Your favourite weapons - Soviet/Russian

[Draq]

The bizon... I'd love to give it a try, both 9mak and 762tok, and the good old ppsh.

[Draq]

And I agree, the reputations of the ak and at rifles are both usually exaggerated. The ak can handle more abuse than an ar, but its far from invincible. It's a gun and it still has to be maintained. Same with the ar... Although I'd still rather put a piston in it.

[Silent Hunter UK]

The AK series is also simple to use: children can (and sadly do) use it easily.

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by Silent Hunter UK

The AK series is also simple to use: children can (and sadly do) use it easily.

I know that people use this saying all the time to say how great it is, but not sure what it really has to do with that. 200 years ago most kids (male at least) used firearms that are very easy to use, but also take more maintenance and my understanding is that keeping them maintained was not a big issue.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by CDAT

I know that people use this saying all the time to say how great it is, but not sure what it really has to do with that. 200 years ago most kids (male at least) used firearms that are very easy to use, but also take more maintenance and my understanding is that keeping them maintained was not a big issue.

True that...
I reckon the media is to blame.

I think the real reason we hear about children and AKs is that it was/is very good media fodder to keep the Western masses paranoid about Communism/terrorism.
We don't hear about children and ARs but that happens as well. For instance, there's photos of Karen rebels where some of their soldiers were 12-15 year olds armed with M16A1's. I've also seen photos of Saudi boys of 9 and 10yrs practicing with Jezails and of course there's untold numbers of boys and girls in the rural areas of the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc. etc. who have been using firearms for hunting or killing pest animals but their rifles aren't attention grabbers for the media like the AK is!

[waiting4something]

My favorite soviet weapon of the time period would be the basic milled AK-47 with wood furniture. The AK-74 series is probably a better infantry weapon since it's recoil is a lot less, but something about the original milled guns is just cool.

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

Dragunov SVD.

[unkated]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

True that...
I reckon the media is to blame.

I think the real reason we hear about children and AKs is that it was/is very good media fodder to keep the Western masses paranoid about Communism/terrorism.

Sorry not buying.

The point had nothing to do with AKs or communists.

It had everything to do with kidnapping and forced conscription of 12-15 year-old boys, and forcing them to become soldiers in an absolutest army (obey or die) in a series of particularly ugly wars which made little difference between combatant and noncombatant.

Note, we aren't talking about cases of national survival; in most cases, these were 'civil' conflicts (though many of the dividing lines had ethnic or religious fault lines.

They were armed with AKs because those were the cheapest, most available arms. Some of the children were conscripted by communists, some in Mozambique (for example) were conscripted by anti-communists.

I don't know about you, but to me, kidnapping children to turn them into slave soldiers is wrong whoever does it or whatever they are armed with.

Uncle Ted

[Targan]

Originally Posted by unkated

I don't know about you, but to me, kidnapping children to turn them into slave soldiers is wrong whoever does it or whatever they are armed with.

Well at least they were outside in the fresh air, not like soft western kiddies on the couch with their Playstations and such. It's good for kids to have outdoor hobbies.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by unkated

Sorry not buying.

The point had nothing to do with AKs or communists.

It had everything to do with kidnapping and forced conscription of 12-15 year-old boys, and forcing them to become soldiers in an absolutest army (obey or die) in a series of particularly ugly wars which made little difference between combatant and noncombatant.

Note, we aren't talking about cases of national survival; in most cases, these were 'civil' conflicts (though many of the dividing lines had ethnic or religious fault lines.

They were armed with AKs because those were the cheapest, most available arms. Some of the children were conscripted by communists, some in Mozambique (for example) were conscripted by anti-communists.

I don't know about you, but to me, kidnapping children to turn them into slave soldiers is wrong whoever does it or whatever they are armed with.

Uncle Ted

I understand your point very well but I don't actually believe that child soldiers is the reason.
The Western media doesn't really give two shits about what happens in Africa or Asia unless it can get them ratings and child soldiers is not news worthy as far as they're concerned and in a sense, they are (tragically & unfortunately) right - because the majority of the Western public doesn't want to hear about kids in Africa, they want to hear about things that directly affect them.
Fact of the matter is, most Westerners wouldn't even know what child soldiers in Africa are armed with because they simply do not care.