed one. Mikhail Kalashnikov began his career as a weapon designer in 1941 while recuperating from a shoulder wound which he received during the Battle of Bryansk. In the 1960s, the Soviets introduced the RPK light machine gun, an AK type weapon with a stronger receiver, a longer heavy barrel, and a bipod, that would eventually replace the RPD light machine gun.
#Vepr ak 47 for sale series#
Introduced in 1959, the AKM is a lighter stamped steel version and the most ubiquitous variant of the entire AK series of firearms. Shortly after World War II, the Soviets developed the AK-47 rifle, which would quickly replace the SKS in Soviet service. The Soviets soon developed the 7.62×39mm M43 cartridge, the semi-automatic SKS carbine and the RPD light machine gun. The Soviets were impressed with the weapon and immediately set about developing an intermediate caliber fully automatic rifle of their own, to replace the PPSh-41 submachine guns and outdated Mosin–Nagant bolt-action rifles that armed most of the Soviet Army. On 15 July 1943, an earlier model of the Sturmgewehr was demonstrated before the People's Commissariat of Arms of the USSR. The select-fire rifle was chambered for a new intermediate cartridge, the 7.92×33mm Kurz, and combined the firepower of a submachine gun with the range and accuracy of a rifle.

The model is the basis for the development of many other types of individual, crew-served and specialised firearms.ĭuring World War II, the Sturmgewehr 44 rifle used by German forces made a deep impression on their Soviet counterparts. As of 2004, "of the estimated 500 million firearms worldwide, approximately 100 million belong to the Kalashnikov family, three-quarters of which are AK-47s".

The AK has been manufactured in many countries, and has seen service with armed forces as well as irregular forces and insurgencies throughout the world. The model and its variants owe their global popularity to their reliability under harsh conditions, low production cost (compared to contemporary weapons), availability in virtually every geographic region, and ease of use. In early 1949, the AK was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact. It was presented for official military trials in 1947, and, in 1948, the fixed- stock version was introduced into active service for selected units of the Soviet Army. The number "47" refers to the year the rifle was finished. After more than seven decades, the AK-47 model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used rifles in the world. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, it is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov (or "AK") family of rifles. 'Kalashnikov's automatic rifle' also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (Russian: Автома́т Кала́шникова, lit. There are also 40-round, 75-round drum magazines available Specifications (AK-47 with Type 3 receiver)Ģ0-round, 30-round detachable box magazine ≈ 75 million AK-47s, 100 million Kalashnikov-family weapons. Kalashnikov Concern and various others including Norinco
