Kalashnikov fails mud test

The most persistent myth about AK has been shaken On the “rail” in Russian YouTube, Kalash has already been tested, but no one has really tried to check for dirt. Unlike the Americans, who encroached on the sacred and released a series of videos where they spoiled everything they could get … and then shot. Discuss

Contents

• Done great
• AR-15
• HK-416
• SCAR-17 aka SCAR-H
• Did worse
• G3/CETME
• G-36
• Weapon failed test
• Conclusions

Dirt is an eternal companion of any war, so the resistance of weapons to pollution is one of the most important factors in its development. Yes, of course, it’s unlikely that you will have to sit in trenches knee-deep in mud for months, as in the First World War, in modern military conflicts, but this is no reason to ignore the fact that a soldier’s weapons must be no less resistant to the hardships of service than he himself.

Since childhood, we all know the common myth that a Kalashnikov assault rifle can be buried in the sand, even rolled in the mud, and he won’t even cough. Not like all these Pindos sissies, who become useless from any speck of dust.

So the lovers of fun experiments from the InRangeTV channel are constantly testing the most famous barrels for contamination, only now their results turned out to be extremely unexpected. The authors of the channel are Carl and Ian (Jan), and Ian MacLallan. But not the one who played Gandalf, but the main historian and guru of small arms on YouTube from the Forgotten Weapons channel (forgotten weapons). So everything was tested not by lamers like me and you, but by experienced guys with access to a wide variety of barrels and the ability to simply take and objectively check everything.

According to the results of the dirt test, we selected the most commonly used systems in conflicts of recent decades to identify who is really the dad here, and who was just promoted by couch experts. Did a great job

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AR-15

Here we included automatic rifles that worked normally after contamination, or they had easily fixed problems when the test became more difficult. “>AR-15

What is it: American civilian semi-automatic rifle, on the basis of which (automatic version) the famous M-16 and a little more distant , a relative of the M4 carbine has been the main US weapon in wars for the past almost 60 years.

Test Results: Five shots after dirt coating, five shots after re-soiling with dust protection open.

In this collection, the most pollution-resistant system, completely destroying the myth about the unreliability of American automatic rifles and carbines.

HK-416

What is this >: A German assault rifle for the American army (and not only) from Heckler und Koch, combining elements of the AR-15 systems and its own G-36 system. Today it is the main competitor of the Belgian SCARs in the global small arms market.

Test result: Five shots after contamination, when the test became more difficult (open dust protection) two shots, then significant cleaning efforts were required.

According to the results, it is recognized as a dirt-resistant rifle, but dirt on the exposed elements of the bolt group can lead to the removal of the weapon from combat capability.

SCAR-17, aka SCAR-H

What is it: Belgian system of modular automatic rifles, available in caliber 5.56×45 SCAR-L (Light) 7.62×51 SCAR-H (Heavy) ). It is the latter that the Americans buy with a set of spare parts for conversion to a lighter cartridge, and it is the heavy one that passed this test.

Test result: Five shots after contamination, because in the design there is no shutter, there is no separate part that would close this very shutter. Then more dirt was added again – as a result, the rifle fired one shot and jammed, but, having jerked the bolt with an effort, the shooter continued successful shooting.

Favorites Total Bottom Line

1st place – AR-15

2nd place – SCAR-H

3rd place – HK-416

…and for dessert, an AR mud test drive 15 Vietnam War Times:

Done worse

1/3

G36

G3/CETME

What is this: CETME is a Spanish rifle in 7.62×51 caliber, but created by the designers of the Mauser company, who were offered work in Spain after the defeat of the Third Reich. In 1957, the FRG acquired a license from CETME, and the same Heckler und Koch (founded by Mauser employees who remained in Germany) produced the G3 rifle for the needs of the Bundeswehr. The test involved a rifle of mixed design, but there is practically no difference between the CETME and the G3. Ironically, the Germans had to buy a license for a rifle made by the Germans.

Test result: One shot and the rifle jammed, pulling the bolt, the shooter continued shooting. After an additional layer of dirt, the rifle fired, after which the bolt jammed again, and it took a series of long manipulations (if you can call it hitting the ground with the butt) after which it more or less began to shoot again.

G-36

What is this >: already a completely independent development by Heckler-Koch to replace the previous rifle, which we wrote about above, in 1999. This is the first Bundeswehr rifle chambered for 5.56×45 caliber, today it is already being withdrawn from service due to problems with overheating and a drop in accuracy, but remains in service with a number of countries, as well as the German police.

Test result: One shot and the rifle jammed, after a slight cleaning it was able to shoot normally. Then it was covered with a layer of dirt twice more, but was able to continue working.

According to the results in this group, the leader, of course, will be the G-36, rather it should even be attributed to the favorites, but the first jamming prevented it. The G3/CETME can also be classified as an outsider, but it screwed up the least in that group, besides, the 5.56×45 caliber CETME-L did a great job in another video. Therefore, they were placed in this intermediate category according to the principle – “neither fish nor fowl”. passed the test

1/4 those who failed the test failed it almost equally. These are rifles that jammed after the first shot, and then they took either an indecently long time to clean, or even after cleaning with improvised means they could not shoot.

This includes such representatives as < strong>Steyr AUG, X95 Tavor, Galil ACE 308, and even FN FAL.

But the softest part is that the test failed and AKM. We won't paint it here, you should see it.

But okay, let's attribute the failure to the quality of the Romanian-made hodgepodge, but what about the Bulgarian AK-74 clone – Arsenal SLR104?

Well , a little better, the first test passed, but repeated contamination, obviously due to the large gap with the fuse removed, made the weapon almost unusable. Probably the mud is thicker and drier, it does not have time to quickly seep through the gaps.

Yes, of course, a lot of people will start scribbling: “If there was a real one, Izhevsk, they would be tired of yelling!” And yes, you are partly right. Kalashnikov clones often lose to the original in the quality of the products and parts themselves, but the resistance to contamination depends much more on the design of the weapon in general, so in both videos we see, first of all, a scenario that is typical for almost any AK.

Here's another video that was much more sensational at the time with the "mud baths" for AK and AR.

But we will are fair – almost none of the presented machines can be disassembled and cleaned as quickly. class=”jsx-349690625″>And the conclusions are, you should never trust PR or urban legends. The resistance to contamination of the Kalashnikov assault rifle … is normal, but far from excellent, and certainly not the best of its kind. Maybe the whole myth around AKs is based on the fact that at one time the USSR flooded them with essentially free supplies to third world countries and allowed anyone to copy them, which is why it became so popular and easily accessible, huh? Write in the comments.

And yes, pollution resistance is not the only important factor in relation to weapons, but if the whole brand is built on reliability and reliability, you want to see predictable and repeatable victories AK in these comparative tests..

Lastly, we leave you two videos where Carl and Ian test the Bulgarian AK-74 and M-4/AR-15 (again a hybrid) on dust clogging (spoiler – both failed the test). Any weapon needs to be protected and cared for!