Your Rifle, Your Budget

I have a few really cool posts i have been working on, but I need a bit more time to polish them up. In the meanwhile I thought about a rifle and my budget.

With the costs of ammo so high (and reloading is quite time consuming for me right now) I was seriously considering a new weapon platform such as the AK74 or 47 series. Range time is incredibly important to build and upkeep your skills. You want to understand your rifle? You need to let your rifle talk. If the level of skill you want to achieve is inhibited by the cost of shooting, then perhaps it is time to re-think which weapon would suit you better.

Right now 7.62×39 is running around .25 cents a round for your typical wolf and tula loads. Quality brass ammo (want to shoot wolf in an AR15? Read this) for the AR is running at best .40 cents a round. Can you better afford to become proficient with an AK at $250 / 1000 rounds or a AR at $400 for a 1000 rounds. The weapons themselves are similar in price with AK’s running around $750 vs an AR at $800 so the initial start-up costs are similar. Upgrades will cost the same more or less. Magazines cost the same more or less. So is the value only in the ammunition?

I have spent a few years with a Romanian WASR growing up. With a loaded magazine the weapon is heavy. The accuracy isn’t to the same standard as the AR. Much less upgrade options. Cheap as hell to shoot. Isn’t as ergonomic. Will shoot through both sides of a car. The weapon of the communists. The sights suck. Extremely reliable.

So make sure you look at both sides of the coin. Dense woodlands with very few long shots? An AK with a red dot will do just fine for your uses. Be sure to take it to a competition though.

The value in an AK is that you can become proficient with it at a cheaper cost than an AR. If you are disciplined to shoot the rifle regularly and learn the holdovers to 400 yards (which the AK is capable of) then you will be far ahead of your neighbor with his AR15 which he proceeded to upgrade with cheap Chinese junk. If you are topping off your AR15 with Chinese junk because you cant afford or don’t have the discipline to get quality components then SELL IT and get an AK or SKS.

An AK might not be as sexy as an AR15, but someone who speaks his rifle’s language is a far more valuable rifleman than someone who does not. Platform doesn’t matter as much as understanding the platform.