Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Different Types Of AK-47 Handguards

By Patrice McCoy


The AK-47 is a gas-operated, selective fire assault rifle developed in 1947 by Mikhail Kalashnikov for the Russian military. It is composed of only eight moving parts, reflecting the life motto of its inventor that 'anything that is useful is simple.' With a gas-operated rifle, a proportion of gas from the cartridge is used to provide power for the mechanism that discards the empty case and load a new cartridge. The function of the AK-47 handguards is to protect the shooter's hand from the internal heat produced by the high-pressure gas.

Plain, garden-variety AK-47 handguards are fashioned from polished wood. The reason for this is not to complement the decor but because it is cheap and readily available. More sophisticated handrails permit the attachment of picatinny rails to load a variety of attachments. If you don't know what you are looking at, the handguard alone looks sufficiently intimidating, never mind the rifle itself.

The whole apparatus looks more sensible with a vertical handgrip bolted onto the forend, or lower handguard. This affords the shooter more control when the weapon is in automatic mode or when the operator is dressed in full body armor. Most contemporary military rifles, such as the M4, are put together this way. It helps to visualize this set-up if you look at press photos of soldiers in Afghanistan.

The high-tech handguards of today are made out of reinforced polymer composite. This is what bootmakers are using in reinforced safety boots as a substitute for steel toe caps and soles. The composite used in this way is available in a selection of colors, mostly green, gray or black.

The picatinny rail, also known as a tactical rail, attaches to AK-47 handguards. It is used to bolt on the sorts of instruments used by snipers, whose role is to deliver precision long-range fire. They use attachments like lasers, optical sights, bipods, foregrips or other compatible accessories. A bipod is a a two-legged support system used to stabilize the weapon. Such sophisticated weaponry is surplus to requirements for a truck full of insurgents operating on the basis that precision is unnecessary; hurl enough bullets in a given direction and you are going to hit something.

Selective fire means that the rifle has at least one semi-automatic and one fully automatic mode. In the semi-auto mode, the chamber reloads automatically after each round is fired. The trigger still needs to be released and re-fired before the next round can be dispatched.

One method of achieving fully automatic fire is by the use of a weighted trigger. Use less than a specific amount of weight and the weapon fires a single shot at a time. Apply a heavier weight and the weapon fires automatically. This weight can be 15 pounds or more, which is why a handgrip is employed.

If you have trained snipers, give them fully equipped AK-47 handguards. Better still, kit them out with an M4, M16 or SA80 and leave the old stuff to the outlaws and insurgents. The best swordsman in France is not afraid of the second best swordsman, he is afraid of the worst swordsman in France. According to the United Nations, there are at least seventy million AK-47s in operation throughout the five continents of the world.




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