I'm an AK guy. My 1st semi auto center fire carbine was an SKS. Then I owned a couple of AKs and for awhile was an AK-74 shooter. Then I got bit by the black rifle. I owned and built several AR15s back during the 94 AWB ban era. Then I got out of the BR and back into AKs and for the last 8 or 9 years owned a couple of AKs. Last year I divested myself of the AK platform.
Why? Why did I sell off my last AK and why did I buy another AR-15? The short and simple an answer was I was broke and needed the money. Money was tight in 2017 and in order to survive I had to make some cuts. But I made that cut knowing I wasn't coming back to the AK. After shooting AKs for years and owning more AKs than another platform I made the decision to leave it and not return.
Ok so money was tight? Now that money isn't tight why not get another AK? Because the AK in the USA is dead. Its a dead platform. Importation and regulatory bans have reduced the AK market to low quality, and even dangerous, American made "AKs" (I use the quotation marks here because many of these guns are an affront to name Kalashnikov). These are rifles that shear locking lugs off bolts, peen their carriers, and crack trunions regularly. The fact is to build an American AK that's going to be of the same quality as a combloc produced gun its going to be extremely expensive. Like $1500 expensive. That price point puts someone into a used SCAR or a new M1A. The second major problem with the AK here is ammo supply. AKs are entirely dependent on cheap Russian import ammo.
Our relationship with Russia these days is tenuous at best. A shift in power in DC will likely result in more sanctions of Russia. That shift in power would also be entirely Socialist so a ban on imported ammo from Russia would be a no brainer.
Lastly in the past 10 years something happened. AR-15s got SUPER CHEAP. I remember when an SP1 was a $700 rifle. This was back in the days of $75 sks carbines and $200 chicom AKs. Cases of 7.62x39 sold for $69 then. Now a quality AK will set you back $1000+ and a case of ammo is $200 but the last Colt 6920 I saw for sale, new in a gun store, was $789. Ten years ago that was a $1500 gun. Back in the early 2000s I built an AR-15 from a collection of new and used parts and spent $400. Now a $400 parts AR-15 is literally a click away. As I write this Palmetto State Armory has a nitride m4 upper complete for $220 and a matching complete lower for $130. That's with free shipping. A cheap $20 rear sight can be bought on Amazon.com and once you pay your FFL for transfer the complete carbine is under $400.
Its not just the guns that have gotten cheap the magazines and the ammo have gotten cheap too. While a quality AK mag will set you back $10 a quality AR mag will set you back $7-10 or cheaper! The gulf between cheap Russian .223 ammo and brass cased m193 5.56 has narrowed so much the Russian stuff isn't worth buying anymore. Russian .223 is $220 a case after shipping and I just ordered Federal m193 for 26.6 per round delivered. That's less than a nickle per round difference to shoot quality, accurate, re loadable ammo.
So this year I completed an AR-15 build. I had a lower I had bought a few years ago and at some point installed a lower parts kit in it. A few months ago I purchased a rifle kit from Palmetto State Armory (PSA). It's a basic mid length gas system carbine with a nitrided barrel with an M4 stock. I used all the parts in the kit minus the LPK since I had already assembled my lower with another. I bought a UTG slim line rear sight. This was a brand new product and only $33 delivered with my prime account. The sight is an A2 style with a an elevation drum and a windage knob. I threw an M16 silent sling on the rifle and for the 1st time in 8 years had a working AR-15.
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