Is that a bad thing?
The first rifle I ever bought on my own was a Russian made SKS. I remember paying $165.00 for it complete with sling, cleaning kit, and attached bayonet. I did the usual stupid newbie mistake of attempting to modify the SKS into a type of po' boyz AK47 by changing the stock to a folder, taking off the fixed magazine etc.etc. Even with all my meddling the rifle remained one of the best guns I have ever owned to date.
Naturally the progression went on to getting an AK, again the cheapest one I could find at the time which ended up being a Norinco that I traded off a year after getting it. That was years back...I purchased several handguns withing the time from then till now along with a M1 Carbine, several 10/22's, a 9mm Hi-Point and a couple of others that don't come to mind readily. LOL! (I really need to take inventory of what I have.)
About 10 years past....namely the 10 years the AWB was in effect. As soon as the Sunset came about I got heavy into AR15's, the forbidden fruit I couldn't afford to get back in the day that I always put off getting thinking I would get one sooner or later eventually... I bought one complete and "built" 3 more before one day deciding to check out the AK47 section of AR15.COM...
Dammit all to hell. Now, before I go on, I want to say that I am not a strager to shooting AK's. My friends have always owned AK's for as long as I can remember and I have been handling them and shooting them just as long, I just never gotten around to getting any myself, well, cept that one I got rid of. But then I discovered the actual "building" aspect of the AK's and how I could actually put one together from the ground up: not just by slapping a few pieces of pre-made parts together. This appealed to me ALOT. Just my luck I 'discovered' this just before complete "kits" will be banned...but that's just the way it is.
I've been working on my Krinkov kit I got from ORF and loving every minute of it. Progression has been slow more because a lack of parts and not time. It is almost done, and I am already looking forward to building another AK as soon as I am. I just bought a Romanian kit tonight and will be putting it together with all of the "spare" parts I didn't use with the Krinkov. I want to end up with a good shooter with this one. I will be using the underfolder stock that came with the Krink and the "thick" metal flat I originally bought and didn't use. Putting these things together has turned out to be just as fun, if not more entertaining than shooting them for me. I have been putting alot of trigger time in on my friends AK47 recently and have found the AK to be a very enjoyable gun to shoot and very very reliable. Is it as accurate as my M4? In distances up to 100 yards I would have to say not actually, BUT not to the point where the AK seems inferior. It can hit man sized targets just as good as any of my AR15's can, and as consistantly to boot, PLUS I am doing this using open iron sites opposed to most of my AR's which all but one has optical devices attached. Am I becoming an AK convert? Maybe so, maybe not. But if I am, I no longer see it as a bad thing. The AK is what it is: a battle rifle. Maybe not as refined as an AR15 but every bit as capable of getting the same job done, and all for a hell of alot cheaper as well! LOL!
One thing is for certain. I have always been a fan of carbines, and I have come to the conclusion that the NATO 5.56mm round my AR15's use was never designed not intended to be used as a carbine round. On the other hand, the 'ancient' 7.62 rounds my AK's will be using don't seem to mind being used in carbines at all. And that's a comforting thought.