pmcimagazine.com
can boast of a more sturdy or reliable magazine. My suggestion
to fellow PMCs, carry four or five mags on you then pack your
ditch bag full of spares. Balance how many you carry to your
mission set.
I have carried and deployed the AK47 in several countries
and instances of combat and gleaned a few insights I would
like to mention here:
1. It is an assault rifle not a battle rifle. Treat it accordingly.
The AK-47 has its lateral left and right where it works efficiently
and where it reaches its limits. While being .30 calibre, it is
still a weapon chambered in a cartridge of intermediate size
and does not possess the ballistic qualities that the 7.62x51mm
or 7.62R have in abundance. This being said, it is still a
very effective weapon to deploy within most engagement
distances, and is capable of defeating many composite pieces
of cover in the battle space, and still will retain its lethality on
the intended target.
In the urban sprawl and streets of Iraq, a good deal of the
engagements I took part in and witnessed with the AK platform
reflect much of what anyone could continue expect to see
visited in future engagements: Contacts upon entry into rooms
and corridors, street to street fights amongst windows, building
exits, vehicles and debris, to drive-bys, and in some instances
from ditches and copses of trees to standing structures and
courtyard walls. Near all of these facets of contact ranged
from 0-300 meters. In all of this, I can attest that the AK-47
performed gladly within its ranges of intended use. Start
creeping outside of this kind of engagement distance and you
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will have a differing experience. The 7.62x39mm cartridge, like
many other .30 calibre intermediates, drops energy fast, so be
forewarned.
2. The AK-47 magazine well and loading procedures of the
magazine can be limiting or demanding under stress. Under
normal circumstances like the one-way range in training, the
AK-47 can be leisurely loaded with little interruption to the
cadence of training and instruction. However, fatigue and stress
play a central role in every mission and in combat and have an
inevitable effect on any manual of arms conducted under such
conditions. The AK-47 is not immune to this effect because you
are not immune to the effects of fatigue and stress.
To efficiently load the AK platform, the PMC must remove
the spent magazine and replace it with a freshly loaded one.
Sounds easy in theory, but here is where it gets interesting.
You remove the spent magazine and grab the next one
(depending on the reloading technique you use) only to find
the new magazine hung up on the mag pouch because your
available or issue gear was built to be ‘universal’ or for M4
mags and not the large and robust AK-47 magazine you use.
Stress sets in. You are under fire and now wrestling to free
your loaded mag from your battle rattle when you should be
solving problems and taking names. Worse, if you have jammed
two mags into an Ill fitted pouch, your reloading may end up
spilling the second mag onto the deck. I have experienced both
of these hurdles and cursed circumstances each time.
Fortunately today, you can limit such drama with improved
pouches bought commercially. However, if you end up in similar