UTG AK47 AK74 Spring Airsoft Rifle Manual

The AK47 was not the first assault rifle but was preceded by earlier Italian, Russian, and German MP44 assault rifle designs. Kalashnikov adamantly refuses that it is based on the German model and though they share an external aesthetic, the internal mechanisms are totally different. Internally, the AK47 owes much to the M1 Garand Rifle. The unlocking raceway, double locking lugs, and trigger mechanism are clearly derived from the earlier American design. Where the Kalashnikov rifle differs is in its simplification of those contributing designs and adaptation to mass production by relatively unskilled labor.

The AK47 and its descendants are or have been manufactured in the following countries: Egypt, China, North Korea, East Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, Iraq, and Bulgaria. Certainly more have been produced elsewhere, but the above list represents major producers. The AKM design is still in production in Russia, now in a updated form.

The basic design of the AK47 has been used as the basis for other successful rifle designs such as the Finnish Valmet 62/76, the Israeli Galil, the Indian INSAS and the Yugoslav Zastava (weapon) M76 and M77/M82 (not to be confused with the Barrett M82) rifles. Several bullpup designs have surfaced, although none have been produced in quantity.

M.T. Kalashnikov entered the Red Army in Kiev 1938 where he attended tank mechanics school. In the army, he designed a device to count the number of shots fired by a tank as well as other useful tactical devices for tanks. After surviving fierce battles against the Nazi's in 1941 as a tank commander, he found himself in hospital recovering from serious wounds and battle fatigue. Here at the hospital he began to conceive ideas for a new machine gun which could provide high volume, light weight firepower for soldiers in mechanized infantry. While on temporary medical duty, stationed at Matai, he took advantage of the workshop facilities to prototype his weapon. In 1944 his first prototype was adopted for further development and finally in 1949 the soviet army adopted the Automatic Kalashnikov design of 1947 as their standard rifle. As of 1990, more than 70 million Kalashnikov automatic rifles of various designs had been produced. M.T. Kalashnikov was a self taught inventor. Of interest is the fact that American also relied on a self taught inventor, John Garand who developed the M1 30 caliber semi-automatic rifle used by U.S. Troops in World War II and Korea.