The Details Behind The World’s Most Reliable Weapon – So Easy Anyone Can Use It

Mikhail’s Invention.

In 1947 the world of weapons changed forever when an engineer named Mikhail Kalashnikov put his mind to work. After finding that Russian infantry weapons suffered several issues during WWII, Kalashnikov sought to correct those issues. He invented a rifle that would go down in history as the most reliable gun of all time, the AK-47.

The assault rifle had been introduced a few years early by the Germans in the form of the Sturmgewehr StG 44. The Sturmgewehr was deadly enough but the AK-47 was the assault rifle perfected. It was originally intended to be the rifle for Russian conscripts, but soon it became the gun for everyone.

“With few moving parts and a design that made its disassembly and reassembly almost intuitive, its basics could be mastered by all manner of combatants — from traditionally instructed conscripts to almost wholly untrained guerrillas — in very little time.”

– C.J. Chivers

The AK-47 can brave the elements including, sand, snow, water, mud rain and it still shoots without clogging. Firing up to 600 rounds per minute with a range of nearly 1000 feet it was easy enough to handle and operate. Some people have found AK-47s that haven’t been used in over 30 years but they can still fire a shot without any issues.

This video from Weaponology brings some of America’s top weapon historians to tell the story of the AK-47.