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General AK-47 Information Caliber 7.62x39 mm
Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt with 2 lugs
Overall length: 870 mm
Barrel length: 415 mm
Weight: 4,300 g with empty magazine, 4,876 g loaded
Magazine capacity 30 rds (40 rds box magazines and 75 rds drums)
Sighting range, m: 800
Cyclic rate of fire 600 rds/min
Practical rate of fire, single shots 90-100 rds/min; bursts 400 rds/min
Muzzle velocity: 780 m/s Description:
The original AK was also known as the AK-47. It was a gas-operated, selective-fire weapon. Like all 7.62-mm Kalashnikov assault rifles, it fired the Soviet 7.62 x 39-mm M1943 round and used a standard 30-round curved box magazine. The AK came in two versions: one with a fixed wooden stock, and another, the AKS, with a folding metal stock issued primarily to parachutist and armor troops. Except for the differences in the stock and the lack of a tool kit with the AKS, the two version were identical. The early AKs had no bayonet, but the version with the fixed wooden stock later mounted a detachable knife bayonet. The improved model, known as the AKM, is easier to produce and operate. It weighs about one kilogram less than the AK. The reduced weight results from using thinner, stamped sheet metal parts rather than machined, forged steel; laminated wood rather than solid wood in the hand guard, forearm, pistol grip, and buttstock; and new lightweight aluminum and plastic magazines. Other improvements include a straighter stock for better control; an improved gas cylinder; a rate-of-fire control alongside the trigger; a rear sight graduated to 1,000 meters rather than 800 meters; and a greatly improved, detachable bayonet. The AKM also has a folding-stock version, designated AKMS, intended for use by riflemen in armored infantry combat vehicles such as the BMP. Except for its T-shaped, stamped-metal, folding buttstock, the AKMS is identical to the AKM. The folding-stock model can reduce its length from 868 to 699 millimeters. The safety lever serves two functions when in the upper or "safe" position. First, it blocks dirt from entering the action by covering the slot the bolt carrier lever moves through when the weapon is fired. This also prevents the weapon from being cocked while on "safe". Second, an extension on the pin holding the lever through the receiver blocks the rear of the trigger, preventing the trigger from being pulled. When the safety lever is moved to "fire, the action may be cycled, and the trigger is the only thing holding the hammer from falling.
Bulgaria model China model Czechoslovakia model Egypt model Finland model Germany model Hungary model India model Yugoslavia model When the trigger is pulled, the hammer falls, hits the rear of the firing pin, and the round detonates. Note that the AK-47 bolt is locked closed by rotating when the bolt carrier is moved forward (there is a cam on the top of the bolt that engages a slot in the bolt carrier to accomplish the rotation). The firing pin is free-floating -- there is no spring to hold it retracted until the hammer falls. Consequently, if one manually cycles live rounds through the AK-47, one will observe light indentations on the primers where the firing pit hit against them as the action closed. Consequently, it is inadvisable to chamber live rounds unless you are prepared for the possibility of the weapon firing when you do so. Slam-fires do not seem to be as common as with the SKS, and it is hard to get enough dirt into the action to cause it to malfunction for that reason. I recall one report of flawless functioning even when the rifle was so covered in mud as to be hardly recognizable as a firearm. The action is gas-operated: when a round detonates, some gas from the explosion is vented out of a small hole at the top of the barrel near the muzzle. This gas pushes against the front of the piston in the gas tube, which is connected to the bolt carrier. As the bolt carrier is pushed rearward by the gas, the bolt rotates to unlock and moves rearward, and the round in the chamber is extracted and pulled back.
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