From: hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E. Schaffer)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: A Case History of Newspaper Bias re: Firearms
Keywords: sensationalism slant
Date: 30 Sep 92 02:14:12 GMT
Organization: North Carolina State University

In article <1992Sep29.154447.9778@gtech.com> ayr@gtech.com (Aleksey Y. Romanov) writes:
> ...
>I had some experience with AK-47 (AKM to be exact), it has two positions

  The AKM is a more modern, slightly modified version of the AK-47
Soviet military automatic rifle.  Both fire the 7.62 x 39 mm round.

>OO (_odinichnyi _ogon' - means single shots) and AO (_avtomaticheckii _ogon': -

  I thought that the full-auto AK-47 and also the AKM had a 3 
position lever which had the two positions plus a "safe" position
as well.

>means automatic).  The AKM is 7.62 mm against 5.65 mm (or so) of M-16.

  The M-16 fires the 5.56 mm NATO (= 5.56 x 45mm = .223 Remington) round.  

>The problem of AKM was that it was heavy and has an unnessary power, so
>it was replaced by similar 5.65 mm AK-74. So, AKM is really POWERFULL.

  The AK-74 fires a 5.45 x 39 mm round (or possibly this is the
5.45 x 40 mm - I've found two references which don't agree, but I
don't think it is worth tracking down.)  Just because this is smaller
and less powerful than the 7.62 x 39 mm round doesn't mean that the
AKM is "really POWERFULL", it just means that the AKM fires a more
powerful round than the AK-74.  I'll compare this "more powerful" 
round below with a few common rifle rounds.

>I heard that you cannot be protected against AKM fire behind wooden logs.
>I do not know about M-16.

  I suspect that it depends on the thickness of the wood.  I would
be suspicious of claims that the AKM is so "POWERFULL" that it can
fire through an infinite thickness of wood.

  Here are the vital statistics for a sample of military and hunting
rounds.  The info on the first 4 are from Cartridges of the World
(6th ed.) and the last 4 are from the 1991 Gun Digest.  The first
round is the one used by the AK-74, the second is used by the M-16,
the third by the old AK series of rifles, the 4th by the old bolt-action
Russian rifles.  The 5th is the one used by the U.S. M-14, and is the
same as the common hunting round called the .308 Win.  The 30-30 is
a common hunting round considered ok (but perhaps marginal) for deer.
The .30-'06 was used by the U.S. military rifles the 1903 Springfield
and the M1 Garand and is also a common hunting round for large game
(deer and up, but marginal for the largest North American game.)
The last round is a large game round used for hunting all large North
American game.

Cartridge  Bullet Weight(gr) Muzzle Velocity(ft) Muzzle Energy(ft.lbs)
5.45x40mm Russ  54             3000                 1072
5.56NATO (new)  70             3150                 1530
7.62x39mm Russ  122            2400                 1560
7.62x54R Russ   150            2800                 2620
7.62x51mm       150            2820                 2648
30-30           125            2570                 1830
30-06           150            2910                 2820
.300 Win Mag    200            2830                 3560

  Seen in this company (which I think includes a good cross-section
of centerfire hunting ammo suitable for deer and larger game - please
let me know if you think my selection is biased) the 7.62 x 39 mm
doesn't seem all the "POWERFULL", but rather in the intermediate or
low powered category.  It is only in comparison to the AK-74 that the
AKM seem all that powerful, and even that isn't a huge difference.

--henry schaffer  n c state univ
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns