The Kalashnikov was really good and has totally proven itself as the people’s battle weapon.
The story of the rise of the Armalite as a reponse is a weird story, but as I’ve researched it (opinions often differ) it wasn’t the AK that killed the M14, but the notion of squeezing three fire teams for M2 machine gun emplacements into a squad, rather than one.
The M14s were lost to M16s as their weight got displaced, but according to the Marines I talked to, they favored the M14 over the M16, and liked the hole they could punch through the enemy (and anything behind them for miles).
That said, later iterations of the Armalite got better.
It really did not help that the original M16s were terrible, plus cleaning kits were sparcely handed out with the myth that the rifle was self cleaning, AND they changed the ammo the gun was originally tested on to a cartridge that had worse performance.
The Kalashnikov was really good and has totally proven itself as the people’s battle weapon.
The story of the rise of the Armalite as a reponse is a weird story, but as I’ve researched it (opinions often differ) it wasn’t the AK that killed the M14, but the notion of squeezing three fire teams for M2 machine gun emplacements into a squad, rather than one.
The M14s were lost to M16s as their weight got displaced, but according to the Marines I talked to, they favored the M14 over the M16, and liked the hole they could punch through the enemy (and anything behind them for miles).
That said, later iterations of the Armalite got better.
It really did not help that the original M16s were terrible, plus cleaning kits were sparcely handed out with the myth that the rifle was self cleaning, AND they changed the ammo the gun was originally tested on to a cartridge that had worse performance.