The Tale of the Katrina Gun
So I had been considering getting back into shooting after years away and had not yet decided on the one weapon that could do everything: protect the house, play at the range, shoot for pennies, have a bit of character, and most importantly - catch my fancy.
There were so many things to mull over, I just could not make up my mind. New or Used? Civilian or Milsurp? Rifle or Carbine? (I had ruled out shotgun only cause they are kinda boring at the range). But with all the research, I had not made a decision.
Then the Katrina disaster hit us all. Day after day a major US city was left to its own. People without protection were looted, people with protection were not. True, as my wife pointed out, those who could go did and we would have gone too. But I knew that being able to leave was just a novel feature to this disaster, in most there is no warning and no simple, planned escape.
If anything BIG happened, Katrina was a lesson in just how alone and screwed we were all going to be.
So I just went down to the nearest large gunstore and searched the racks. While I have a real soft spot for military surplus, nothing there that day really was both in good shape and terribly affordable. I also wanted a really available, cheap round, so the enfileds were out (I also have always found them bulky). The SKS's are not all that light either and I have never liked their stocks - the grip is just too fat.
Then I saw the strangest AK I had ever seen. Night black, sporter stock, short magazine, AK receiver, but just rifle enough to pass the wife's "What's THAT?" test. It also felt better in my hand than the Romanian AK next to it and was much lighter feeling. Add that all to being in great condition, and sporting the super cheap 7.62x39 round and the plastic was on the table.
Now, I need to add that I love the sloppy perfection in idiot-proofing that is the AK. I have shot my fair share of AR-15/M-16's and they have never felt right to me. I really can't explain it, except to say that I like clugey hacks, and the AK is a legend of cluginess that works like perfection.
Anyways, one Russian AK clone and 200+ rounds of ammo in the minivan and I was on my way home.
It did pass the wife test, barely. But nothing much would, so mission accomplished there.
After many trips to the range, I will say this about the rifle: it is reliable. 700+ rounds later and I can only report one jam, and that with a soft point round so I stopped using soft points. This reliability is remarkable since there are gaps in the gas tube, the magazines are essentially plastic, and the rifle is as cheap as they come.
The down side is that it is not very accurate. I have tried the original sights which are so poor they cannot be seen by anyone over 25. I have tried a red dot scope which was worse than the original sights. I have tried Mojo Peep sights which helped alot but are no good over 60 yards or so. And I have tried magnifying scopes (better but still not great).
Could this thing hit a deer? Sure. Could it hit a man? Sure. Could it win a fight against a well armed, determined attacker at 100 yards? Not likely at all.
But then again, does it need to? No, not really. It has a limited magazine (10 rounds) and was intended to get around assault ban restrictions. It was intended for hunting. It was intended for guys who could not realistically own a real AK (either failed the wife test or the government test).
Worse yet is that the BATF has very stringent rules for this particular rifle. Although it is easy to do, and the parts are openly sold, I cannot use a magazine with a higher capacity than the 10 round ones sold with the rifle. And even though folding stocks are sold (and this would greatly improve my closet space situation), I would be a criminal if I installed one on my rifle. Basically, all the cool mods that you can put on other firearms, you cannot on this one. It is as it is, and cannot be changed.
So, do I keep it? For now, yeah. Why? Because I cannot afford to replace it. And also because I really do like the mechanisms involved. You'd have to look inside one to understand what I mean. The really are an impressively simple design.
So, until I can get a Polish Underfolder AK with Synthetic stocks, I guess I will have to keep this as my Katrina gun.
It will just have to do...
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