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The Versatility Of AK-47 Handguards

By Patrice McCoy


The AK-47 assault rifle was invented by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947 for use in the Russian military during World War II. Made up of only eight moving parts, the weapon is a direct reflection of the designer's lifelong philosophy that utility and simplicity go hand in hand. The AK-47 is has a gas-operated firing system that diverts a certain amount of gas contained in the cartridge to powering the mechanism responsible for discarding the empty case and reloading a new cartridge. AK-47 handguards shield the rifleman's hand from the heat that is produced by the gas, which is under intense pressure.

Standard-issue AK-47 handguards were made of smooth, polished wood. This is not because it blends in with the furniture, but because it is cheap and plentiful. The modern, upgraded handrail allows the use of four picatinny rails for loading various sorts of attachments. To a civilian, the handguard itself looks fierce enough without the rifle.

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 sophisticated AK-47 handguards of today are designed with ergonomics in made and made from a material called reinforced polymer composite. Composite is often used in the soles and toe caps of safety boots because it is a fraction of the weight of conventional steel. Modern handguards may be found in a choice of colors, usually desert tan, olive drab green or black.

The tactical, or picatinny, rail, is attached to AK-47 handguards for the purpose of bolting on the types of instruments that snipers use in their day to day work. The sniper's job is to precisely deliver fire from a long distance. Attachments such as bipods, foregrips, optical sights and lasers are all part of their toolkit. This level of sophistication is lost on a truck full of 12 year-old insurgents whose philosophy is that if they hurl a sufficient amount of ammunition in the right direction, at least some of it will hit target.

A selective fire weapon has at least one semi-automatic firing mode and one fully automatic mode. In semi-auto, although the weapon automatically reloads after each round, you still have to release the trigger and fire again.

One way of achieving full automatic mode is to use a weighted trigger. When a certain amount of weight is exerted on the trigger, the weapon will fire only a single shot at a time. In full automatic mode, a heavier weight is applied to the trigger. This weight can be in the region of more than fifteen pounds, hence the need for a handgrip.

This unsophisticated, sixty-year old rifle, even with the benefit of AK-47 handguards, has been supplanted by more modern technology like the M4. That being said, with 70 million of them (a conservative estimate, according to the United Nations) in the hands of soldiers, snipers, outlaws and insurgents all over the world, the AK-47 is not going to be disappearing any time soon.




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