Re: Cost of Ak manufacture

At 11:20 PM 4/7/98 -0500, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:

>Judging by their construction, there is not a lot of costs and they
>should be a lot cheaper than AR-15s (against which I have almost nothing).
>
>So, the question is, it is realistic to expect that AK s will be
>manufactured here? Will the control freaks be able to stop it?
  
Two major problems.  There is VERY little domestic manufacture of 7.62x39
ammo, and most of what is already out there is not reloadable.  Even if AK
clones became widespread, all the feds would have to do would be to ban the
import of the ammo.
 
Secondly, while it would certainly be possible for a manufacturing facility
to construct an AK from raw materials, if "push comes to shove," it would be
much faster and cheaper for people to "reconstruct" the Sten parts they have
laying around.  This has the added advantage that ammo is readily available
for those.
 
While 7.62x39 might become hard to find, the common US military and NATO
calibers (7.62NATO, 5.56, and 9mm) will be widely available.

Al Thompson wrote:
> At 11:20 PM 4/7/98 -0500, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> >Judging by their construction, there is not a lot of costs and they
> >should be a lot cheaper than AR-15s (against which I have almost nothing).
> >
> >So, the question is, it is realistic to expect that AK s will be
> >manufactured here? Will the control freaks be able to stop it?
>   
> Two major problems.  There is VERY little domestic manufacture of 7.62x39
> ammo, and most of what is already out there is not reloadable.  Even if AK
> clones became widespread, all the feds would have to do would be to ban the
> import of the ammo.
>  
> Secondly, while it would certainly be possible for a manufacturing facility
> to construct an AK from raw materials, if "push comes to shove," it would be
> much faster and cheaper for people to "reconstruct" the Sten parts they have
> laying around.  This has the added advantage that ammo is readily available
> for those.
>  
> While 7.62x39 might become hard to find, the common US military and NATO
> calibers (7.62NATO, 5.56, and 9mm) will be widely available.

Al, you can make AKs in .223. There is no problem with that. So your
objection is valid, but not insurmountable.

	- Igor.

> > >So, the question is, it is realistic to expect that AK s will be
> > >manufactured here? Will the control freaks be able to stop it?
> >   
> >  
> > While 7.62x39 might become hard to find, the common US military and NATO
> > calibers (7.62NATO, 5.56, and 9mm) will be widely available.
> 
> Al, you can make AKs in .223. There is no problem with that. So your
> objection is valid, but not insurmountable.
> 
> 	- Igor.

Or make AK's in 7.62 NATO. As I recall, there was an AK variant 
(Valmet??) available in 5.56 NATO and 7.62 NATO years ago.

-OrdnanceMonger

Rabid Wombat wrote:
> > > >So, the question is, it is realistic to expect that AK s will be
> > > >manufactured here? Will the control freaks be able to stop it?
> > >  
> > > While 7.62x39 might become hard to find, the common US military and NATO
> > > calibers (7.62NATO, 5.56, and 9mm) will be widely available.
> > 
> > Al, you can make AKs in .223. There is no problem with that. So your
> > objection is valid, but not insurmountable.
> > 
> 
> Or make AK's in 7.62 NATO. As I recall, there was an AK variant 
> (Valmet??) available in 5.56 NATO and 7.62 NATO years ago.
> 

Yugoslavian AKs were in .308. I've seen those, they are slightly bigger
than the regular aks. There are some chinese guns in 5.56.

Anyway, caliber is not a problem and not an issue. The issue is
possibility of producing cheap reliable fun guns for the general public.

	- Igor.