[tk421991]

Ok, so it isn't an AK, but it is Russian.

Here are some pics of my 1943 Izhevsk M91/30. The machining and woodwork is pretty rough, and it has what I believe are finger-nail marks on the stock, under the bolt. This thing was used rough during its life.

Also, I'm thinking about getting an AK-74 and a Makarov in the future. Maybe a M1895 Nagant.

[MrMurphy]

More like it's great-grandfather.

The Fedorov and SKS are the direct antecedents. If the 7.62X39mm had existed in 1915 and the $$ had been available, the Fedorov never would have gone out of production.

25 round mag, selective fire, straight line stock with a vertical foregrip and pistol grip...... in WW1.

Russians have good ideas, they generally fail in the QC/execution phase. Like with the BMP.

[tk421991]

Originally Posted by MrMurphy

More like it's great-grandfather.

The Fedorov and SKS are the direct antecedents. If the 7.62X39mm had existed in 1915 and the $$ had been available, the Fedorov never would have gone out of production.

25 round mag, selective fire, straight line stock with a vertical foregrip and pistol grip...... in WW1.

Russians have good ideas, they generally fail in the QC/execution phase. Like with the BMP.

I don't think the Avtomat would've really went anywhere, despite what caliber was chosen. The Russian Civil War did shred the Russian economy to the point of being about a quarter of its strength in 1914. The only advances in early Soviet guns were the Record Player (DP-28) and this, both of which were well after the Avtomat.

Its not always QC and execution; its the military's closed-mindedness. They adopted the M1895 Nagant because they specifically wanted a non-swing-out cylinder revolver for their 20th Century sidearm. They were still working with the Civil War ideas that combat, specifically cavalry combat, would not need more than 7 shots.

http://www.russianrevolvers.com/n_Belg1910.html

When the M1895 Nagant revolver was originally selected for service with the Russian Army, the criteria put forth by the test commission included the following:


Fired cases must be individually extracted (that is, not automatically or simultaneously). The members of the commission decided that "the necessity for repeated reloading of the revolver while in use in close proximity to a pressing enemy would only occur in isolated instances, undoubtedly, it would be a complicated and heavy revolver. The price of manufacture for such a revolver would be higher and information on revolvers of reduced caliber obtained by the commission in the period of 1888 - 1892 from various other countries, that did not use automatic (simultaneous) extraction showed satisfactory results."


The test commission actually disqualified revolvers submitted for testing on the basis of this criteria, most notably the revolver of Henri Pieper. It had other problems, but simultaneous extraction was the primary reason it was originally rejected.