What is an AK-47?

Answer 1

AK-47 is the Western designation of the Soviet assault rifle designed by Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov. The Soviet Union never used 47 in the name calling the rifle simply AK, which stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova(Kalashnikov's Automatic rifle). The name is also often incorrectly applied to many of the rifles derived from this design, such as the AKM and AKS and to rifles produced in other countries, such as the Yugoslavian M70.

The AK is a fully automatic magazine fed gas-operated rifle chambered in 7.62x39 mm. It's rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute, and the standard magazine will hold 30 rounds.

While the AK does not have superior accuracy (the accuracy is actually not as bad as some make it out to be) it tops in fire power and reliability. The AK will withstand just about anything it comes up against; mud, rain, snow, sand, you name it, this rifle has been through it all.

Kalashnikov, a Soviet tank crew-member, first designed the gun in 1945 while recovering from an injury. The original AK went into production in 1947, utilizing a milled receiver. It was replaced in production by the AKM, which used a stamped receiver. While the AK and AKM have been largely phased out of service in in the former Warsaw Pact countries in favor of the AK-74, several countries continue to produce variants of the AK and AKM. Izhmash, the original Russian manufacturer, currently produces several modernized versions known as the AK-100 series. One of these rifles, the AK-103, replaced the FN FAL as the standard service rifle for Venezuela's armed forces.